This includes spares that are in the process
                         of being recoverred to
        This list make grow in future.
+       This can be written to.
+       Writing "faulty"  simulates a failure on the device.
+       Writing "remove" removes the device from the array.
 
       errors
        An approximate count of read errors that have been detected on
 
        return len+sprintf(page+len, "\n");
 }
 
+static ssize_t
+state_store(mdk_rdev_t *rdev, const char *buf, size_t len)
+{
+       /* can write
+        *  faulty  - simulates and error
+        *  remove  - disconnects the device
+        */
+       int err = -EINVAL;
+       if (cmd_match(buf, "faulty") && rdev->mddev->pers) {
+               md_error(rdev->mddev, rdev);
+               err = 0;
+       } else if (cmd_match(buf, "remove")) {
+               if (rdev->raid_disk >= 0)
+                       err = -EBUSY;
+               else {
+                       mddev_t *mddev = rdev->mddev;
+                       kick_rdev_from_array(rdev);
+                       md_update_sb(mddev);
+                       md_new_event(mddev);
+                       err = 0;
+               }
+       }
+       return err ? err : len;
+}
 static struct rdev_sysfs_entry
-rdev_state = __ATTR_RO(state);
+rdev_state = __ATTR(state, 0644, state_show, state_store);
 
 static ssize_t
 super_show(mdk_rdev_t *rdev, char *page)