The Problem
When trying to delete volume group by using lvremove, vgremove, pvremove command after executing shred command for physical volume as shown below, fails repeatedly.
# shred -vfz -n 3 /dev/sdd # sum -r /dev/sdd 28911 1073741824
When the lvremove command is executed, you will get an error saying that the volume group can not be found.
# lvremove /dev/VolGroupOracleArch/lvol0 Volume group "VolGroupOracleArch" not found Cannot process volume group VolGroupOracleArch
The Solution
Logical Volume /dev/VolGroupOracleArch/lvol0 is not deleted normally.
1. /dev/VolGroupOracleArch/lvol0 can not be seen in command lvscan but device name /dev/VolGroupOracleArch/lvol0 still exists:
# lvscan -v Using logical volume(s) on command line. ACTIVE '/dev/VolGroup000/tmp' [8.00 GiB] inherit ACTIVE '/dev/VolGroup000/LogVol04' [49.79 GiB] inherit ACTIVE '/dev/VolGroup000/swap' [16.00 GiB] inherit ACTIVE '/dev/VolGroup000/var' [8.00 GiB] inherit ACTIVE '/dev/VolGroup000/home' [8.00 GiB] inherit
2. /dev/VolGroupOracleArch/lvol0 is still existing in directory /dev/mapper/
# cd /dev/mapper/ # ll total 0 crw-rw---- 1 root root 10, 58 Dec 15 10:56 control lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Mar 12 16:02 VolGroup000-home -> ../dm-7 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Mar 12 16:02 VolGroup000-LogVol04 -> ../dm-0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Mar 12 16:02 VolGroup000-swap -> ../dm-1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Mar 12 16:02 VolGroup000-tmp -> ../dm-5 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Mar 12 16:02 VolGroup000-var -> ../dm-6 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Mar 12 16:02 VolGroupOracleArch-lvol0 -> ../dm-4 ### /dev/mapper/VolGroupOracleArch-lvol0 is a link of /dev/VolGroupOracleArch/lvol0 which still exist lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Mar 12 16:02 VolGroupOracleData-lvol0 -> ../dm-2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Mar 12 16:02 VolGroupOracleRedo-lvol0 -> ../dm-3
3. In order to resolve the issue, delete the low level Logical Volume by using dmsetup command below.
# dmsetup --force --retry --deferred remove VolGroupOracleArch-lvol0 # dmsetup --force --retry --deferred remove VolGroupOracleData-lvol0 # dmsetup --force --retry --deferred remove VolGroupOracleRedo-lvol