MSA1000 Disk subsystems

[Louann Duchemin]

How do you "wipe" disks on the MSA1000?

[Cesar Ruvalcaba]

Is the MSA1000 currently attached to a server?

[Louann Duchemin]

Yes. It is attached to a DS10.

[SUBHAJIT KHANBARMAN_1 · Accepted solution]

There's no built-in secure-erase procedure. You can create a RAID and then LUNs that fully fill it, present those LUNs to a server, and secure-erase them using a software utility.

If you have a Windows or Linux server, you can use ACU.

If not, you can connect directly to the MSA1000 controller, and use CLI commands.

You can do something as basic as create a RAID 0 with each disk. Then mount each LUN on a server and secure erase it.

Please find the forum link,
http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Storage-Area-Networks-SAN/How-to-erase-disks-on-MSA1000/m-p/4654341#M45219

[Sean O'Banion at SAIC]

I'm quessing that the DS10 is running OpenVMS?

From Hoffman Labs,
http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/174

"At a minimum, the OpenVMS command INITIALIZE /ERASE can be used. This command will zero all writable blocks of the disk. The contents of any disk bocks that have been revectored due to detected errors may still be readable, as INITIALIZE /ERASE will not and can not overwrite these blocks. Even a package known as a disk formatter may not be able to get at and overwrite these blocks. For some sites and some information, INITIALIZE /ERASE is entirely sufficient.
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With OpenVMS V8.3, the undocumented tool CDDVD/PATTERN can perform various pattern overwrites. (SET COMMAND SYS$ETC:CDDVD$TOOLS.CLD, then CDDVD/PATTERN ddcu:) Various pattern keywords are listed in the CLD file. These patterns are intended for testing purposes and are not DoD-style patterns, but â like INITIALIZE /ERASE â these pattern overwrites can be used to write junk data onto the target disk."

One comment to this link by Ian Miller:
"$ ANALYZE/MEDIA/EXER=FULL
is another command that can be used. This writes three patterns to the disk."