vxdiskadm Menu Description

Add or initialize one or more disks.

You can add formatted disks to the system. SCSI disks are already formatted. For other disks, see the manufacturer's documentation for formatting instructions. You are prompted for the disk device(s). You can specify the disk group to which the disk(s) should be added; if none is selected, the disk is held as a spare to be used for future operations or disk replacements without needing to be initialized at that time. You can also specify that selected disks be marked as hot-relocation spares for a disk group. If the disk has not been initialized already, the disk is initialized for use with the Volume Manager.

Remove a disk.

You can remove a disk from a disk group. You are prompted for the name of a disk to remove. You cannot remove a disk if any volumes use storage on that disk. If any volumes are using storage on the disk, you have the option of asking the Volume Manager to move that storage to other disks in the disk group.

	NOTE: You cannot remove the last disk in a disk group using this task.To use all remaining disks in a disk group, disable (deport) the disk group. You can then reuse the disks. However, the rootdg cannot be deported.

Remove a disk for replacement.

You can remove a physical disk from a disk group, while retaining the disk name. This changes the state for the named disk to removed. If there are any initialized disks that are not part of a disk group, you are given the option of using one of these disks as a replacement.

Replace a failed or removed disk.

You can specify a replacement disk for a disk that you removed with the Remove a disk for replacement menu entry, or one that failed during use. You are prompted for a disk name to replace and a disk device to use as a replacement. You can choose an uninitialized disk, in which case the disk will be initialized, or you can choose a disk that you have already initialized using the Add or initialize a disk menu operation.

Mirror volumes on a disk.

You can mirror volumes on a disk. These volumes can be mirrored to another disk with available space. Creating mirror copies of volumes in this way protects against data loss in case of disk failure. Volumes that are already mirrored or that are comprised of more than one subdisk will not be mirrored with this task. Mirroring volumes from the boot disk will produce a disk that can be used as an alternate boot disk.

Move volumes from a disk.

You can move any volumes (or parts of a volume) that are using a disk onto other disks. Use this menu task immediately prior to removing a disk, either permanently or for replacement.

	NOTE: Simply moving volumes off a disk, without also removing the disk, does not prevent other volumes from being moved onto the disk by future operations.

Enable access to (import) a disk group.

You can enable access by this system to a disk group. If you wish to move a disk group from one system to another, you must first disable (deport) it on the original system. Then, move the disks from the deported disk group to the other system and enable (import) the disk group there. You are prompted for the disk group name.

Disable access to (deport) a disk group

You can disable access to a disk group that is currently enabled (imported) by this system. Deport a disk group if you intend to move the disks in a disk group to another system. Also, deport a disk group if you want to use all of the disks remaining in a disk group for some new purpose.

You are prompted for the name of a disk group. You are asked if the disks should be disabled (offlined). For removable disk devices on some systems, it is important to disable all access to the disk before removing the disk.

Enable (online) a disk device.

If you move a disk from one system to another during normal system operation, the Volume Manager will not recognize the disk automatically. Use this menu task to tell the Volume Manager to scan the disk to identify it, and to determine if this disk is part of a disk group. Also, use this task to re-enable access to a disk that was disabled by either the disk group deport task or the disk device disable (offline) operation.

Disable (offline) a disk device.

You can disable all access to a disk device through the Volume Manager. This task can be applied only to disks that are not currently in a disk group. Use this task if you intend to remove a disk from a system without rebooting.

Note that some systems do not support disks that can be removed from a system during normal operation. On those systems, the offline operation is seldom useful.

Mark a disk as a spare for a disk group.

You can reserve a disk as an automatic replacement disk (for hot-relocation) in case another disk in the disk group should fail.

Turn off the spare flag on a disk.

You can free hot-relocation spare disks for use as regular VM disks.

You can display a list of disks attached to your system. This also lists removed or failed disks. You can also use this task to list detailed information for a particular disk. This information includes the disk group of which the disk is a member, even if that disk group is currently disabled.

Remove (deport) and destroy a disk group.

You can remove access to and destroy a disk group that is currently enabled (imported) by this system. Destroy a disk group if you intend to use the disks for some new purpose.

You are prompted for the name of a disk group. You are also asked if the disks should be disabled (offlined). For removable disk devices on some systems, it is important to disable all access to the disk before removing the disk.

Unrelocate subdisks back to a disk.

VxVM hot-relocation allows the system to automatically react to IO failures on a redundant VxVM object at the subdisk level and take necessary action to make the object available again. This mechanism detects I/O failures in a subdisk, relocates the subdisk, and recovers the plex associated with the subdisk. After the disk has been replaced, Volume Manager provides the vxunreloc utility, which can be used to restore the system to the same configuration that existed before the disk failure. vxunreloc allows you to move the hot-relocated subdisks back onto a disk that was replaced due to a disk failure.

Exclude a disk from hot-relocation use.

Excludes disks in the free pool (non-spares) to be used by hot-relocation.

Make a disk available for hot-relocation use.

Makes disk in the free pool (non_spares) available for hot-relocation.