(howto-member-remove)=
# 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 {command}`microcloud remove` command:

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

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

See {ref}`how to remove instances <lxd:instances-manage-delete>` in the LXD documentation.
See {doc}`how to remove OSDs <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.
```

## Reducing the cluster to one member

When shrinking the cluster down to one member, you must also clean up the Ceph 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.