topic Re: legacy servers. in Operating System - HP-UX

legacy servers.

Grayh — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:22:17 GMT

what are legacy servers and what does it mean when I am asked to wipe disks or clean it.

Are the Old HP-9000 servers called legacy servers.

Re: legacy servers.

Steven E. Protter — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:30:13 GMT

Shalom,

Legacy servers are anything you decide are obsolete.

PA-RISC HP-9000 servers are in my opinion legacy servers soon after year end when HP stops selling them.

At my previous employer the policy was to send the disks for physical destruction.

A complete OS install using all disks is how I did it prior to that.

SEP

Re: legacy servers.

James R. Ferguson — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:33:22 GMT

Hi:

The question of "wiping" or ereaing a disk's data so that it cannot be read comes up time and time again. First, you need to understand that you can overwrite a disk with random patterns five, ten or twenty times (!) and given current technology it can *still* be read if there is enough reason.

Given that, the best destructive method is an acid bath and a metal shredder.

Otherwise, you can make very reaonable cleanings with:

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/rdsk/CxtYdZ bs=1024k

or:

# dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/rdsk/CxtYdZ bs=1024k

The first is faster. Notice the raw device so that the LVM driver and buffer cache aren't involved.

As for "legacy" servers, this means any PA-RISC server no longer manufactured. After December 31, 2008 (this month) it is my recollection that *all* new manufacture of PA-RISC hardware will cease.

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: legacy servers.

Adam W. — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:50:21 GMT

Legacy is just a PA-Risc system no longer being manufactured.

As far as "disk cleaning" there is no "real" sure fire way to do this except for destruction. or an extremely strong electro magnet. I send all mine to a destruction facility AFTER I swipe them with my electromagnet

Re: legacy servers.

Olivier Masse — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:25:18 GMT

Concerning disk wipe, if you don't need to follow any compliance requirement, writing /dev/urandom or /dev/zero data is enough and easy, I suggest you go with it. Disk arrays also have some tools to exercise disks (i.e. dilx on the EVA) which can be invoked before they're decomissioned.

Many years ago in a previous job we were required to purchase a military grade disk wiper, and we purchased one by a company named Los Alto Technologies. It fit the requirement but it wasn't free, you know. I just checked, and it still exists. There's a thread on this subject here:
http://forums13.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?admit=109447627+1229040627141+28353475&threadId=957297

I also googled "disk wipe dod hp-ux" and came with interesting alternatives, such as a product named WipeDisk/UX. I don't know if it's still maintained.

Good luck

Re: legacy servers.

Grayh — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:06:08 GMT

Thanks everyone... Now I completely understand wiping out/legacy servers...

Thanks Again