You can remove data storage areas in replication and hot standby environments while the database is online, provided that the areas contain no objects.

The source and target databases can differ in their physical extents. A source may have multiple extents and the target maay have only one for an area (or vice versa). You may remove a single extent on the source without removing anything on the target.

Replication requires that the areas of the two databases match during connection in order to synchronize. The match criteria are the type, records per block, and cluster size of the area; the number or sizes of the extents are ignored.

To remove a data storage area from a replication source and target:
  1. Remove all extents from the source database. This command removes extents from the Customer Area:
    prostrct removeonline sourcedb d 'Customer Area' -allExtents
  2. If after-imaging is enabled, watch for a message that replication has started waiting:
    The Replication Agent will wait for the area to be removed on the target database 
when it reaches the end of this operating in the after image file. (20741)
Do you want to continue (y/n)?
  3. Enter y to continue.
  4. Watch for a prompt about waiting for connected processes to close:
    The database connections above have not closed the files removed by prostrct removeonline (20690)
Do you wish to recheck? (y/n)
  5. Enter y to recheck and continue. In most cases, if database notification is enabled, the recheck completes quickly. (For more information, see Database Notification Operations (-dbnotifyops) and Database Client Notification (-usernotifytime).)
  6. On the target database, watch for a message about the Replication Agent waiting, for example:
    The Replication Agent is waiting for Customer Area to be removed.
  7. After this message appears, remove all extents on the target database:
    prostrct removeonline targetdb d 'Customer Area' -allExtents
  8. As on the source, watch for a prompt about connected processes:
    The database connections above have not closed the files removed by prostrct removeonline (20690)
Do you wish to recheck? (y/n)
  9. Enter y to recheck and remove or n to stop the removal. Logins will be limited and replication stops until you remove the areas.
For a hot standby, apply the after-image extents to the target, for example:
  1. List the files to determine which ones to apply: 
    rfutil source -C aimage list > _ailist.txt
  2. Check the areas on the standby database. 
    prostrct list standby standby_save.st
  3. If the area that you removed remains on the standby system, apply each after-image file until you replay the PROSTRCT REMOVEONLINE operation, for example: 
    rfutil standby -C roll forward -a source.a1

    PROSTRCT LIST should show that the area is gone and the database log shows messages that the extents and areas were removed.