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Re: Do I need to do anything other than arrayfmt -F to wipe out data on 12H disk array?

 
Vince Arends
Frequent Advisor

Do I need to do anything other than arrayfmt -F to wipe out data on 12H disk array?

I have a 12H disk array connected to a K460 running HP-UX 11.0. Sad to say, we are getting rid of it, and I need to erase the data on it (used for Oracle). I have found the arrayfmt command, but I am not sure if that is all I need to do. There are six logical volumes across 12 drives. If I just do arrayfmt -F array-id, will that suffice? Do I need to do anything to the VGs or lvols or anything else before I do the arrayfmt?

Vince
4 REPLIES 4
Patrick Wallek
Honored Contributor

Re: Do I need to do anything other than arrayfmt -F to wipe out data on 12H disk array?

I would do the following:

0) If necessary, back up the data on the array
1) Unmount all the filesystems that are using the VGs/LVs one the array
2) Deactivate the VG (vgchange -a n vg??)
3) export the VG so that no traces of it are left on your box (vgexport vg??)
4) Now you can format the array if you wish. That should render the data unusable.
A. Clay Stephenson
Acclaimed Contributor

Re: Do I need to do anything other than arrayfmt -F to wipe out data on 12H disk array?

Because of the way the AutoRAID distributes data across the disks an arrayfmt -F will make the disks unusable for any purposes although it would not completely wipe each disk. I would do a vgchange -a n /dev/vgxx for each VG (after umounting any filesystems); a vgexport /dev/vgxx for each VG; and then your arrayfmt command. If you wanted to be a bit more creative, you could delete each LUN, create a few new LUNS that are of different sizes than the originals, delete those, and finally do the arrayfmt. That would make it all but impossible to recover any data from the array. As a final measure, randomly rearrange the drives in the array which will force the next user to format the array again.
If it ain't broke, I can fix that.
Eugeny Brychkov
Honored Contributor

Re: Do I need to do anything other than arrayfmt -F to wipe out data on 12H disk array?

Good replies, although there's something more to add.
As I see you want to achieve 2 tasks:
- deconfigure 12h in the OS;
- make 12h's data unrecoverable by next possible user.

Backup data. Unmount lvols. Deactivate VGs (vgchange -a n). vgexport VGs. Then fill 12h's LUNs with garbage (dd if=/dev/console of=/dev/rdsk/cXtYdZ bs=1024k, I think /dev/console is the right one to use for reading garbage). After doing this rmsf all 12h related device files. Then go to 12h and format it from control panel.
Note: if you'll format 12h then I guess it will simply clear maps not really format drives physically. The same for deleting/creating LUNs. If you'll create new LUN and will not write any data on it then actual size this LUN will consume on 12h disks will be 0. As soon as you'll be writing data 12h will be allocating more and more data for this LUN. So this is important to make sure filling whole original LUNs with garbage before doing anything else with 12h
Eugeny
Eugeny Brychkov
Honored Contributor

Re: Do I need to do anything other than arrayfmt -F to wipe out data on 12H disk array?

Sorry I was wrong about device file for reading garbage. It should be /dev/zero (of course NOT a /dev/console :)
Eugeny