--- title: "Vault Spare: Automatic Hardware Continuity for Your Vault" url: https://fire-vault.com/offline-secure-storage/vault-spare description: "Every dedicated Firevault Vault is protected by Vault Spare. If the primary Vault suffers a hardware failure, the spare is designed to trigger automatically,…" lang: en-GB --- Offline Secure Storage® (#OSS) # Vault Spare Hardware can fail. Your access doesn't have to. Every dedicated Firevault Vault is protected by Vault Spare. If the primary Vault suffers a hardware failure, the spare is designed to trigger automatically, maintaining customer access while the hardware fault is dealt with. - Automatic continuity - No emergency procurement - Engineer attendance when required - Failed drives returned Buy your Vault: https://fire-vault.com/get-started Hardware return: https://fire-vault.com/offline-secure-storage/hardware-return Image: A Firevault engineer replacing a faulty Vault drive with a spare (https://fire-vault.com/__l5e/assets-v1/52010b35-3432-4f92-93cf-317506d08e9d/vault-spare-engineer.png) Vault Spare What Vault Spare means in practice 01 Continuity when hardware fails Automatic Continuity when hardware fails 02 Waiting for replacement equipment None Waiting for replacement equipment 03 Failed drives returned to you Yours Failed drives returned to you 04 How you log in and access your Vault Unchanged How you log in and access your Vault 01 Why it matters ## Built for hardware failure Physical storage gives you something cloud storage cannot: dedicated hardware assigned to you. But physical hardware can fail. Vault Spare is designed around that reality. ### A spare, prepared A spare is prepared so that, if a hardware fault affects your Vault, continuity can be triggered automatically without the customer losing access. ### Failure is separated from access The failed hardware can then be dealt with separately, without turning a hardware problem into a customer access problem. ### Your access is the priority No emergency procurement. No waiting for replacement equipment. No change to the way you access your Vault. 02 How it works ## How Vault Spare works From a normal session to the failed drive arriving back with you, the sequence is the same every time. 01 ### Your Vault is operating normally Your dedicated Vault remains physically disconnected when it is not in an authorised session. 02 ### A hardware failure is detected If a fault prevents the primary Vault from operating correctly, Vault Spare is designed to trigger automatically. 03 ### Your access continues The continuity process happens without requiring the customer to wait for an engineer or replacement hardware before accessing their Vault. Your normal access controls remain in place. 04 ### The hardware fault is resolved If requested, Firevault engineers can attend the Bunker and physically replace the failed hardware. 05 ### The failed drives are returned to you Faulty customer drives are not simply discarded. They are returned to the customer, preserving physical ownership and giving you control over what happens to the failed media. 03 The principles ## Continuity without giving up physical control Vault Spare has been designed around the same principles as Offline Secure Storage®. ### Automatic continuity A hardware failure should not leave you waiting for someone to source, install and configure another device before you can reach your data. Vault Spare is designed to take over automatically. ### No loss of customer access The spare exists so a physical hardware fault does not unnecessarily interrupt access to your protected data. ### Engineer attendance when required If you want Firevault to carry out the physical repair, our engineers can attend the Bunker and replace the faulty hardware. ### Your drives remain yours Failed drives containing customer data are returned to the customer. They are not placed back into a shared equipment pool or disposed of without the customer retaining control of the media. ### The offline model remains Vault Spare does not change the principle behind your Vault. Access remains controlled and deliberate, and the protected storage returns to its normal physically disconnected state outside authorised sessions. 04 How it differs ## Why return the failed drive? Because physical ownership should mean physical ownership. If your data has been stored on a dedicated physical drive, we believe you should retain control of that drive when it reaches the end of its service life or suffers a fault. Where a drive is replaced, the failed customer drive is returned to you, so the physical media containing your data remains accountable to you rather than disappearing into a general hardware disposal process. ### Hardware return The end-of-contract process: how hardware is returned or securely destroyed to certificate, with nothing left stranded inside a platform. Hardware return https://fire-vault.com/offline-secure-storage/hardware-return ### Dedicated hardware Whose drives these are: named, serial-numbered hardware allocated to one verified owner, never shared and never pooled. Dedicated hardware https://fire-vault.com/offline-secure-storage/dedicated-hardware ### Physical control Who can enable the route to the drives, and for how long. Vault Spare does not change the session model. How access works https://fire-vault.com/offline-secure-storage/physical-control ### 24/7 on-demand access How authorised sessions work on a Vault, including the access controls that stay in place through a continuity event. On-demand access https://fire-vault.com/offline-secure-storage/on-demand-access 05 FAQ ## Questions ### What is Vault Spare? Vault Spare is Firevault's hardware continuity capability for dedicated Vault customers. If the primary Vault suffers a hardware failure, the spare is designed to trigger automatically so customer access can continue. ### What happens if my Vault fails? Vault Spare activates automatically. The continuity process is designed to prevent the hardware failure from becoming a loss-of-access event. You continue to use your Vault with your normal authentication and access controls in place. At your request, a Firevault engineer can attend the Bunker and perform the physical hardware swap, and any failed customer drive removed from the Vault is returned to the customer. ### Do I have to wait for an engineer? No. Vault Spare is designed so continuity does not depend on an engineer reaching the Bunker first. The physical repair can take place afterwards. ### Will I lose access to my Vault? Vault Spare is specifically designed to prevent a hardware failure causing a loss of customer access. ### What happens to the failed hardware? If requested, Firevault engineers can attend the Bunker and replace the faulty hardware. ### What happens to a failed hard drive? The failed drive is returned to the customer. It remains your physical media rather than being reused or placed into a general disposal process. ### Is Vault Spare always online? No. Vault Spare exists to provide hardware continuity. It does not change the underlying Offline Secure Storage principle of keeping protected storage physically disconnected outside authorised access. ### Does Vault Spare change how I log in? No. The normal identity, authentication and authorised access process remains in place. Next step ## Real hardware. Planned failure. Physical hardware will eventually fail. The important question is whether you planned for what happens next. Vault Spare provides automatic continuity when a Vault suffers a hardware fault, with physical engineering support available when required and failed drives returned to the customer. Your access continues. The hardware gets fixed. 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