Disk Sanitization With Encrypted Disks - IBM N Series Hardware Manual

The sanitization process can take a long time. To view the progress, use the disk sanitize
status command as shown in Example 13-3.
Example 13-3 disk sanitize status command
itsotuc4*> disk sanitize status
sanitization for 0c.24 is 10 % complete
The disk sanitize release command allows the user to return a sanitized disk to the spare
pool.
The disk sanitize abort command is used to terminate the sanitization process for the
specified disks:
disk sanitize abort <disk_list>
If the disk is in the format stage, the process is canceled when the format is complete. A
message is displayed when the format and the cancel are complete.

13.4 Disk Sanitization with encrypted disks

You can destroy data stored on disks using Storage Encryption for security reasons. These
reasons can include sanitizing the disks, setting the disk state to end-of-life, and emergency
shredding of the data.
You can perform disk sanitization on disk using Storage Encryption. However, there are other
methods to obliterate data on disks using Storage Encryption that are faster and do not
require an operational storage system.
If you want to return a disk to a vendor, but do not want anyone to access sensitive data on it,
use the disk encrypt sanitize command. This process renders the data on the disk
inaccessible, but the disk can be reused. This command works only on spare disks, and was
first released with Data ONTAP 8.1. It cryptographically erases self encrypting disks on a
Storage Encryption enabled system.
To sanitize a disk, perform these steps:
1. Migrate any data that needs to be preserved to a different aggregate.
2. Delete the aggregate.
3. Identify the disk ID for the disk to be sanitized by entering the following command:
disk encrypt show
4. Enter the following command to sanitize the disks:
disk encrypt sanitize disk_ID
5. Use the sysconfig -r command to verify the results
Tip: To render a disk permanently unusable and the data on it inaccessible, set the state of
the disk to end-of-life by using the disk encrypt destroy command. This command only
works on spare disks.
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IBM System Storage N series Hardware Guide