Removing Disks

You can remove a disk from a system and move it to another system if the disk is failing or has failed. Before removing the disk from the current system, you must:

1. Stop all activity by applications to volumes that are configured on the disk that is to be removed. Unmount file systems and shut down databases that are configured on the volumes.
2. Use the following command to stop the volumes:
     # vxvol [-g diskgroup] stop volume1 volume2 ...
3. Move the volumes to other disks or back up the volumes. To move a volume, use vxdiskadm to mirror the volume on one or more disks, then remove the original copy of the volume. If the volumes are no longer needed, they can be removed instead of moved.

Before removing a disk, make sure any data on that disk has either been moved to other disks or is no longer needed. Then remove the disk from its disk group using the vxdiskadm utility, as follows:

1. Select menu item 2 (Remove a disk) from the vxdiskadm main menu.
2. At the following prompt, enter the disk name of the disk to be removed:
   Remove a disk 
   Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/RemoveDisk 
   
   Use this operation to remove a disk from a disk group. This operation takes a disk name as input. This is the same name that you gave to the disk when you added the disk to the disk group.
   Enter disk name [<disk>,list,q,?] mydg01 
3. If there are any volumes on the disk, VxVM asks you whether they should be evacuated from the disk. If you wish to keep the volumes, answer y. Otherwise, answer n.
4. At the following verification prompt, press Return to continue:
   VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-284 Requested operation is to remove disk mydg01 from group mydg.
   
   Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)

   The vxdiskadm utility removes the disk from the disk group and displays the following success message:

   
   VxVM INFO V-5-2-268 Removal of disk mydg01 is complete. 

   You can now remove the disk or leave it on your system as a replacement.

5. At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to remove other disks (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
   Remove another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) 

Removing a Disk with Subdisks

You can remove a disk on which some subdisks are defined. For example, you can consolidate all the volumes onto one disk. If you use the vxdiskadm program to remove a disk, you can choose to move volumes off that disk. To do this, run the vxdiskadm program and select item 2 (Remove a disk) from the main menu.

If the disk is used by some subdisks, the following message is displayed:

If you choose y, then all subdisks are moved off the disk, if possible. Some subdisks are not movable. A subdisk may not be movable for one of the following reasons:

• There is not enough space on the remaining disks in the subdisk's disk group.
• Plexes or striped subdisks cannot be allocated on different disks from existing plexes or striped subdisks in the volume.

If the vxdiskadm program cannot move some subdisks, remove some plexes from some disks to free more space before proceeding with the disk removal operation. See Removing a Volume and Taking Plexes Offline for information on how to remove volumes and plexes.

Removing a Disk with No Subdisks

To remove a disk that contains no subdisks from its disk group, run the vxdiskadm program and select item 2 (Remove a disk) from the main menu, and respond to the prompts as shown in this example to remove mydg02:

Enter y to remove the disk completely from VxVM control. If you do not want to remove the disk completely from VxVM control, enter n.