pvremove – Remove an existing physical volume

The pvremove command is used to remove an existing physical volume from a volume group. This command is used when you want to remove a physical volume from a volume group or when you want to completely remove a physical volume from the system.

Overview

The syntax for the pvremove command is as follows:

pvremove [options] physical_volume

The physical_volume parameter is the name of the physical volume that you want to remove.

Examples

To remove a physical volume named /dev/sdb1, run the following command:

pvremove /dev/sdb1

You can also remove multiple physical volumes at once by specifying their names separated by spaces:

pvremove /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1

Specific use cases

Here are some specific use cases for the pvremove command:

• Removing a physical volume from a volume group: If you want to remove a physical volume from a volume group, you must first remove any logical volumes that are on the physical volume using the lvremove command. Then, you can use the vgreduce command to remove the physical volume from the volume group. Finally, you can use the pvremove command to remove the physical volume from the system.
• Completely removing a physical volume: If you want to completely remove a physical volume from the system, you can use the pvremove command to remove the physical volume from any volume groups it is a part of and then physically remove the disk from the system.

Options

The pvremove command has the following options:

Troubleshooting tips

Here are some troubleshooting tips for the pvremove command:

• Error message “Device or resource busy”: This error message means that the physical volume you are trying to remove is currently in use. Make sure that there are no logical volumes or file systems mounted on the physical volume and that no processes are using the physical volume.
• Error message “Can’t open /dev/sdb1 exclusively”: This error message means that another program is currently accessing the physical volume you are trying to remove. Make sure that no other programs are using the physical volume and try again.

Notes

• The pvremove command does not delete any data on the physical volume. If you want to delete all data on the physical volume, you must use a tool like dd to overwrite the data before running the pvremove command.
• Be careful when using the pvremove command, as it can permanently delete data. Make sure that you have a backup of any important data before running this command.