3.3.7 Repurposing a Hard Disk

You may want to delete all data on a disk, and then use the disk for another purpose.

Before repurposing a hard disk, ensure that you have copies of the data that is on the disk.

If you use this procedure for the system disks (disk 0 and disk1), then only the data partitions are erased, not the system partitions.

1. Use the CellCLI LIST command to display the Exadata Storage Server objects. You must identify the grid disks and cell disks on the hard drive. For example:

   CellCLI> LIST PHYSICALDISK
            20:0   D174LX    normal
            20:1   D149R0    normal
            ...
   

2. Determine the cell disks and grid disks on the LUN, using a command similar to the following:

   CellCLI> LIST LUN WHERE physicalDrives='20:0' DETAIL
     name:              0_0
     deviceName:        /dev/sda
     diskType:          HardDisk
     id:                0_0
     isSystemLun:       TRUE
     lunSize:           557.861328125G
     lunUID:            0_0
     physicalDrives:    20:0
     raidLevel:         0
     lunWriteCacheMode: "WriteBack, ReadAheadNone, Direct, No Write Cache if Bad BBU"
     status:            normal
   

   To get the celldisks and grid disks, use a command similar to the following:

   #cellcli -e "list diskmap" | grep 20:0
   
      20:0            K68DWJ          0                       normal  559G
      CD_00_burd01celadm01    /dev/sda3   
      "DATAC1_CD_00_burd01celadm01, RECOC1_CD_00_burd01celadm01"

3. From Oracle ASM, drop the Oracle ASM disks on the hard disk using the following command:

   SQL> ALTER DISKGROUP diskgroup_name DROP DISK asm_disk_name;
   

4. From Exadata Storage Server, drop the cell disks and grid disks on the hard disk using the following command:

   CellCLI> DROP CELLDISK celldisk_on_this_lun FORCE 
   

   Note:

   To overwrite all data on the cell disk, use the ERASE option with the DROP CELLDISK command. The following is an example of the command:

   CellCLI> DROP CELLDISK CD_03_cell01 ERASE=1pass NOWAIT
   
   CellDisk CD_03_cell01 erase is in progress
   

5. Drop the drive for hot removal. For example:

   CellCli> ALTER PHYSICALDISK 20:0 DROP FOR REPLACEMENT
   

6. Ensure the blue OK to Remove LED on the disk is lit before removing the disk.

   Caution:

   Ensure the disk blue LED is turned on before removing the drive. Do not remove the drive if the disk blue LED is unlit, or it may cause your system to crash.

7. Remove the disk to be repurposed, and insert a new disk.
8. Wait for the new hard disk to be added as a LUN.

   CellCLI> LIST LUN
   

   The cell disks and grid disks are automatically be created on the new hard disk, and the grid disks are added to the Oracle ASM group.