Removing a Volume

Once a volume is no longer necessary (it is inactive and its contents have been archived, for example), it is possible to remove the volume and free up the disk space for other uses.

Before removing a volume, use the following procedure to stop all activity on the 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 this command:
   # umount /dev/vx/dsk/diskgroup/volume
3. If the volume is listed in the /etc/fstab file, remove its entry by editing this file. Refer to your operating system documentation for more information about the format of this file and how you can modify it.
4. Stop all activity by VxVM on the volume with the command:
   # vxvol [-g diskgroup] stop volume

After following these steps, remove the volume with the vxassist command:

Alternatively, you can use the vxedit command to remove a volume:

The -r option to vxedit indicates recursive removal. This removes all plexes associated with the volume and all subdisks associated with those plexes. The -f option to vxedit forces removal. This is necessary if the volume is still enabled.