VOGONS


First post, by aroneox

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I want accomplish two things with this IBM X3500 M2 server.

I need to zero fill erase a RAID array on an IBMX3500 M2 server. The RAID array in composed of 6 individual 146gb hard drives connected in a RAID-0 configuration.

I then want to set the machine up so that it can be used by another party. I need to know if there is a fairly straightforward Linux distro that will support this machine, and is fairly straightforward to install. I want to have the machine in a useable state when it gets to the new owner. Setup for the new owners network, and if they choose to keep the Linux bistro installed will be up to them.

This last weekend I cleared an office space of abandoned computers. The new occupants of the office space had no interest in the machines, and asked me to take them away, with the condition that all information contained on the hard drives was cleared off.

Normally this wouldn't be an issue, as I would just use DBAN and do a multiples zero fill overwrite. But I've never had to do this with a RAID array. And from what I've read, DBAN doesn't work with multiple drives as an array -- it only works with individual drives.

I've found a solution to work around this.

The solution is to configure each individual drive a it's own RAID-0 array. This way DBAN can see each individual hard drive. From there it appears that all the drives can be selected in DBAN and it will overwrite them one-by-one.

https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to ... ontroller

https://www.orangecomputers.com/node/?c ... &docid=31

That seems like the most straightforward way. But, as someone who hasn't done this before, there might be a better way that still ensures the drives are erased to the point where the data is (almost certainly) irrecoverable.

*******

As to the server software:

The system came installed with, and is currently running, Microsoft Server 2008. This is a Windows 7 based server product. It has been EOL'ed. I could reinstall the same version back over the cleared hard drives, but feel funky about handing over a server that has gone without recent security patches.

I see that Red Hat Linux and SUSE Linux are also supported. I believe that both would need a service contract of some kind for either. I do know that Fedora Linux is the free version of Red Hat. Also Ubuntu looks to be available as a server distro, and from what I can see doesn't require a service contract. But I'm not sure if that's just vanilla Ubuntu or a specific server product, or that it really matters.

*******

Advice on both is appreciated.

Attachments

Reply 1 of 5, by aroneox

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Tried creating a separate array for each hard drive. The software initially allows the creation of enough virtual disks (arrays) to add one hard drive to each. But after confirming the creation of all of them, it ended up only creating one virtual disk with one drive assigned to it. I tried to recreate the additional virtual disks again, but it wouldn’t take. At least I have the one array, and just the one drive assigned to it.

So it looks like this is going to go the slow way. First drive is getting 3x zero fill. Says it’ll be about 1-1/2 hours. Going to check on it in the morning. Hoping that it’s as simple as swapping the next drive into the slot assigned by the virtual drive and running DBAN again.

:crossing fingers:

F9B845C6-B28C-4F2D-8C33-33C337A98A00.jpeg
Filename
F9B845C6-B28C-4F2D-8C33-33C337A98A00.jpeg
File size
1.66 MiB
Views
426 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0

Reply 2 of 5, by Vynix

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Hi

You could make a single RAID0 array with all the drives and zero-fill it using DD, something like this (where sdX is the path to the RAID0 array volume):

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX

Or use the "shred" command:

shred -Z /dev/sdX 

Just throwing some suggestions around, at least for the first question.

Edit: Messed up the dd command

Last edited by Vynix on 2021-07-29, 06:38. Edited 1 time in total.

Proud owner of a Shuttle HOT-555A 430VX motherboard and two wonderful retro laptops, namely a Compaq Armada 1700 [nonfunctional] and a HP Omnibook XE3-GC [fully working :p]

Reply 3 of 5, by chinny22

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

By the sounds of it you created a single array and virtual disk for each individual HHD? so basically you have no raid whatsoever and the controller is treating each physical HDD as a standard dive much like having multiple HDD's in a standard PC.
If your doing this it may be just as easy to pull all but 1 drive out, run DBAN, then move to the next disk and repeat, not quick but saves time messing round with the RAID controller.

I like Vynix's suggestion (if it works never tired myself) 1 big drive would be the least time consuming for yourself as you can set and forget.

Re OS, Id just install but not activate a copy of Windows.
Having an OS installed is nice for the buyer just to run a few tests confirm everything works and Windows is a user friendly OS for this.
But if buying hardware like this then they probably have a specific task and OS in mind and will wipe the thing again anyway.

Reply 4 of 5, by aroneox

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
Vynix wrote on 2021-07-13, 22:32:

Hi

You could make a single RAID0 array with all the drives and zero-fill it using DD, something like this (where sdX is the path to the RAID0 array volume):

Just throwing some suggestions around, at least for the first question.

Thanks for the suggestions. The method I used ended up working okay. Yours probably would have been faster though. I'll keep it in mind if I need to something similar in the future.

Reply 5 of 5, by aroneox

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
chinny22 wrote on 2021-07-14, 09:12:
By the sounds of it you created a single array and virtual disk for each individual HHD? so basically you have no raid whatsoeve […]
Show full quote

By the sounds of it you created a single array and virtual disk for each individual HHD? so basically you have no raid whatsoever and the controller is treating each physical HDD as a standard dive much like having multiple HDD's in a standard PC.
If your doing this it may be just as easy to pull all but 1 drive out, run DBAN, then move to the next disk and repeat, not quick but saves time messing round with the RAID controller.

I like Vynix's suggestion (if it works never tired myself) 1 big drive would be the least time consuming for yourself as you can set and forget.

Re OS, Id just install but not activate a copy of Windows.
Having an OS installed is nice for the buyer just to run a few tests confirm everything works and Windows is a user friendly OS for this.
But if buying hardware like this then they probably have a specific task and OS in mind and will wipe the thing again anyway.

Yeah, Vynix suggestion would have probably worked better. I ended up zero-filling each drive one at a time.

I put Linux Mint on there, but I'm going to install Windows 10 instead. As you said, it more familiar to people, especially those who would be interested in this.