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Can I wipe a Symmetrix device without presenting it to a host?
We'vre had a whole batch of LUNs de-allocated fromm some servers, and they've been unmapped and unmasked. We're wanting to wipe the data on them, prior to reuse. I'm aware EMC support can wipe a device, but I'm ... not entirely sure if I can do it, using Solutions Enabler.
I can map all these devices to a proxy host, format them, and move on (formatting is ok, we don't need secure wipes or anything), but before starting doing this with a couple of hundred devices, thought I'd see if there was a better way?
Alasdair Eadie
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January 7th, 2010 05:00
I can confirm that there is currently no official method available on Symmetrix to wipe the contents of a single Symmetrix volume. If you would like this functionality then entering an Enhancement request via EMC Powerlink would be valuable, referencing EMC solution emc206307 (currently in "draft" status). If you are an EMC employee please access EMC Serviceability Request #405 which basically confirms the situation and requests this functionality, and add your voice to the request.
There are methods for securely deleting physical drives or all drives in a frame.
Regards, Alasdair Eadie, EMEA Tech Ops Business Team - Symmetrix
RRR
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January 28th, 2010 06:00
Alasdair Eadie
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April 8th, 2010 01:00
You may want to read emc206307 which we recently created. Please consider entering an enhancement request via EMC Powerlink if you would like functionality in future to wipe a Symmetrix volume.
RRR
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April 8th, 2010 01:00
It would be good to have it.... Storage Navigator on HDS USP-V can do it !
Ed_R1
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April 8th, 2010 01:00
Well, I can't currently see that one, but ... well, whatever.
Anyway, I thought I'd reply to my original post with what I actually ended up doing in the end.
This was in the case of a device that was corrupt - in a 'would bluescreen windows OS if made RW' sort of corrupt (yes, seriously).
Apologies for lack of formatting - this is notes on what I actually did, rather than a decent procedure guide or anything![]()
The mission:
To erase all the data on a symdev - in this case 1157 – the disk that crashes servers when you bring it online, preferably without crashing any servers.
I'm looking to wipe and re-present this device to the original host. If that's not what you're doing, you'll need to amend accordingly.
So what you do:
RW enable it briefly, to split/delete the SRDF pairing.
symdev –sid 123 rw_enable 1157
symrdf –rdfg 3 –sid 760 –f rdf_pairs.txt split
symrdf –rdfg 3 –sid 760 –f rdf_pairs.txt deletepair
where RDF_Pairs.txt looks like:
1157 1157
Then disable it again.
symdev –sid 123 write_disable 1157
Save a copy of the device information, for later reference:
symdev -sid 123 show 1157 -output XML > 1157.xml
Unmap it from the FA ports (make a note where it was mapped). Note that I'm not clearing the masking, because I'm looking to represent the device
unmap dev 1157 from dir ALL:ALL;
Dissolve the device. (and make a note of meta members)
dissolve dev 1157;
Create blank devices of the right track geometry – you can ‘clone’ on a 1:8 ratio (so 3 needed to do them all at once).
Create a device group.
Add your ‘source’ devs:
symld –g temp add 29FC SRC001
add your target dev
create a non-differential copy (from testing a differential copy is a little slower, and it's not like you need one)
activate the copy session
symld –g temp add 1157
symclone -nop -g temp create -copy -nodiff SRC001 SYM dev 1157
symclone –nop –g temp activate SRC001 SYM dev 1157
repeat for each dev in the list.
Leave to run. Verify with either a ‘query’ or a ‘symclone –g temp verify’ (the latter for scripting it, which I might do).
When done:
symclone –nop –g temp terminate
assemble the meta
form meta from dev 1157, config=striped, stripe_size=1 cyl;
map/mask to taste (in this case, I didn’t unmask, so I only had to map and then was done)
If you need to change pairings, then the command you need is:
symclone -g temp terminate SRC001 sym dev 115A –symforce
The ‘nodiff’ flag does seem to have an impact on replication speed – the ones I have done with ‘-nodiff’ were around 33% faster. For the 17 x 30Gb Devices I did this on, on my array, it took overnight sort of a time frame - a couple of hours during the day was enough to do them to 30% or so.
Then delete your newly created devices.
Re-synchronize across SRDF links or to BCVs as necessary:
symrdf –rdfg 3 –sid 123 –f rdf_pairs.txt createpair -type r1 -invalidate r2
symrdf –rdfg 3 –sid 123 –f rdf_pairs.txt set mode acp_disk
symrdf –rdfg 3 –sid 123 –f rdf_pairs.txt establish
And then you're done.
RRR
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April 8th, 2010 02:00
emc206307 is unavailable to me as well
John Toner
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April 8th, 2010 06:00
As Alasdair referenced previously, article emc206307 is not yet published...though it looks like it should be available soon.
Since Ed_R mentioned Windows operating system, I'd just add that on a Windows host you can wipe out the MBR of the disk using the DISKPART utility, which also would give you the ability to script this action if needed.
To wipe out a disk in Windows, open a command prompt and type DISKPART.
In the DISKPART> prompt, choose the disk you want to wipe by typing, "SELECT DISK #" <-- where # is the physical drive number of the disk to be erased.
With the disk selected, you then type "CLEAN" or "CLEAN ALL" to wipe the disk. The CLEAN option only wipes out the MBR on the disk, while the CLEAN ALL would zero out the entire drive. Unfortuantely there is no sort of progress indicator for the CLEAN ALL option, so it will just appear hung when this command is issued.
If you want more details about the DISKPART command options, see the following MSFT article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415
Hope this helps.
SymmetrixForums
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April 9th, 2010 08:00
I recently checked Powerlink and emc206307 is now available.
smw61811
45 Posts
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April 9th, 2010 09:00
I have submitted a product enhancement request for this. This has been a thorn in my side since I started working with EMC back in 1998.
I also referenced emc206307. Hopefully they'll get enough requests for this that they'll finally give us a way to nuke devices ourselves.
SANjoker
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April 20th, 2010 07:00
I’ve always thought the reason EMC did not do this was the revenue generated from Certified Data Erasure (CDE) services.
Ken
Alasdair Eadie
20 Posts
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May 17th, 2010 00:00
Hi,
As a specialist at EMC I can inform you we already defined the situation in EMC solution emc206307. In addition a "Serviceability Request" #405 (EMC-internal) was opened by me a few months ago to drive adding this as built-in functionality for Symmetrix. I will take this thread and apply the experience and obvious need to the Servicability Request. Thank you for your inputs here.
Alasdair Eadie, Principal Technical Consultant, EMC CSS EMEA
Alasdair Eadie
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May 17th, 2010 01:00
Hi,
Just a note abour EMC Data Erasure services, these relate to "wiping" whole disks, whereas this thread relates to wiping individual volumes (slices) of a disk. There is therefore no conflict with Data Erasure Services, this functionality would be an enhancement.
Alasdair Eadie, PTC EMC EMEA
Alasdair Eadie
20 Posts
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May 18th, 2010 23:00
Hi,
We are progressing with getting a requirement in the Symmetrix for this functionality, and some customer names would REALLY help. Can I ask anyone who wishes to have SYMCLI\SMC\Ionix have the ability to "wipe clean a single volume or set of Symmetrix volumes" emails me at EMC eadie_alasdair@emc.com, I will add your company name and name into the requirements building.
Thank you for your postings.
Alasdair Eadie, Principal Technical Consultant
EMC CSS EMEA
Alasdair Eadie
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March 2nd, 2011 23:00
Here a short update:
"The Product Data Sheet (PDS) for the next Enginuity/Solutions Enabler release contains this enhancement. However, any new feature is subject to being dropped from the final release due to resource limitations".
This means the functionality is not included in the recent 5875 Enginuity release, but is planned for the next release.
Alasdair Eadie
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March 28th, 2011 03:00
Just a note, I updated the EMC KnowledgeBase solution for virtual provsioned "thin devices" since unbinding a volume in that environment does "wipe" it.
To reprovision existing "thin" Symmetrix volumes: