7.9.8 Deleting a volume 7.9.9 Volume delete protection Use the  rmvdisk  command to delete a volume. Consider these scenarios: This command deletes the  volume_A  volume from the IBM Spectrum Virtualize configuration.  If the volume is assigned to a host, you must use the  -force  flag to delete the volume, as  shown in Example 7-18. You can prevent active volumes or host mappings from being deleted inadvertently as  described in this section. A global setting prevents these objects from being deleted if the  system detects recent I/O activity to these objects. Use the  chsystem  command to set the time interval that the volume must be idle. During this  interval, the volume cannot be deleted from the system. This setting affects the following  commands:  326  Implementing the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller with IBM Spectrum Virtualize V8.2.1 GLYPH<SM590000> rmvdisk GLYPH<SM590000> rmvolume GLYPH<SM590000> rmvdiskcopy GLYPH<SM590000> rmvdiskhostmap IBM_2145:ITSO_CLUSTER:superuser>rmvdisk -force volume_A IBM_2145:ITSO_CLUSTER:superuser>rmvdisk volume_A Example 7-17 The rmvdisk command Example 7-18 The rmvdisk -force command  Example 7-17 shows how to use the  rmvdisk  command to delete a volume from your IBM  Spectrum Virtualize configuration. Context for  rmvdisk Considerations  You run the command on an existing  managed-mode volume. Any data on the volume is lost, and the extents that made up  this volume are returned to the pool of free extents in the  storage pool Any remote copy, IBM FlashCopy, or  host mappings still exist for the  target of the command. The deletion fails unless you use the  -force  flag. This flag  causes the deletion of the volume and any volume to host  mappings and copy mappings You want to migrate the volume  image mode. The deletion fails unless you use the  -force  flag. The  -force flag halts the migration and then deletes the volume. The command succeeds (without  the  -force  flag) for an image-mode  volume. The write cache data is flushed to the storage before the  volume is removed. Therefore, the underlying LU is  consistent with the disk state from the point of view of the  host that uses the image-mode volume (crash-consistent file  system).  If you use the  -force  flag, consistency is not guaranteed.  That is, data that the host believes to be written might not be  present on the LU. Non-destaged data exists in the fast  write cache for the target of the  command. Deletion of the volume fails unless the  -force  flag is  specified. I that case, any non-destaged data in the fast write  cache is deleted.