A
backup device such as a
hard disk or
controller that is in a standby mode, meaning it is online and
available should the primary device go
offline or
fail. The system would detect the failure and automatically switch to the hot
spare to use as a replacement. Hot spare is commonly used in
RAID arrays where additional drives are attached to the controller and left
in standby mode until a failure occurs.
Compare with hot standby.
See hot swapping, also called hot plugging.