In this example, the logical volume is distributed across four physical volumes in the volume group myvg.

[root@tng3-1]# pvs -o+pv_used
  PV         VG   Fmt  Attr PSize  PFree  Used
  /dev/sda1  myvg lvm2 a-   17.15G 12.15G  5.00G
  /dev/sdb1  myvg lvm2 a-   17.15G 12.15G  5.00G
  /dev/sdc1  myvg lvm2 a-   17.15G 12.15G  5.00G
  /dev/sdd1  myvg lvm2 a-   17.15G  2.15G 15.00G

We want to move the extents off of /dev/sdb1 so that we can remove it from the volume group.

If there are enough free extents on the other physical volumes in the volume group, you can execute the pvmove command on the device you want to remove with no other options and the extents will be distributed to the other devices.

[root@tng3-1 ~]# pvmove /dev/sdb1
  /dev/sdb1: Moved: 2.0%
 ...
  /dev/sdb1: Moved: 79.2%
 ...
  /dev/sdb1: Moved: 100.0%

After the pvmove command has finished executing, the distribution of extents is as follows:

[root@tng3-1]# pvs -o+pv_used
  PV         VG   Fmt  Attr PSize  PFree  Used
  /dev/sda1  myvg lvm2 a-   17.15G  7.15G 10.00G
  /dev/sdb1  myvg lvm2 a-   17.15G 17.15G     0
  /dev/sdc1  myvg lvm2 a-   17.15G 12.15G  5.00G
  /dev/sdd1  myvg lvm2 a-   17.15G  2.15G 15.00G

Use the vgreduce command to remove the physical volume /dev/sdb1 from the volume group.

[root@tng3-1 ~]# vgreduce myvg /dev/sdb1
  Removed "/dev/sdb1" from volume group "myvg"
[root@tng3-1 ~]# pvs
  PV         VG   Fmt  Attr PSize  PFree
  /dev/sda1  myvg lvm2 a-   17.15G  7.15G
  /dev/sdb1       lvm2 --   17.15G 17.15G
  /dev/sdc1  myvg lvm2 a-   17.15G 12.15G
  /dev/sdd1  myvg lvm2 a-   17.15G  2.15G

The disk can now be physically removed or allocated to other users.