Remove a cage from a 3PAR array

To remove a cage from a 3PAR array can be a simple task. But it can also be impossible without help from HPE. Before starting at point 1, you should probably check point 3 first.

Generally I would recommend to do any of these steps ONLY when your are

• very familiar to 3PAR systems! 
• know what you are doing!
• know what are the consequences of your actions!

If you have doubt about any of the following steps, contact HPE! Also you should use the 3PAR Command line Reference Guide to check the used commands.

Here are the basic steps to remove a cage:

1. Migrate/remove user data from disks in cage
   • When allocated by CPGs, use tune Virtual Volume (VV) (GUI or command tunevv) to move data to different CPG. You need Dynamic Optimization license to tune VVs.
   • Use disk-filter in CPG to “remove” disks from CPG. Use tune system (GUI or command tunesys) to remove chunklets from CPG afterwards. About disk-filter see here and here.
   • When using Adaptive Optimization (AO), change AO-configuration to remove CPG that contains disks of cage to remove.
   • Re-create Volumes on other disks. Use features like VMware Storage vMotion to move data away from volumes on disks to remove. Remove VVs and CPG afterwards.
2. Remove spare chunklets from each disk to remove
   Command: removespare -f n:a
   n for PD-ID (physical disk ID)
3. Run showpd -c. every disk in the cage must have 0GB used data (Column: Used|OK)! If this is not the case, you are in troubles! You can only continue, when disks are completely free! Check what data is still on disks:
   showpdch n (n for PD-ID)
   When you see data like:
   admin*.srdata* pdsld* log*
   system meta-data is stored on disks you want to remove. admin and .srdata are system-VVs. You can check which disks these VVs are using by running showvvpd admin and showvvpd .srdata. In this case, contact HPE Support to migrate data to other disk (types) in the system. Especially pdsld* log* can be hard to move!
4. Run dismisspd m n …
   m n for the list of PD-IDs
   This command removes disks from configuration. After this command, disks are stated as “new”.
   If an error says that disk is in use, go to 3. again.
5. Run
   • controlmag offloop -f cagen 0
   • …
   • controlmag offloop -f cagen 23
     cagen is the name of the cage
     The command turns off disk. This step is optional.
6. Run servicecage remove -f cage
   This command remove cage from configuration. If there is an error, you can remove the cage (next point) and try command again.
7. Remove cables from cage
   At this point you should know the basis about cage-cabling. Here you can find Cabling Configuration Guide for 8000 series. If you do not operate more than two additional cages, it is quite simple. If you use more cages on each data path, you have to be careful! Check cages using showcage with every step you do.
8. Run admithw
   To re-calculate spare-chunklets, run this command.
9. Run checkhealth