decommissioning-disconnected-grid-nodes.adoc

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maintain/decommissioning-disconnected-grid-nodes.html	sidebar	storagegrid, disconnected nodes, decommission node	You might need to decommission a node that is not currently connected to the grid \(one whose Health is Unknown or Administratively Down\).

Decommission disconnected grid nodes

You might need to decommission a node that is not currently connected to the grid (one whose Health is Unknown or Administratively Down).

Before you begin

• You understand the considerations for decommissioning Admin, Gateway, and Archive Nodes and the considerations for decommissioning Storage Nodes.

• You have obtained all prerequisite items.

• You have ensured that no data repair jobs are active. See Check data repair jobs.

• You have confirmed that Storage Node recovery is not in progress anywhere in the grid. If it is, you must wait until any Cassandra rebuild performed as part of the recovery is complete. You can then proceed with decommissioning.

• You have ensured that other maintenance procedures will not be run while the node decommission procedure is running, unless the node decommission procedure is paused.

• The Decommission Possible column for the disconnected node or nodes you want to decommission includes a green check mark.

• You have the provisioning passphrase.

About this task

You can identify disconnected nodes by looking for Unknown (blue) or Administratively Down (gray) icons in the Health column. In the example, the Archive Node named DC1-ARC1 is disconnected.

Before decommissioning any disconnected node, note the following:

• This procedure is primarily intended for removing a single disconnected node. If your grid contains multiple disconnected nodes, the software requires you to decommission them all at the same time, which increases the potential for unexpected results.

  Caution

  Data loss might occur if you decommission more than one disconnected Storage Node at a time. See Considerations for disconnected Storage Nodes.

  Caution

  Use caution when you decommission Storage Nodes in a grid containing software-based metadata-only nodes. If you decommission all nodes configured to store both objects and metadata, the ability to store objects is removed from the grid. See Types of Storage Nodes for more information about metadata-only Storage Nodes.

• If a disconnected node can’t be removed (for example, a Storage Node that is required for the ADC quorum), no other disconnected node can be removed.

Steps

1. Unless you are decommissioning an Archive Node (which must be disconnected), attempt to bring any disconnected grid nodes back online or recover them.

   See Grid node recovery procedures for instructions.

2. If you are unable to recover a disconnected grid node and you want to decommission it while it is disconnected, select the checkbox for that node.

   Note	If your grid contains multiple disconnected nodes, the software requires you to decommission them all at the same time, which increases the potential for unexpected results.

   Caution

   Be careful when choosing to decommission more than one disconnected grid node at a time, especially if you are selecting multiple disconnected Storage Nodes. If you have more than one disconnected Storage Node that you can’t recover, contact technical support to determine the best course of action.

3. Enter the provisioning passphrase.

   The Start Decommission button is enabled.

4. Click Start Decommission.

   A warning appears, indicating that you have selected a disconnected node and that object data will be lost if the node has the only copy of an object.

5. Review the list of nodes, and click OK.

   The decommission procedure starts, and the progress is displayed for each node. During the procedure, a new Recovery Package is generated containing the grid configuration change.

6. As soon as the new Recovery Package is available, click the link or select MAINTENANCE > System > Recovery package to access the Recovery Package page. Then, download the .zip file.

   See the instructions for downloading the Recovery Package.

   Note	Download the Recovery Package as soon as possible to ensure you can recover your grid if something goes wrong during the decommission procedure.

   Caution

   The Recovery Package file must be secured because it contains encryption keys and passwords that can be used to obtain data from the StorageGRID system.

7. Periodically monitor the Decommission page to ensure that all selected nodes are decommissioned successfully.

   Storage Nodes can take days or weeks to decommission. When all tasks are complete, the node selection list is redisplayed with a success message. If you decommissioned a disconnected Storage Node, an information message indicates that the repair jobs have been started.

8. After the nodes have shut down automatically as part of the decommission procedure, remove any remaining virtual machines or other resources that are associated with the decommissioned node.

   Caution

   Don’t perform this step until the nodes have shut down automatically.

9. If you are decommissioning a Storage Node, monitor the status of the replicated data and erasure-coded (EC) data repair jobs that are automatically started during the decommissioning process. ../_include/restore-data-monitor.adoc

After you finish

As soon as the disconnected nodes have been decommissioned and all data repair jobs have been completed, you can decommission any connected grid nodes as required.

Then, complete these steps after you complete the decommission procedure:

• Ensure that the drives of the decommissioned grid node are wiped clean. Use a commercially available data wiping tool or service to permanently and securely remove data from the drives.

• If you decommissioned an appliance node and the data on the appliance was protected using node encryption, use the StorageGRID Appliance Installer to clear the key management server configuration (Clear KMS). You must clear the KMS configuration if you want to add the appliance to another grid. For instructions, see Monitor node encryption in maintenance mode.