Removing a volume

If a volume is inactive or its contents have been archived, you may no longer need it. In that case, you can remove the volume and free up the disk space for other uses.

To remove a volume

  1. Remove all references to the volume by application programs, including shells, that are running on the system.
  2. If the volume is mounted as a file system, unmount it with the following command:
    # umount /dev/vx/dsk/diskgroup/volume
  3. If the volume is listed in the /etc/vfstab file, edit this file and remove its entry. For more information about the format of this file and how you can modify it, see your operating system documentation
  4. Stop all activity by VxVM on the volume with the following command:
    # vxvol [-g diskgroup] stop volume
  5. Remove the volume using the vxassist command as follows:
    # vxassist [-g diskgroup] remove volume volume

    You can also use the vxedit command to remove the volume as follows:

    # vxedit [-g diskgroup] [-r] [-f] rm volume

    The -r option to vxedit indicates recursive removal. This command removes all the plexes that are associated with the volume and all subdisks that are associated with the plexes. The -f option to vxedit forces removal. If the volume is still enabled, you must specify this option.