The source database backup and restore step can't always be skipped because for removing the empty database areas/extents replication has to be disabled, Source database areas/extents have to be removed and target database has to be rebaselined (which involves a backup/restore).
- Disable replication on both source and target databases
- Shutdown both source and target databases. Database shutdown is required because presently it is not possible to remove database areas/extents online. For more details please refer to Article Is it possible to remove a database area or extent online?
- Remove the required areas/extents from Source database as described in Article How to Remove Storage Areas and Data Extents in Progress 9.x, 10.x, and 11.x.
- Re-enable replication as described in Article How to re-enable replication after having disabled it Alternatively, an OS BACKUP method that can be used instead of PROBKUP / PROREST for details please see Article How to use OS-copy for recreating a Replication Target database.
Considerations when removing extents on replication enabled databases (PROSTRCT REMOVE):
- Any Storage Area/Extent type cannot be removed online only offline.
- Unlike the replication enabled source database, any Storage Area/Extent type cannot be removed on the target database when replication is enabled, as the before-image file needs to be truncated first before removing extents, which is not allowed. With the exception of AI extents provided the target is not enabled for after-imaging.
- After-Image extents cannot be removed while after-imaging is active. For the source database, this would mean having to disable replication first.
- Before-Image extents can be removed on the source database without necessarily having to re-baseline replication as long as the target database has sufficiently sized bi space in relation to the source when it is re-started. New before-image (bi) extents cannot be added to the target database when the last bi extent is a variable extent. Since the variable BI extent first needs to removed to add additional bi extents, the operation will fail. It is therefore recommended to add more fixed bi extents to the target database than the source database when initializing the replication baseline.
- Data extents can be removed on the source database without necessarily having to re-baseline replication. As long as the sum of data extent sizes on the source database for that Area are less than or equal to the sum of data extent sizes on the target for the same Storage Area.
- Storage Areas can be removed on the source database but necessitate a target re-baseline in order for the source and target databases to have the same area definitions.
