Removing and Replacing Disks

If failures are starting to occur on a disk, but the disk has not yet failed completely, you can replace the disk. This involves detaching the failed or failing disk from its disk group, followed by replacing the failed or failing disk with a new one. Replacing the disk can be postponed until a later date if necessary.

To replace a disk, use the following procedure:

1. Select menu item 3 (Remove a disk for replacement) from the vxdiskadm main menu.
2. At the following prompt, enter the name of the disk to be replaced (or enter list for a list of disks):
   Remove a disk for replacement 
   Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/RemoveForReplace 
   Use this menu operation to remove a physical disk from a disk group, while retaining the disk name. This changes the state for the disk name to a removed disk. If there are any initialized disks that are not part of a disk group, you will be
   given the option of using one of these disks as a replacement.
   Enter disk name [<disk>,list,q,?] mydg02 
3. When you select a disk to remove for replacement, all volumes that are affected by the operation are displayed, for example:
   VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-371 The following volumes will lose mirrors as a result of this operation:
   home src 
   No data on these volumes will be lost. 
   The following volumes are in use, and will be disabled as a result
   of this operation:
   mkting 
   Any applications using these volumes will fail future accesses.
   These volumes will require restoration from backup.
   Are you sure you want do this? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) 

   To remove the disk, causing the named volumes to be disabled and data to be lost when the disk is replaced, enter y or press Return.

   To abandon removal of the disk, and back up or move the data associated with the volumes that would otherwise be disabled, enter n or q and press Return.

   For example, to move the volume mkting to a disk other than mydg02, use this command:

   
     # vxassist move mkting !mydg02 

   After backing up or moving the data in the volumes, start again from step 1 above.

4. At the following prompt, either select the device name of the replacement disk (from the list provided), press Return to choose the default disk, or enter none if you are going to replace the physical disk:
   The following devices are available as replacements: 
   c0t1d0
   You can choose one of these disks now, to replace mydg02.
   Select "none" if you do not wish to select a replacement disk.
   Choose a device, or select "none" 
   [<device>,none,q,?] (default: c0t1d0)

   ---

     Note    Do not choose the old disk drive as a replacement even though it appears in the selection list. If necessary, you can choose to initialize a new disk.

   ---

   If you enter none because you intend to replace the physical disk, see the section Replacing a Failed or Removed Disk.

5. If you chose to replace the disk in step 4, press Return at the following prompt to confirm this:
   VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-285 Requested operation is to remove mydg02 from group mydg. The removed disk will be replaced with disk device c0t1d0.
   
   Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) 

   vxdiskadm displays the following messages to indicate that the original disk is being removed:

   
   VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-265 Removal of disk mydg02 completed successfully.
   VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-260 Proceeding to replace mydg02 with device c0t1d0.
6. You can now choose whether the disk is to be formatted as a CDS disk that is portable between different operating systems, or as a non-portable hpdisk-format disk:
   Enter the desired format [cdsdisk,hpdisk,q,?] (default: cdsdisk)

   Enter the format that is appropriate for your needs. In most cases, this is the default format, cdsdisk.

7. At the following prompt, vxdiskadm asks if you want to use the default private region size of 2048 blocks. Press Return to confirm that you want to use the default value, or enter a different value. (The maximum value that you can specify is 524288 blocks.)
   Enter desired private region length [<privlen>,q,?] (default: 2048)
8. If one of more mirror plexes were moved from the disk, you are now prompted whether FastResync should be used to resynchronize the plexes:
   Use FMR for plex resync? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) y

   vxdiskadm displays the following success message:

   
   VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-158 Disk replacement completed successfully.
9. At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to remove another disk (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
   Remove another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) 

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     Note    If removing a disk causes one or more volumes to be disabled, see the section, "Restarting a Disabled Volume" in the chapter "Recovery from Hardware Failure" in the VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide, for information on how to restart a disabled volume so that you can restore its data from a backup.

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If you wish to move hot-relocate subdisks back to a replacement disk, see Configuring Hot-Relocation to Use Only Spare Disks.

Replacing a Failed or Removed Disk

Use the following procedure after you have replaced a failed or removed disk with a new disk:

1. Select menu item 4 (Replace a failed or removed disk) from the vxdiskadm main menu.
2. At the following prompt, enter the name of the disk to be replaced (or enter list for a list of disks):
   Replace a failed or removed disk 
   Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/ReplaceDisk 
   VxVM INFO V-5-2-479 Use this menu operation to specify a replacement disk for a disk that you removed with the "Remove a disk for replacement" menu operation, or that failed during use. You will be prompted for a disk name to replace and a disk
   device to use as a replacement.
   You can choose an uninitialized disk, in which case the disk
   will be initialized, or you can choose a disk that you have
   already initialized using the Add or initialize a disk menu
   operation.
   Select a removed or failed disk [<disk>,list,q,?] mydg02
3. The vxdiskadm program displays the device names of the disk devices available for use as replacement disks. Your system may use a device name that differs from the examples. Enter the device name of the disk or press Return to select the default device:
   The following devices are available as replacements:
   c0t1d0 c1t1d0
   You can choose one of these disks to replace mydg02. 
   Choose "none" to initialize another disk to replace mydg02.
   Choose a device, or select "none" 
   [<device>,none,q,?] (default: c0t1d0)
4. Depending on whether the replacement disk was previously initialized, perform the appropriate step from the following:

• If the disk has not previously been initialized, press Return at the following prompt to replace the disk:

VxVM INFO V-5-2-378 The requested operation is to initialize disk device c0t1d0 and to then use that device to replace the removed or failed disk mydg02 in disk group mydg.
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)  
• If the disk has already been initialized, press Return at the following prompt to replace the disk:

VxVM INFO V-5-2-382 The requested operation is to use the initialized device c0t1d0 to replace the removed or failed disk mydg02 in disk group mydg.
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)

5. You can now choose whether the disk is to be formatted as a CDS disk that is portable between different operating systems, or as a non-portable hpdisk-format disk:
   Enter the desired format [cdsdisk,hpdisk,q,?] (default: cdsdisk)

   Enter the format that is appropriate for your needs. In most cases, this is the default format, cdsdisk.

6. At the following prompt, vxdiskadm asks if you want to use the default private region size of 2048 blocks. Press Return to confirm that you want to use the default value, or enter a different value. (The maximum value that you can specify is 524288 blocks.)
   Enter desired private region length [<privlen>,q,?] (default: 2048)
7. The vxdiskadm program then proceeds to replace the disk, and returns the following message on success:
   VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-158 Disk replacement completed successfully.

   At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to replace another disk (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):

   
   Replace another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)