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Deleting a Snapshot copy manually if the Snapshot copy is busy or locked

The snap delete command displays ownership information for busy Snapshot copies.

This information is useful for determining why a particular Snapshot copy is busy, and whether to stop the activity in progress. For example, if the snap delete command output displays a locked Snapshot copy that is imposing a resource constraint, you can delete that Snapshot copy and free up space.

If a Snapshot copy is locked, the snap delete operation fails until you execute a snapmirror release or snapvault release command to unlock the Snapshot copy. Snapshot copies are locked because SnapMirror or SnapVault is maintaining these copies for the next update. Deleting a locked Snapshot copy would prevent SnapMirror or SnapVault from correctly replicating a file or volume as specified in the schedule you set up.

How to delete a locked SnapMirror Snapshot copy

The following example shows how you would delete a SnapMirror Snapshot copy that was locked because SnapMirror needed it for an update:
systemA> snap delete vol0 oldsnap
Can't delete oldsnap: snapshot is in use by snapmirror.
Use 'snapmirror destinations -s' to find out why.
systemA> snapmirror destinations -s vol0
Path Destination
/vol/vol0 systemB:vol0
systemA> snapmirror release vol0 systemB:vol0
systemA> snap delete vol0 oldsnap

How to delete a locked SnapVault Snapshot copy

The following example shows how you would delete a SnapVault Snapshot copy that was locked because SnapVault needed it for an update:
systemA> snap delete vol0 oldsnap Can't delete oldsnap: snapshot is in use by snapvault.
Use 'snapvault status -l' to find out why.
systemA> snapvault status -l
SnapVault client is ON.
Source: systemA:/vol/vol0/qt3
Destination systemB:/vol/sv_vol/qt3...
systemA> snapvault release /vol/vol0/qt3 
systemB:/vol/sv_vol/qt3 
systemA> snap delete vol0 oldsnap