Zero disks on E-series

[victory]

Hi all,

I have an E2824 controller shelf running on duplex configuration, with 24 HDD installed

Can someone point me the detailed steps on how to zero all the disks inside?

All the commands, connections, etc..

Thanks

[MitchBlackburn]

You can

The image above shows where you can find the command to reinitialize a drive.

[victory]

Hi,

Thank you for replying.

When I click on Initialize, the system will prompt the following error message "A drive operation cannot be performed because the drive is not in the correct state for the operation (API 40).

Any idea how to get rid of this error?

Thank you

[MitchBlackburn]

You will want to remove the drive from any DDP or VG it is a part of before reinitializing.

[victory]

MitchBlackBurn,

I have already removed the drive from any disk pool or groups. But the system just refused to allow me to initialize.

It will still prompt an error saying that the diskis not in a correct state. 

Is there anything other method that I can use to erase customer data from the disks?

Thank you.

[SHINSASA]

Hi,

I want to initilize.. 

But Can not initilize.

Santricity Storage manager > Hardware > Disk > right click > Advanced > Initilize...(Gray Out) can not activete.

How can I initilize this disk?

If possible I want to Initilize every disk by One Operation.

[NetApp_AU · Accepted solution]

Hello victory,

Unfortunately, E-Series does not have a function to write all zeroes to a drive.

The drive initialization function on E-Series does not write all zeroes to the drive. Instead, the function removes the configuration information from a drive that has already been moved from one array to a new array.

You will not be able to initialize a drive in its native array.

See the Initialize (format) drive page in the E-Series and SANtricity 11 Documentation Center for more information.

The drive initialize function will only work on drives that meet all of the following criteria:

• have been moved from one array to another array
• have pre-existing volume configuration information
• have been marked as FAILED or INCOMPATIBLE by the new array

If you need to write all zeroes to the drives, I can propose a workaround. You would have to create a RAID 0 volume group and volume and would have a host-side application write zeroes to the volume. Use RAID 0 so the array does not have to perform parity calculations. If you make several smaller volumes as opposed to one large volume, your application might be able to write to several volumes at once which would make the process faster. After your application finishes writing all zeroes to each volume, you can delete the volumes and volume groups.