LUN Removal Process - Solaris 10 U8 / Storage Foundation 5.1 / PowerPath 5.

3
Created: 25 Nov 2010 Updated: 23 Jul 2013 | 10 comments
calgarypete This issue has been solved. See solution.
inShare.0 Hello,
What is the correct procedure to remove a LUN which is no longer required?
Setup is a Solaris 10 server, dual pathed FC to EMC storage and managed with VxV
M 5.1.
Once the LUN has been removed from Veritas (removed from DG then vxdisk rm <disk
>)
At what point can I unmask the LUN on the storage side? Is it before or after I
remove the disk with powermt? Do I even perform a powermt remove?
Once that is done, I would then remove from OS via cfgadm, then devfsadm.
What I am currently trying to do a powermt remove <emcpower#> after I do a vxdis
k rm <emcpower#>, but it complains that the device is still in use.
somebox01:# /etc/powermt remove dev=emcpower123a
Cannot remove device that is in use: emcpower123a
somebox01:#
Thoughts appreciated.
Pete
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Comments 10 Comments Jump to latest comment Gaurav Sangamnerkar Trusted Advisor

LUN Removal Process - Solaris 10 U8 / Storage Foundation 5.1 / PowerPath 5.3 - C
omment:25 Nov 2010 : Link Hello Pete,
If you are using powerpath, you are following the right steps, vxdmp layer is ab
ove powerpath..
1. remove device from DMP
2. remove device from vxvm (vxdg remove disk, vxdiskunsetup -C <disk> )
3. remove device from powerpath (powermt remove)
4. unconfigure device from OS
5. remove device from OS (luxadm)

as you are saying that you are getting above mentioned error, just wanted to con
firm if you have removed the device from vxvm using step 2 above ?
Can you also confirm the vxvm version you are using ?

Gaurav
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. g_lee Trusted Advisor
LUN Removal Process - Solaris 10 U8 / Storage Foundation 5.1 / PowerPath 5.3 - C
omment:29 Nov 2010 : Link These steps are not in the correct order, the procedu
re should be as follows:
1. Stop vxesd (vx event source daemon) as this may pick up disks again after you
have removed them with vxdisk rm:
# vxddladm stop eventsource
# ps -ef |grep vxesd
2. remove device from vxvm (vxdg -g <dg> rmdisk <disk>, vxdiskunsetup -C <disk
> )
3. remove device from DMP (rm /dev/vx/*dmp/<device>* --- be careful to only pi
ck up the device you're removing and not any devices that have similar names!)
4. remove device from powerpath (powermt remove dev=<device> [by default powermt
remove removes *all* devices, so specify the device)
5. unconfigure device from OS (cfgadm/luxadm depending on age of platform. For S
olaris 10 cfgadm should work. also run devfsadm -Cv after disks have been unpres
ented from storage)
Pete,
It sounds like it's possible that vxesd may have picked up the devices again aft
er you removed them with vxdisk rm. Try stopping vxesd, removing the disks with
vxdisk rm (and removing the dmp devices), then try the powermt remove again.
The fact that there is/was a private region on the disk should not impact the re
moval if the disk has been removed cleanly from VxVM/DMP (ie: and not picked up
again by vxesd)
regards,
Grace
If this post has helped you, please vote or mark as solution
.SOLUTION calgarypete
LUN Removal Process - Solaris 10 U8 / Storage Foundation 5.1 / PowerPath 5.3 - C
omment:26 Nov 2010 : Link Thanks for your reply Gaurav,
I dont think I understand why you would remove device from DMP first? Isn't the
vxvm layer above the dmp layer?
vxvm
dmp
powerpath
os
Also, what command would be used to remove the device from dmp?
What ive done in the past (non powerpath) is just remove disk from VxVM, remove
the disk from the SAN, then uncofigure the device (cfgadm -o unusable_FCP_dev -c
unconfigure c:....) , then devfsadm. I've never done anything with DMP, or luxa
dm when removing a LUN.
vxvm is 5.1

Thank you.

Gaurav Sangamnerkar Trusted Advisor
LUN Removal Process - Solaris 10 U8 / Storage Foundation 5.1 / PowerPath 5.3 - C
omment:26 Nov 2010 : Link sorry for the confusion, I meant cleaning up the devi
ce metanodes from /dev/vx/rdmp & /dev/vx/dmp structure.... though its not going
to make much difference since device structure is already loaded in kernel but I
always follow this to keep my device tree updated..
so coming back to error you are getting, have you removed the disk from diskgrou
p & unsetup the disk before running powermt remove ?

Gaurav
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. calgarypete
LUN Removal Process - Solaris 10 U8 / Storage Foundation 5.1 / PowerPath 5.3 - C
omment:26 Nov 2010 : Link Once I remove the disk from the diskgroup, I vxdisk r
m <disk> to get it out of VxVM control.
It is at this point that if I run powermt remove <disk>, I get the error stating
that the disk is in use.
I'm reading up vxdiskunsetup as I've never needed to use that in the past. I wou
ld think vxdisk rm would suffice. Maybe things with powerpath are different.??
Pete
nmcherla
LUN Removal Process - Solaris 10 U8 / Storage Foundation 5.1 / PowerPath 5.3 - C
omment:28 Nov 2010 : Link Pete,
Before you remove the disk from powerpath, the disk is to be removed from the st
orage side. Follow the below procedure to remove LUN.
1. Remove the disk from veritas control using 'vxdisk rm <device> and vxdiskunse
tup <device> . Then clean up the devices from /dev/vx/dmp and /dev/vx/rdmp.
2. Remove the disk from storage side.
Once the disk is removed from storage you will see the disk as <drive not availa
ble > in format.
3. Clean powerpath
#powermt check (remove the disk)
4. At this point you should be able to remove the disk with " cfgadm" if the di
sk is in unusable state. If its in 'failing' state use 'luxadm' to offline the
disk. You cannot unconfigure a disk unless it is in 'unusable' state and you hav
e to unconfigure both the paths of your disk. If your disk is "c2t5006048ad52f4
106d37" then
#cfgadm -al -o show_SCSI_LUN |grep <disk>
#luxadm -e offline /dev/dsk/<device>
#cfgadm -c unconfigure -o unusable_SCSI_LUN c2::5006048as52f4106
#cfgadm -c unconfigure -o unusable_SCSI_LUN c4::5006048as52f4109
4. devfsadm

Nandini


calgarypete
LUN Removal Process - Solaris 10 U8 / Storage Foundation 5.1 / PowerPath 5.3 - C
omment:29 Nov 2010 : Link Thanks for the reply Nandini, but how does one vxdisk
unsetup after you've already done a vxdisk rm? What's the purpose of vxdiskunset
if I'm doing a vxdisk rm to take it out of vxvm control anyway?
Thanks,
Pete
Gaurav Sangamnerkar Trusted Advisor
LUN Removal Process - Solaris 10 U8 / Storage Foundation 5.1 / PowerPath 5.3 - C
omment:29 Nov 2010 : Link Hi Pete,
you are right, you will not be able to do a vxdiskunsetup after doing a vxdisk r
m, the order of steps should be reversed.
vxdisk rm will not be cleaning the private region from the disk however vxdiskun
setup will. So you need to run vxdiskunsetup first followed by vxdisk rm.

Gaurav
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. nmcherla
LUN Removal Process - Solaris 10 U8 / Storage Foundation 5.1 / PowerPath 5.3 - C
omment:01 Dec 2010 : Link You should be able to remove the lun even if you don'
t run "vxdiskunsetup". vxdiskunsetup will remove the private and public regions
so if you want to clean up the slices, first vxdiskunsetup and then remove the
disk from veritas. The powerpath error you are seeing is because it is still
active on storage side. First try removing it from storage and then clean up th
e disk with powermt and cfgadm commands.
Gaurav Sangamnerkar Trusted Advisor
LUN Removal Process - Solaris 10 U8 / Storage Foundation 5.1 / PowerPath 5.3 - C
omment:26 Nov 2010 : Link well I am not sure on internals of powerpath but just
suspecting if powerpath is somehow able to detect that device is in use (may be
because of private region of veritas lying on the disk)

Gaurav
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