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# How to remove a MicroCloud cluster member

You can remove a cluster member from a MicroCloud at any time, as long as at least one machine remains in the cluster. To remove a cluster member from a MicroCloud, run the **microcloud remove** command:

```bash
sudo microcloud remove <name>
```

Run **microcloud status** on any of the remaining cluster members to verify the removal.

Before removing the cluster member, ensure that there are no LXD instances, storage volumes, or MicroCeph OSDs located on it.

See [how to remove instances](https://canonical.com/microcloud/docs/default/lxd/howto/instances_manage/#instances-manage-delete) in the LXD documentation.
See [how to remove OSDs](https://canonical.com/microcloud/docs/default/microceph/how-to/remove-disk/) in the MicroCeph documentation.

#### NOTE
If local storage was created, MicroCloud will have also added some default storage volumes that will need to be cleaned up:

```bash
lxc config unset storage.images_volume --target <name>
lxc config unset storage.backups_volume --target <name>
lxc storage volume delete local images --target <name>
lxc storage volume delete local backups --target <name>
```

Any additional storage volumes belonging to this machine must also be deleted before removal without the `--force` flag.

If the machine is no longer reachable over the network, you can also add the `--force` flag to bypass removal restrictions and skip attempting to clean up the machine. Note that MicroCeph requires `--force` to be used if the remaining cluster size will be less than 3.

#### CAUTION
Removing a cluster member with `--force` will not attempt to perform any clean-up of the removed machine. All services will need to be fully re-installed before they can be re-initialized. Resources allocated to the MicroCloud like disks and network interfaces may need to be re-initialized as well.

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## Reducing the cluster to one member

When shrinking the cluster down to one member, you must also clean up the Ceph monitor map (`monmap`) before proceeding, even when using the `--force` flag.

```bash
sudo microceph.ceph mon remove <name>
sudo microceph cluster sql "delete from services where member_id = (select id from core_cluster_members where name='<name>') and service='mon'"
sudo microcloud remove <name> --force
```

If the machine is no longer reachable and Ceph is no longer responsive, see the [Ceph documentation](https://docs.ceph.com/en/squid/rados/operations/add-or-rm-mons/#removing-monitors-from-an-unhealthy-cluster) for more recovery steps.