topic Re: How to Format the drives on a netapp storage in ONTAP Hardware

How to Format the drives on a netapp storage

MA_FATTAH — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 05:40:51 GMT

Hi to all,

Actually I am new to NetApp storage. We have a FAS2020-R5 netapp storage system.

We were using for one of our project, now we want to format the data on this storage device. How can we do this.

Is there any software available to manage the disk??

Thanks for your valuable inputs.

Regards,

MAF

Re: How to Format the drives on a netapp storage

aborzenkov — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 08:36:50 GMT

If you want to delete information, you could simply reinstall filer - it will zero all disks as the first step.

Re: How to Format the drives on a netapp storage

MA_FATTAH — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 08:43:15 GMT

Hi aborzenkov,

Thanks for you quick answer. How can i do this ???

Is there any tool to re-install the filer.

Re: How to Format the drives on a netapp storage

bulent_goktas — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 08:59:25 GMT

1-Reboot the controller

2- Break with ctrl+C while booting

3- Chose 4a or 4 ( clean all disk )

this procedure zero all disk and create new aggregate with 3 disk after openining data ontap ; it is waiting setup command prompt

Re: How to Format the drives on a netapp storage

HARI_KRISHNA981 — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:03:32 GMT

Hi Abdul,

Have look at this url

http://www.getshifting.com/wiki/netappwipe

I hope It may help you

Regards,

Hari

Re: How to Format the drives on a netapp storage

MA_FATTAH — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:18:14 GMT

Hi Hari Krishna,

Thanks for this link, it is helpful.

This article shows to reinitialize the netapp storage, for which i have to start everything from scratch.Is there any other option by which i can only format the data on the drives and keep the partitions as it is.

We have 4 disks each of 1 TB and we are made 2 drives of 2 TB each, so we would like to just wipe the data on the drives without re-initializing the drives.

Re: How to Format the drives on a netapp storage

HARI_KRISHNA981 — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:35:13 GMT

Hi,

have u gone thru this thread

https://communities.netapp.com/thread/10543

Regards,

Hari.

Re: How to Format the drives on a netapp storage

madden — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 10:16:58 GMT

Hi MAF,

Data ONTAP implements storage virtualization by bundling disks into aggregates. On the aggregate you then create FlexVols, and potentially LUNs in the FlexVols, to store user data.

Assuming your aggregate layout is OK, to remove data on an aggregate just offline and destroy the FlexVols. If your aggregate layout is not OK, you have to offline, destroy, and recreate your aggregates. If you only have a single aggregate, and not enough spare disks to create a temporary small aggregate to hold the root vol while you destroy/recreate the current one, then you basically need to do a fresh install.

If your concern is about sensitive data on the physical disks, and you want to make sure that if someone took a physical disk from the NetApp system and connected it to a PC that no data could be read from it, then you need to destroy the disks and use sanitize for highest levels of security, or just reinstall with zero disks option if you don't need multiple overwrites.

Hope that helps.

Regards,

Chris Madden

Storage Architect, NetApp EMEA

Re: How to Format the drives on a netapp storage

MA_FATTAH — Sun, 16 Mar 2014 06:06:45 GMT

Hi Madden,

Thanks for providing a clear picture of the netapp storage architecture. Can you provide me with the commands reference/ guide to run this activities namely just to destroy the FlexVols and recreate it and for destroying the disks and sanitize it.

Thanks.