5 Securely Erasing Oracle Exadata

If you are repurposing or removing an Oracle Exadata from your environment, it is critical to securely erase all the information on the servers.

Starting with Oracle Exadata System Software release 19.1.0, Secure Eraser is automatically started during re-imaging if the hardware supports Secure Eraser. This significantly simplifies the re-imaging procedure while maintaining performance. Now, when re-purposing a rack, you only have to image the rack and the secure data erasure is taken care of transparently as part of the process.

• Overview of Secure Eraser
  Oracle Exadata System Software release 12.2.1.1.0 or later provides a secure erasure solution, called Secure Eraser, for every component within Oracle Exadata.
• Securely Erasing Database Servers and Storage Servers
  
• Automatic Secure Eraser through PXE Boot
  In this procedure, you configure Secure Eraser to run automatically when you reboot the nodes.
• Interactive Secure Eraser through PXE Boot
  On Exadata systems prior to Oracle Exadata X7-2, you can use Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) Boot when performing a Secure Eraser.
• Interactive Secure Eraser through Network Boot
  Starting with Oracle Exadata X7-2, you can use EFI Network Boot when using Secure Eraser.
• Secure Eraser Syntax
  Secure Eraser securely erases all data on both database servers and storage servers, and resets InfiniBand Network Fabric or RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) switches, Ethernet switches, and power distribution units back to the factory default.
• Resetting Network Switches and Power Distribution Units to Factory Default
  
• Actions After Using Secure Eraser
  After performing a secure erase, the system is ready for return or re-imaging.