3PAR Hard Drives

[spekyteky]

Hi folks, looking for some advice on the 3PAR Hard Drives and how they are formatted. I have a few refurbed 1.8TB Drives i am wanting to erase  so i can re-use them, can someone tell me if 3PAR Hard drives have specific coding or firmware type software in them that if i was to fully erase them it would be removed and render the drive unusable in 3PAR Storage system, or are they similar to your everyday hard drive in terms of firmware etc

I do apologise but i am pretty new to 3pard so my knowledge is very low and new to me, Any help or advice would be much appreciated

Cheers

Brian 

[sbhat09]

Hi Brian,

Here is the document reference to check hard drive compatibility with your 3PAR system: https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=c04895558&docLocale=en_US

Actually admitting hard drives to 3PAR is not very simple task if you are new to 3PAR. Drive's hardware specs and firmware must at compatible level with the 3PAR model and it's OS. Also the drive position must be in the right order for efficient utilization of available disk space. It depends upon existing RAID types, disk types, availability level, number of cages etc. So, you may contact HPE support for a consultation with 'Hardware deployment team' who will assist with configuration or hardware deployment services.

Regards,

Srinivas Bhat

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[spekyteky]

Very much appreciated, thank you for that Srinivas.......Cheers

Brian

[spekyteky]

Quick question Srinivas., so i can erase them with eraser software and this will not do render them as un-usable, i am just assuming there is data on them or would whoever had them previous had already carried out some form of erasing or is there no way of knowing.......thanks again

[sbhat09]

Hi Brian,

If you successfully erase the hard drives using eraser software, they will be as good as fresh hard drives.

But my advice will not be perfect wi thout knowing 3PAR model, 3PAR OS, existing drive positions, existing RAID types, disk types, availability level, number of cages etc.

However you can try this. Irase the hard drives and install them in your 3PAR. To ensure compatibility run the command 'admithw -checkonly'. It will scan the hard drives. If hardware compatibility of the drives is fine, the system will list the newly installed drives but in 'degraded' state. (degraded because of possible drive firmware incompatibility).

Then run the command 'admitpd' to update the drive firmware to compatible level of the 3PAR OS of the system. Then create a new test CPG including only those new drives. Create some volumes and test them. If the test is successful, you may utilize those drives for existing CPGs or continue to use them for new CPG.

Regards,

Srinivas Bhat

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[spekyteky]

Thanks again Srinivas,

It is really a project i am wanting to try I have never dealt with 3PAR so curiosity really, I am waiting on delivery of refurbed 3PAR Models QR485A and QR516A server and storage unit, the drives are 1.8TB's which i have tried erasing in a proliant ml350 gen8 but i am assming this has to be done within a 3PAR Sytem using the blancco, i wanted to get them erased before delivery of server and storage unit

On reading your replies i may be out of my depth though lol 

Thanks for your help on this 

Cheers

Brian

[sbhat09 · Accepted solution]

Hi Brian,

It will be awesome if those hard drives are useful in your 3PAR. They are expensive!

Hope they work for you.  

Regards,

Srinivas Bhat

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[spekyteky]

fingers crossed Srinivas, like i said i cannot get the drives ID'd in a proliant server to carry out the erase so i will try 3par server when i get it and let you know.....appreciated and thank you 

[veeyarvi]

Hi Brian,

Just to answer one part of your initial question: "can someone tell me if 3PAR Hard drives have specific coding or firmware type software in them" - Yes, they do have. As mentioned above the drives should be compatible with 3PAR and should be with an appropriate firmware on them. Then only you can use them in the 3PAR.

Veeyarvi

[Sheldon Smith]

I just don't understand why anyone would bother to erase 3PAR disks before putting them back in a 3PAR.

The. System. Erases. The. Disks. Before. It. Will. Use. Them. For. Storage.

[Torsten.]

The 3PAR will always adjust the firmware to match the 3PAR firmware once inserted and admitted.

Hence you can only use supported drives. If the 3PAR is not aware of the disk model and does not have firmware for it, the drive cannot be used.

Not sure what happens if it meanwhile has a 512 format instead of 520 ... probably it won't work.

[sbhat09]

Hi @Sheldon Smith,

Erasing disks looks like part of the compliance of Brian's organization. He initially stated that he will receive the disks after erasing.

Regards,

Srinivas Bhat

[Sheldon Smith]

OK, whatever. 

The 3PAR will erase them again before it uses any of the chunklets.

[spekyteky]

I was'nt aware of that if you read my question i did state i am very new to 3PAR!

[spekyteky]

Thank you very much Veeyarvi...appreciated!

Brian

[spekyteky]

Thanks for your input once again Torsten, appreciated as usual..........Brian

[CarlosPrado]

I think 3par just removes the metadata, but that doesn't guarantee the state of all sectors on the disk.