Administering Disks

Before a disk can be used by VxVM, it must be identified, or initialized, as a disk that is under control of a volume manager. A fully initialized disk can be added to a disk group, used to replace a previously failed disk, or used to create a new disk group.

How to Initialize and Configure a Disk (VxVM)

1. Ensure that no data is on the disk.

   This is important because existing data is destroyed if the disk is initialized.

2. Insert the disk device and install it in the disk enclosure by following the instructions in the accompanying hardware documentation.

3. Initialize the disk and add it to a disk group.

   This is commonly done by using either the vxdiskadm menus or the graphical user interface. Alternately, you can use the command line utilities vxdisksetup and vxdg addisk to initialize the disk and place it in a disk group.

Taking a Disk Offline

Occasionally, you may need to take a physical disk offline. If the disk is corrupted, you need to disable it and remove it. You also must disable a disk before moving the physical disk device to another location to be connected to another system.

To take a physical disk offline, first remove the disk from its disk group. Then place the disk offline by using the vxdisk(1M) command.

Removing a Disk

You can remove a disk to move it to another system, or you may remove the disk because the disk is failing or has failed. Alternatively, if the volumes are no longer needed, they can be removed.

To remove a disk from the disk group, use the vxdg(1M) command. To remove the disk from volume manager control by removing the private and pubic partitions, use the vxdiskunsetup(1M) command. Refer to the vxdg(1M) and vxdiskunsetup(1M) man pages for complete information on these commands.