Removing Volumes and their Mount Points
| Chapter 5. Managing Volumes |

## Removing Volumes and their Mount Points

To remove a volume from its site and its record from the VLDB, use the vos remove command. Use it to remove any of the three types of volumes; the effect depends on the type.

- If you indicate the read/write volume by specifying the volume's base name without a .readonly or .backup extension, the command removes both the read/write and associated backup volume from the partition that houses them. You do not need to provide the -server and -partition arguments, because there can be only one read/write site. The site information is also removed from the VLDB entry, and the site count (reported by the vos examine and vos listvldb commands as `number of sites`) decrements by one. The read/write and backup volume ID numbers no longer appear in the output from the vos examine and vos listvldb commands, but they are preserved internally. Read-only sites, if any, are not affected, but cannot be changed unless a read/write site is again defined. The entire VLDB entry is removed if there are no read-only sites.

  If there are no read-only copies left, it is best to remove the volume's mount point to prevent attempts to access the volume's contents. Do not remove the mount point if copies of the read-only volume remain.

- If you indicate a read-only volume by including the .readonly extension on its name, it is removed from the partition that houses it, and the corresponding site information is removed from the VLDB entry. The site count reported by the vos examine and vos listvldb commands as `number of sites` decrements by one for each volume you remove.

  If there is more than one read-only site, you must include the -server argument (and optionally -partition argument) to specify the site from which to remove the volume. If there is only one read-only site, the volume name is sufficient; if no read/write volume exists in this case, the entire VLDB entry is removed.

  It is not generally appropriate to remove the volume's mount point when removing a read-only volume, especially if the read/write version of the volume still exists. If the read/write version no longer exists, remove the mount point as described in Step 5of To remove a volume and unmount it.

- If you indicate a backup volume by including the .backup extension on its name, it is removed from the partition that houses it and its site information is removed from the VLDB entry. You do not need to provide the -server and -partition arguments, because there can be only one backup site. The backup volume ID number no longer appears in the output from the vos examine or vos listvldb command, but is preserved internally.

  In the standard configuration, there is a separate mount point for the backup version of a user volume. Remember to remove the mount point to prevent attempt to access the nonexistent volume's contents.

### Other Removal Commands

The vos remove command is almost always the appropriate way to remove a volume, because it automatically removes a volume's VLDB entry and both the volume header and all data from the partition. If either the VLDB entry or volume header does not exist, it is sometimes necessary to use other commands that remove only the remaining element. Do not use these commands in the normal case when both the VLDB entry and the volume header exist, because by definition they create discrepancies between them. For details on the commands' syntax, see their reference pages in the OpenAFS Administration Reference.

The vos zap command removes a volume from its site by removing the volume header and volume data for which a VLDB entry no longer exists. You can tell a VLDB entry is missing if the vos listvol command displays the volume header but the vos examine or vos listvldb command cannot locate the VLDB entry. You must run this command to correct the discrepancy, because the vos syncvldb and vos syncserv commands never remove volume headers.

The vos remsite command removes a read-only site definition from the VLDB without affecting the volume on the file server machine. Use this command when you have mistakenly issued the vos addsite command to define a read-only site, but have not yet issued the vos release command to release the volume to the site. If you have actually released a volume to the site, use the vos remove command instead.

The vos delentry command removes the entire VLDB entry that mentions the volume you specify. If versions of the volume actually exist on file server machines, they are not affected. This command is useful if you know for certain that a volume removal was not recorded in the VLDB (perhaps you used the vos zap command during an emergency), and do not want to take the time to resynchronize the entire VLDB with the vos syncvldb and vos syncserv commands.

### To remove a volume and unmount it

1. Verify that you are listed in the /usr/afs/etc/UserList file. If necessary, issue the bos listusers command, which is fully described in To display the users in the UserList file.

          % bos listusers <machine name>

2. If removing the volume's mount point, verify that you have the d( delete) permission on its parent directory's ACL. If necessary, issue the fs listacl command, which is fully described in Displaying ACLs.

          % fs listacl [<dir/file path>]

   Members of the system:administrators group always implicitly have the a( administer) and by default also the l( lookup) permission on every ACL and can use the fs setacl command to grant other rights as necessary.

3. (Optional) Dump the volume to a file or to tape, in case you want to restore it later. To copy the volume's contents to a file, use the vos dump command as instructed in Dumping and Restoring Volumes. You can then copy the file to tape using a third-party backup utility or an archiving utility such as the UNIX tar command.

   Alternatively, use the AFS Backup System to create a tape copy. In this case, it can be convenient to create a temporary volume set that includes only the volume of interest. Temporary volume sets are not recorded in the Backup Database, and so do not clutter database with records for volume sets that you use only once. For instructions, see To create a dump.

4. Issue the vos remove command to remove the volume. If removing a read-only volume from multiple sites, repeat the command for each one.

          % vos remove [-server machine name>] [-partition <partition name>] \
                      -id <volume name or ID>

   where

   remo

     Is the shortest acceptable abbreviation of remove.

   -server

     Specifies the file server machine on which the volume resides. It is necessary only when the -id argument names a read-only volume that exists at multiple sites.

   -partition

     Specifies the partition on machine name where the volume resides. It is necessary only when the -id argument names a read-only volume that exists at multiple sites. Provide the -server argument along with this one.

   -id

     Identifies the volume to remove, either by its complete name or volume ID number. If identifying a read-only or backup volume by name, include the appropriate extension ( .readonly or .backup).

5. If you are removing the last existing version of the volume, issue the fs rmmount command remove the corresponding mount point. Complete instructions appear in To remove a volume and unmount it.

   If you are removing a backup volume that is mounted in the conventional way (at a subdirectory of its read/write volume's root directory), then removing the source volume's mount point in this step is sufficient to remove the backup volume's mount point. If you mounted the backup at a completely separate directory, you need to repeat this step for the backup volume's mount point.

          % fs rmmount <directory>

6. (Optional) If you created a dump file in Step 3, transfer it to tape. The preferred method is to use the AFS Backup System, which is described in Configuring the AFS Backup Systemand Backing Up and Restoring AFS Data.

Setting and Displaying Volume Quota and Current Size |  | Dumping and Restoring Volumes