The following RDAREAs can be deleted:

• User RDAREAs
• User LOB RDAREAs
• List RDAREAs

An RDAREA should be deleted under the following circumstances:

• It is an existing RDAREA that is no longer needed.
• It is an RDAREA that needs to be re-created.

• If there are any tables or indexes in an RDAREA that is to be deleted, those tables or indexes must be deleted before the RDAREA can be deleted.
• Before an RDAREA is deleted, it must be placed in shutdown or error shutdown status by the pdhold command, and then in closed status by the pdclose command.

Always change the value specified to the pdbuffer operand after you delete an RDAREA. That is, delete the RDAREA from the global buffer definition. If you do not change the value specified in the pdbuffer operand, memory utilization efficiency might deteriorate. Consider the following situations as examples:

• If a deleted RDAREA is assigned to a global buffer specified with the -o option of the pdbuffer operand, another RDAREA might be allocated a global buffer that is larger than required.
• If only the deleted RDAREA is assigned to the global buffer specified with the -o option of the pdbuffer operand, the unused global buffer remains resident in memory.