Oracle^® 6.4 TB NVMe SSD v2 Product Notes

Secure Erase Drives Before Use

Oracle 6.4 TB NVMe SSD v2s may report uncorrectable errors or assert after not being powered for three or more months. For best practice, secure erase Oracle 6.4 TB NVMe SSD v2s before use (especially if use is reading from the drive as a test) and especially if the drive has been unpowered for more than three months. If the NAND media is not refreshed for approximately three months, the drive may experience media errors.

Over time, the drive firmware policy refreshes the media in the background while it remains powered-on. If the drive has been powered on long enough for the background refresh policy to be applied to all bits, the drive is not at risk for this issue. The time required to refresh all the bits is approximately 14 days and varies by product.

If the number of bits experiencing this issue exceeds the error-correction code (ECC) capability, it may result in an uncorrectable read error. If the uncorrectable read errors occur during normal drive operation, the drive will report an increased number of SMART media errors to the host. If the uncorrectable read errors occur during drive power-on, the drive will report either an ASSERT or BAD_CONTEXT error code to the host.

The following screen shows an ASSERT or BAD_CONTEXT event at power-on after the media has not been refreshed for a time.

Firmware QDV1RD28: ASSERT_100452A0, BAD_CONTEXT_1042, or BAD_CONTEXT_1043

Workaround:

Select one of the following methods before use of the drive for operation or test. An off-line server can be used.

Choose one of the erase options:

• Secure erase the drive, using the nvmeadmin utility.

• Download and use third party utilities to secure erase the drive.

• Wait two weeks for a media refresh while the drive is powered-on before using the drive.

Secure Erase Drive Using nvmeadmin Utility

To secure erase the drive, using the Oracle Hardware Management Pack NVMe admin utility:

1. Stop all IO to the NVMe device before attempting this action.

2. To securely erase all namespaces, type: # nvmeadm erase -s -a controller_name. For example:

   # nvmeadm erase -s -a SUNW-NVME-1

3. List all server devices.

4. Verify drive health.

Refer to Oracle Hardware Management Pack 2.4 Server CLI Tools User's Guide: https://www.oracle.com/goto/ohmp/docs. See Server Management Tools.

Secure Erase Drive Using Third-party Utilities

To secure erase the drive before use, using the Intel Solid-State Drive Configuration Manager utility, if available:

1. Install the Intel Solid-State Drive Configuration Manager.

2. Stop all IO to the NVMe device before attempting this action.

3. Use the –secure_erase option to erase all the data on the drive.

   issdcm –drive_index 1 –secure_erase

4. The user is prompted unless the –force option is used:

   WARNING: You have selected to secure erase the drive!
   Proceed with the secure erase? (Y/N)

5. If the drive contains a partition, the prompt contains a second warning message:

   WARNING: You have selected to secure erase the drive!
   WARNING: Tool has detected as partition on the drive!
   Proceed with the secure erase? (Y/N)

6. To bypass the warning prompts, use the –force option:

   issdcm –drive_index 1 –secure_erase -force

7. List all server devices.

8. Verify drive health.