Server Data Storage Erase Guide

Erase Data From Multiple Rack Mountable Server

Data centre enterprise servers such as HP Proliant G3 upto latest Gen9, Gen10 and Gen11, also all Dell PowerEdge series and many other servers can be data erased using NDW - network data wiping software solution.

By using NDW, erasing data from enterprise servers storage devices is as easy as powering on the server machine.

Once data from storage devices has erased / wiped. Report would look like this, see below example.

How to Erase / Wipe data from Multiple Enterprise Servers

Most servers such as HP, Dell, IBM, Microservers and others are equipped with RAID controller card, this card acts like bridge between mainboard of the server and hard disk drives. Majority of RAID controllers are configured for HDD redundancy to split store data across multiple HDDs and multiple copies of data is maintained to deal with disaster recovery. When RAID controller is configured for redundancy, it presents a logical storage device to the operating system instead of physical HDD.

To make sure data across all HDDs are effectively rendered non-recoverable, NDW should have direct access (Without RAID configuration) to each physical storage device / physical Hard Disk Drive. Majority of the RAID controllers firmware can be flashed with special firmware called "JBOD / IT" mode. (JBOD is acronym for Just Bunch of Drives). When RAID controller is flashed in JBOD / IT mode. It presents all physical hard disk drives directly to the NDW OS. This way NDW has direct access to each Hard Disk Drive and NDW can erase data bit by bit, sector by sector and block by block from each hard disk drive.

Non-supported configuration for Bulk Erase

Each disk array or storage array is connected to computer machine via HBA (Host Bus Adapter) also called (Raid Controller). These HBAs then provides ability to configure RAID for redundancy. But RAID configuration is not supported by NDW because it needs direct access to each drive so it can effectively erase data bit by bit, sector by sector and block by block from each storage device.

NDW Supported Configuration for Bulk Erase

Most HBAs firmware can be flashed to provide JBOD (Just bunch of drives) capability. This is also known as IT mode or JBOD mode. When HBA in JBOD is used, it presents each drive directly to the OS without any intermediate bottleneck and without RAID configuration. This way OS can directly access each hard disk drive. For example, following HBA can be flashed to JBOD and IT mode.

LSI Logic / Symbios Logic SAS2116 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2
LSI SAS 9300-8I 12Gbps SAS SFF-8643 JBOD HBA P16 IT Mode
Adaptec RAID ASR-6405E 128MB - FH PCIe-x1 0,10, 1E JBOD SAS RAID Controller
Cisco UCSC-SAS12GHBA 12Gb/s SAS 24-Channel Storage HBA Controller 2x SFF-8643

Above is just an example of HBA JBOD IT mode cards, kindly refer to stoarge array manufacturer's specifications for choosing JBOD HBA adapters. Please consult the RAID controller manufacturer to obtain JBOD / IT firmware for your RAID controller.

When you have successfully flashed the RAID controller to IT / JBOD firmware. You can begin erasing data from each server.

Start Wiping data from multiple Enterprise Servers

Make sure your servers are connected to the same VLAN / LAN where NDW server is connected and boot the server one by one into Network boot PXE. You may see following on the console / monitor display of the server.

At this point rackmount-server is requesting NDW provide UEFI operating system to boot from and execute this OS in the RAM / Memory of this server machine.

After this point, moving forward rest of the process is exactly the same as any other system, such as IBM compatible BIOS / UEFI PC, laptop or server data erasing.

GUI will begin to wipe erase data from Apple storage devices.

See below another example of comprehensive information displayed for each HDD.

Once the data erasing wiping has completed, if Secure Erase Firmware Erase feature is enabled and if it is supported by the storage device, it will continue to initiate firmware erase. See below example.

At this point a self adhesive label will automatically print. See below example.

Important Note: Above is an example of just one Enterprise Server erasing data, you can attach 100s or 1000s of servers and boot all in parallel from network, (for example) you can erase data from 1000 servers concurrently. All you have to do is just boot them into network / PXE.

While multiple servers such as HP, Dell IBM, Lenovo and etc are wiping data concurrently. You can view the progress of entire network from management console. Refer to user guide. See below example.

The next page will display those systems currently wiping, or have finished wiping within last 12 hours, or failed to wipe within last 12 hours. Data showing in this section is realtime and live. (failed, finished wiping or stuck systems are shown only for last 12 hours in this section). You can see below there are 3 systems currently wiping data and status is in progress, 2 x systems have finished successfully wiping data.

Important Note: If you wish to drill down further into each system, you can click the widget to see progress related to each Hard Disk Drive.

See below, click ICP / iEi - SYS ID: 00089bca8f01 widget, following information related to each Hard Disk Drive is displayed. You can see this system has 8 Hard Disk Drives, and only 7 are currently wiping and 1 HDD has failed to wipe.

Important Note If you wish to drill down further into each Hard Disk Drive, you can do so by clicking the HDD widget, this will open up another page which will show detailed information related to that specific Hard Disk Drive. See below an example.

Important Note See above, this hard disk drive is automatically marked as Grade - C the reason for this grade is that this HDD has too many bad sectors; hence the hard disk drive is marked as Grade C.

Important Note Grading of hard disk drive is automatically done by the NDW software. See following chart for Grading of HDD.

Bad Sectors equal to 0 = Grade A
Bad Sectors greater than and between 0 - 99 = Grade B
Bad Sectors greater than 99 = Grade C

How to view wiping status of all Hard Disk Drives.

To view wiping status of all hard disk drives, clicking link will display all Hard Disk Drives regardless of systems.

Clicking above button will display all Hard disk drives. See below an example.

How to view comprehensive details of all HDDs currently wiping.

To view comprehensive details of each HDD regardless of systems, clicking below button will produce realtime progress with comprehensive detailed information for each HDD.

Next page will display realtime progress and detailed information for each HDD that is either currently wiping, finished wiping or has failed to wipe.
See below an example.

How to view systems those failed to wipe HDDs

Failure to wipe data from HDD could occur due to many reasons such as bad HDD, or faulty hardware, or too many read / write erros. Some HDDs simple crash the operating system or the NDW data wiping application. Those HDD that crash the NDW application or operating system will never appear anywhere in the system because NDW is not able to probe the HDDs at all and Operating System kernel panicked and shutdown. However, all systems those failed to wipe data during last 24 hours will appear in this section.

Click following button to view the failed systems.

Next section will display systems those failed to wipe data within last 24 hours.

You can see above, currently there is only 1 system that has failed to wipe data from HDDs. Should another system fails, more failed systems will automatically appear here without refreshing this page. You can see above, only 2 x HDD were failed and the total progress stalled at 92% complete.

How to view HDDs realtime progress for those failed to wipe

To view progress for HDDs those failed to wipe, visit following section and clicking the button will display HDDs those failed to wipe within last 24 hours.

Clicking this button will produce realtime and live progress for failed HDDs regarding of the systems.

How to view Comprehensive details for HDDs those failed to wipe

To view comprehensive detailed realtime, live progress for HDDs those failed to wipe, clicking this section will produce required realtime progress report.

Clicking above section will produce realtime progress and detailed information for HDDs those failed to wipe during last 24 hours.

How to Rebrand Certificates and Portal with my own company logo & details

You can modify business slogan, business address, contact details as well as upload your own company logo. So the certificates are completely branded with your company details.

In order to reband, click "rebranding" link from the home page http://192.168.1.253

Click the rebranding link as shown above.
Next page will allow you to update company information as well as upload your own logo. Once you have completed this process, all certificates and charts will be rebranding as your own company with your information and logo.

How to operate Data Wiping Mangement Console

Once the data wiping has finished execution, success message will appear and a barcode label will automatically be printed for each hard disk drive and the workstation will shut down automatically.

Once you see the success message or you find the system shutdown at this point you can remove the existing hard disk drive and install the next batch to be wiped.

You can monitor the status of data wiping using the server GUI interface.

http://192.168.1.253

To view the status of the data wiping please click the customer portal button.

Next screen may looks like this:

In the above screenshot you have 3 options. From date, to date and customer ID or name. If you have several customer they will automatically appear on the list. Choose the date range and customer that you want to view the status and click submit.

The next page will show you detailed information about data wiping progress (see below screenshot).

The page about shows you customer name, hdd manufacturer, model, serial number, size, firmware, method used to wipe, date wiped, start and end time, workstation number, results and finally the last column allows you to print individual certificate for each Hard Disk Drive.

Note: "Print Button" in the last column will let you print individual data erasure certificate for each storage device.

Important note: At the bottom of each page there is button to export the certificate to MS Excel format.
Now let’s view the individual certificate for each hard disk drive by clicking the print button of each hard disk drive column.

Certificate of Data Erasure for a single Hard Disk Drive

You may have noticed above there are few barcodes, the first barcode contains customer name, 2nd barcode contains customer name and hdd serial number, 3rd barcode which is a data matrix barcode contains all the information regarding hdd, method code contains the method used to wipe the hdd and spindle code contains model and serial number of the hdd.

These barcodes ensures that the certificate is authentic and is not tampered. You can read the data from barcodes by using standard 2d and 3d barcode scanners.

Lets go back a step to the previous page.

Export Data to Excel or PDF format

As explained previously at the bottom of every page there is a button to export the report to Excel. In this case it is called Imran-Report-Excel.

Clicking this button will open this report in Excel, you can use excel file to email to customer or create PDFs.
Here is the screenshot showing this report in Excel.

Note: You can remove extra columns from excel spreadsheet that you don’t need.

You can also export all certificates to PDF format by visiting to "all certificates" section in customer portal. See below screen shot.

Kindly select desired dates and click "All Certificate" button. Next screen will let you generate all data erasure certificates and you can download these into PDF file format.

See below example:

Choose the number of certificates you want in a PDF file and click the PDF button and it will open up a print dialogue box, see below an example.

Click Save and it will produce nice formatted PDF file.

An example PDF generated by NDW is attached using above method. See below attachments.

Click here to download sample PDF file.

Click here to download Summary erasure certificate PDF file

Hard Disk Drive Data Wiping Charts

On the home page click the button “Wiping Charts”.

In the next page select the dates and the customer you want to see the data wiping charts.

Next page looks like following (See screenshot)

Customer Graphical Reporting Portal

Once you have the selected the dates and customer click submit.

The next page will show you nicely formatted charts.

Note: There is a button at the bottom of the page to export the data to Excel downloadable file.

Hard Disk Drives / Storage Device Health Reports

On the home page click the button Health Reports.

On the next page select the dates and the customer you want to view the hdd health report and click submit.

Hard Disk Drives Health Reporting Portal

The next page will show you the health report of hard disk drives wiped for the customer between dates you have selected.

As you can see in the page above health report contains comprehensive hard disk drive health information. By viewing the health report you can determine the bad sectors, age, number of time it has been spun, power on time, power cycle counts and so much more.

Hard Disk Drives Health Report Charts

HDD Health report chart also contains very useful information. This page give you an indication of heath of all the hard drives for a specific customer in graphical format.

To view health charts go to the home page. http://192.168.1.253 and select the “Health Charts” button. In the next page select the dates and the customer and click submit.

You will be presented with very nice looking HDD health charts.

Hard Disk Wiping Mini Certificate - Barcode Scanning and Printing

If you have a ZPL compatible USB printer attached to the server USB port, barcodes will automatically be printed upon each successful hdd wipe. However, sometimes odd situations such as printer is not ready, or the adhesive label roll is finished therefore printer was unable to print the label. Now you can reprint the label with the touch of a mouse click.

On the main menu, click the BARCODES button.

The next screen looks like this below.

Make sure your mouse cursor / pointer is in submit box and click.

Now you can start scanning the hard disk drive serial numbers with the barcode scanner, or if you do not have a barcode scanner you can type the serial number by hand.

Note: if you are inputting the serial number manually by hand make sure you press the Enter/Return key after every serial number, so that each serial number appears on the new line underneath.

See below, your scanned barcodes will look like this.

Once completed scanning the barcodes, click submit button.

The next window would look like this.

Barcode Scanning and Exporting Data to Excel

We can now export this page to Excel so that we can email it to someone.

At the right hand bottom corner click the button Excel-Report-Excel.

Clicking this button will open up the report in Microsoft Excel.

Below screen shot is from Excel.

On Demand Barcode Label Printing

Now lets go back to the web browser and reprint a barcode label for a specific hard drive.

Click print barcode for the required hard disk drive and the next screen will automatically print the barcode, make sure barcode label printer is connected to the server machine and is powered on.

Next screen would look like this and a barcode will be printed too.

Data Erasure Certificate printing by serial number

Clicking the Certificate button will cause the system to auto generate and display a data erasure certificate for the specified hard disk drive.

Next screen will produce the certificate that you can print or export to excel file format.

Network Data Wiping - NDW Realtime and Live progress of HDD wiping by each system.

ZPL Compatible Printer printing the HDD Label barcodes.

Self-Adhesive mini data erasure certificate attached to the HDD.

Network Data Wiping - NDW Realtime and Live progress of HDD wiping by each Hard Disk Drive

HDD Barcode Scanning with 2D handheld barcode scanner

Barcode Scanning with Handheld 2D barcode Scanner

Network Data Wiping - NDW Realtime and Live progress of HDD wiping by each Hard Disk Drive Comprehensive Details

Why NDW – Network HDD Data Wiping solution was created.

This product is a result of inspiration from DBAN project, dban is a basic data erasing and wiping software; DBAN is tailored for individual system or HDD erasing, whereas NDW is fully automated specially developed for wiping large number of systems and HDDs concurrently and is loaded with tons of new and useful features.

In addition to above, in the past we have seen IT recycling companies erasing data manually from several thousand hard disk drives either using industry leading brands such as Blancco and other various software. The common thing among those software are lack of automation and non-ease of use.

User spends long time going through settings and menu and gathering reports or creating erasure certificates manually and attaching “ERASED” or “WIPED” hand written stickers manually to the hard disk drive. The entire process was time wasting and not very effective.

After analysing their situation we decide to embark on a journey to design new software that addresses industry’s concern. This software addresses following shortcomings.

Suggestion or comments

If you have suggestions or comments please reach out to the author of this software.

Note: This software is FREE for personel use.
License: This software is released with license. OSI-Approved Open Source » GNU Library or Lesser General Public License version 3.0 (LGPLv3)
Copyrights (You are allowed to make changes to this software)