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Solution ID: ntapcs9168 Solution Status: Publish-Public

Title: How does NetApp ensure the integrity of data on returned disks? What happens to RMA disks? - NetApp appliances

Problem Environment: NearStore appliance

R100

NetApp filer

FAS900 series

F800 series

F700 series

F600 series

F500 series

F300 series

F200 series

Data ONTAP

Disk drives

Problem Description How does NetApp ensure the integrity of data on returned disks?

What happens to RMA disks?

Solution: All disk drives returned to Network Appliance are subjected to a three part failure verification process. The last step involves a "zero disk" command which does a "Write Same Zero" at the sector level overwriting all data on the drive with zeros. Drives are completely wiped of any and all data.

In rare cases, the drive does not function sufficiently to overwrite the data. As a part of the normal warranty processing, the drive would be shipped back to the supplier with customer data intact, although not readily accessible. Because of the way RAID 4 works, with striping of data across multiple disks, even if the data becomes readable by the supplier on a restored disk, it would be almost impossible to make the data usable. For more information on how RAID 4 works, refer to 5.2. Eliminating the Parity Disk Bottleneck in NetApp Tech Report 3001.

Network Appliance has non-disclosure agreements with all its suppliers to further ensure that your data is protected. However, for customers on secure sites, or who require an additional level of security regarding their data, there is a "No-Return" service agreement available under which it would not be necessary to return drives that have failed. For more information regarding this type of service agreement, please contact your NetApp sales representative.

Last updated: 08 JAN 2003

-----Original Message----- From: Chris Thompson [mailto:cet1@cus.cam.ac.uk] Sent: Friday, 4 March 2005 5:25 AM To: galjan@gmail.com Cc: toasters@mathworks.com Subject: Re: Destroying failed disks

Paul Galjan galjan@gmail.com writes;

For those interested, this article shows what Netapp does with returned

disks:

http://now.netapp.com/Knowledgebase/solutionarea.asp?id=ntapcs9168 --paul

I would love to read this page, but for some reason whenever I display it, after a second or less it gets replaced by the much more boring

http://now.netapp.com/NOW/Error/bad_gateway.pl

Anyone know how I can prevent that happening?