removing filer/vfiler from DFM

sswain123 · ‎2011-07-20

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to ask as quick question.... I’ve attempted to remove a vfiler and HA pair from DFM as I’ve just decommissioned the storage system. When attempting to remove the viler, I get the an error as shown below.

[root@dfm_server ~]# dfm host list | grep -i <vfiler>

5964 vFiler <vfiler> 10.0.0.1 No

[root@dfm_server ~]# dfm host delete 5964

Error: Can't delete storage system <vfiler> (5964) while managing its 50 primary directories.

I’ve tried this for both physical filers and the single vfiler instance.... in all attempts, I get "Error: Can't delete storage system <vfiler> (5964) while managing its 50 primary directories.". I get the same error in the Web UI as well…. However; when doing this from the NMC, I was able to remove the vfiler/filer without any issue.

In this specific DFM instance, I use only Alerting and Performance Advisor…. I have another DFM instance for Prot/Prov Mgr…. however; on both DFM server, I get the exact same error about the “50 Primary directories”.

Can anyone tell me why I was able to delete from the NMC but not the WebUI or DFM CLI? As well, where would these ’50 primary directories’ be located within DFM for me to look at so I know to check next time.

Thanks a lot!

Scott

scottgelb · ‎2011-07-20

I think NMC is using the "dfm vfiler delete" equivalent.

adaikkap · ‎2011-07-21

Hi Scott,

After you deleted the vfilers from NMC are they still listed in dfm UI or cli ?

Does the dfm vfiler list show this output ?

Regards

adai

sswain123 · ‎2011-07-21

'dfm vfiler list | grep -i <vfiler>' and 'dfm host list | grep -i <filer>' both show that the vfiler/filer are no longer present..... as well in the WebUI.

adaikkap · ‎2011-07-21

Hi Scott,

This behavior is expected even though its not consistent between cli and NMC.

The NMC delete of host was added in 4.0.1 by bug 255202

http://now.netapp.com/NOW/cgi-bin/bol?Type=Detail&Display=255202

You are hitting bug 433740. If you like to have consistent behavior pls add your case to this bug.

Regards

adai

Thanks to Kevin Ryan,

jayanthi · ‎2011-07-21

NMC uses vfiler-destroy zapi, which stops the vfiler first and then deletes, probably the ideal way of doing it.

sinhaa · ‎2011-07-21

What about the filer? I think Scott says he was able to delete the the filers as well from NMC but not from cmd or Web UI?

If this post resolved your issue, help others by selecting ACCEPT AS SOLUTION or adding a KUDO.

sswain123 · ‎2011-07-21

I wasn't tryng to 'vfiler destroy', I'm only looking to remove the vfiler/filers from DFM for monitoring purposes....

smoot · ‎2011-07-21

From the CLI you can use "dfbm primary dir list <vfiler-name-or-id>" to get a list of SnapVault primary qtrees on that vfiler, then use "dfbm primary dir relinquish" to release them. There may be a way to do this via the web GUI but I don't remember how off the top of my head.

What's going on is DFM has discovered some SnapVault relationships coming from that filer or vfiler unit. We don't let you mark the filer/vfiler as deleted as long as we think those relationships exist. Relinquishing them tells DFM it's OK to delete the vfiler.

adaikkap · ‎2011-07-22

Hi Pete,

Then leads me to question why does NMC allow the same ?

Aren't they both talking to the same server and DB ?

Regards

adai

smoot · ‎2011-07-22

Yes, same database. I don't think there's a good reason NMC allows this but the web GUI does not. Part of this is the age of the code: the CLI/Web GUI code is older and so made a different design decision.

It's important to understand NMC and the Web GUI are doing very different things. NMC really is destroying the vfiler, the Web GUI is just marking it as deleted in our database (so if you look on the filers, the vfiler might still be there).

jayanthi · ‎2011-07-25

I was actually confused between delete and destoy actions. NMC actually uses host-delete zapi for Delete action and vfiler-destroy for Destroy action.