rmvdisk

Use the rmvdisk command to delete a volume. You cannot use this command for volumes that are replicated or in storage partitions.

Syntax

Parameters

-force: (Optional) The specified volume is to be deleted, even if mappings still exist between this volume and one or more hosts. Host-to-volume mappings and any FlashCopy® mappings that exist for this volume are deleted.
Important: If you stop a FlashCopy mapping that has dependent FlashCopy mappings, the dependent mapping target volumes might become unusable.
To determine your dependent FlashCopy mappings before you use the -force parameter, run the lsfcmapdependentmaps command.

Important: To prevent an active volume from being deleted unintentionally, you can use a global system setting to enable volume protection (see parameters -vdiskprotectionenabled and -vdiskprotectiontime in the chsystem command). You can specify a time period for which the volume must be idle before you can delete it. If volume protection is enabled and the time period is not expired, the volume deletion fails even if the -force or -removehostmappings parameters are used.
If the -force deletion of a volume causes dependent mappings to be stopped, any target volumes for those mappings that are in relationships are also stopped. The dependent mappings can be identified by using the lsvdiskdependentmaps command on the volume that you want to delete.
Note: Using the -force parameter might result in a data loss. Use it only under the direction of your product support information, or if you are willing to accept the risk of volume data loss.

If you do not specify this parameter, a volume cannot be deleted while a backup operation is in progress. Additionally, a volume that contains image mode copies cannot be deleted while a restore operation is in progress (if the volume contains inconsistent data).
-removehostmappings: (Optional) Removes all host mappings for the specified volume before the volume is deleted.
Note: Using the -removehostmappings parameter might result in a data loss. Use it only under the direction of your product support information, or if you are willing to accept the risk of volume data loss.

Important: To prevent an active volume from being deleted unintentionally, you can use a global system setting to enable volume protection (see parameters -vdiskprotectionenabled and -vdiskprotectiontime in the chsystem command). You can specify a time period for which the volume must be idle before you can delete it. If volume protection is enabled and the time period is not expired, the volume deletion fails even if the -force or -removehostmappings parameters are used.
vdisk_id | vdisk_name: Specifies the name of the volume to delete, either by ID or by name.

Description

This command deletes an existing managed mode volume or an existing image mode volume. The extents that made up this volume are returned to the pool of free extents that are available on the storage pool, if the volume is in managed mode.

Remember: If you run this command, any data that was on the volume is lost. Before you run this command, ensure that the volume (and any data that resides on it) is no longer required.

This command is unsuccessful if:

Volume protection is enabled (by using the command chsystem) and the volume that is being removed received I/O within the defined volume protection time period.
The data reduction pool is corrupted.

Deleting a managed mode volume

When you use this command to delete a managed mode volume, all the data on the volume is deleted. The extents that make up the volume are returned to the pool of free extents that are available in the storage pool.

If host mappings exist for the volume, or if any FlashCopy mappings would be affected, the deletion fails. You can use the -force parameter to force the deletion. If you use the -force parameter, mappings that have the volume as source or target are deleted, other mappings in a cascade might be stopped, and then the volume is deleted. The -force parameter also deletes relationships that exist for the specified volume (and any information that is not staged in the fast write cache).

If the volume is in the process of migrating to an image mode volume (by using the migratetoimage command), the deletion fails unless you use the -force parameter. If you use the -force parameter, the migration is halted and then the volume is deleted. Before you run this command, ensure that the volume (and any data that resides on it) is no longer required.

Deleting an image mode volume

If the volume is mirrored and one or both copies is in image mode, you must first wait for all fast-write data to be moved to the controller logical unit. This pause ensures that the data on the controller is consistent with the data on the image mode volume before the volume is deleted. This process can take several minutes to complete, and is indicated by the fast_write_state of the volume, which is empty. If the -force parameter is specified, the fast-write data is discarded and the volume is deleted immediately; the data on the controller logical unit is left inconsistent and unusable. If the copies are not synchronized, you must use the -force parameter.

If you run the command while data is in the cache, the system attempts to move the data out of the cache; this process can time out, however.

If any virtual medium errors exist on the volume, the command fails. You can force the deletion by using the -force parameter; however, using -force can cause data integrity problems.

Note: A virtual medium error occurs when you copy data from one disk (the source) to another (the target). Reading the source indicates that a medium error was found. At that moment, you must have two identical copies of data and you must then simulate a medium error on the target disk. You can simulate a medium error on the target disk by creating a virtual medium error on the target disk.

If FlashCopy mappings or host mappings exist for the volume, the deletion fails unless you use the -force parameter. If you use the -force parameter, mappings are deleted and the volume is deleted. If any data is not staged in the fast write cache for this volume, the deletion of the volume fails. When the -force parameter is specified, any data that is not staged in the fast write cache is deleted. Deleting an image mode volume causes the managed disk that is associated with the volume to be removed from the storage pool. The mode of the managed disk is returned to unmanaged.

An invocation example

rmvdisk -force vdisk5

The resulting output:

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