On Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:52:57 -0600, Judy Schultz <[email protected]> wrote: >We have a shark (2105-F20) that we need to erase the data on the volumes. > IBM hardware support told me to use the UNCONFIGURE command on the ESS > Specialist. Has anyone used this before and does it clean all of the data by > reinitializing > it to zeroes?
For non-encrypting drives (2105 or 2107), perform a TRKFMT ERASEDATA CYCLES(n), where 'n' is set by your own data security people. Each cycle will write 3 different bit patterns. Then delete the array. When you delete the array, each drive will be formatted to zeros. You cannot re-use the drive (DDM) in a new array until the low-level format is complete. On the DS8000-series with the Full Disk Encryption feature, then TRKFMT ERASEDATA is not needed. When you deconfigure an encrypted array, the drives will do the local equivalent of TRKFMT ERASEDATA before applying a final coat of zeros. And just so no one gets too paranoid :-), a track is tied to a physical location in the array. When you write on a track, you are writing over whatever was there before. As discussed earlier this week over on the IBMVM mailing list, this kind of erasure is (obviously?) necessary only when the drives are leaving your physically secure facility. Hosts accessing the drives cannot see residual data after a simple host format operation (e.g. ICKDSF INIT or CPFORMAT, or CMS FORMAT). Any residual data that is physically present is inaccessible. Alan Altmark Senior Managing z/VM and Linux Consultant IBM Lab Services ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
