100728272
Rev. A
June 2013
ST2200FS0000
ST1100FS0000
ST1100FR0000
ST550FR0000
User Guide
Seagate
®
X8 Accelerator for Linux
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© 2013 Seagate Technology LLC. All rights reserved.
Publication number: 100728272, Rev. A June 2013
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When referring to drive capacity, one gigabyte, or GB, equals one billion bytes and one terabyte, or TB, equals one trillion bytes. Your
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capacity is used for formatting and other functions, and thus will not be available for data storage. Actual quantities will vary based on
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Document Revision History
Revision Date Description of changes
Rev. A 06/18/2013 Initial release.
iii Seagate X8 Accelerator User Guide for Linux, Rev. A
Contents
End User License Agreement for Seagate® Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.0 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.0 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.0 Hardware Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.1 Bracket Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2 PCI Slot Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.0 System BIOS Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.1 Fan Speed Settings in BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.2 Processor Settings in BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5.0 OS Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.1 Ubuntu: Use "Generic" Kernels for Highest IO Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.2 SUSE: Enable Unsupported Modules to Allow Driver Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.3 Enhance Performance by Disabling CPU Throttling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6.0 Installing X8 Accelerator Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.1 Verify X8 Accelerator Devices are Installed and Detected Properly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.2 Installing Drivers and Utilities Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.3 Starting the Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
7.0 Verifying Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
7.1 Selecting Max Performance or Max Capacity Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
8.0 Creating File Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
8.1 XFS High Performance Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
8.2 EXT3 High Performance Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
8.3 Auto-Mounting Seagate Device on Linux Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
9.0 Software RAID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
10.0 Management Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
10.1 vgc-monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
10.2 vgc-secure-erase. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
10.3 vgc-config . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
10.4 vgc-diags. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
10.5 vgc-beacon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
10.6 vgc-config Controller Reset. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
11.0 Dynamic Throttling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
11.1 Thermal Throttling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
11.2 Power Throttling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
12.0 MySQL Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
iv Seagate X8 Accelerator User Guide for Linux, Rev. A
Contents
13.0 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
13.1 Cannot Find Block Device /dev/vgca0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
13.2 Performance is Lower than Expected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
13.3 Driver Crash on System Boot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
13.4 IOs are not Being Processed because the Driver is Hung . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
14.0 Onboard Diagnostic LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
15.0 Contacting Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Seagate X8 Accelerator User Guide for Linux, Rev. A 1
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Seagate X8 Accelerator User Guide for Linux, Rev. A 2
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Seagate X8 Accelerator User Guide for Linux, Rev. A 3
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SEAGATE X8 ACCELERATOR USER GUIDE FOR LINUX, REV. A 4
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The Seagate
®
X8 Accelerator line of solid state storage devices is a revolutionary product family that utilizes the industry
standard PCIe bus interface along with an innovative hardware and driver architecture to deliver highest sustained
application performance over its life time and enterprise-class reliability. Seagate X8 Accelerator enables enterprises to
tackle performance-intensive applications such as databases, business analytics, virtualization and high-performance
computing applications. This document explains how to install, configure, and manage Seagate X8 Accelerator devices with
software version 3.2 on Linux based systems.
2.0 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
To achieve full performance the X8 Accelerator requires a multicore processor system with an 8 lane Gen2 PCIe slot and
good air movement. The table below shows host memory the X8 Accelerator will use based on capacity.
The DRAM requirements mentioned above are only meant for each X8 Accelerator device. OS and other applications will
need additional DRAM.
SEAGATE X8 ACCELERATOR USER GUIDE FOR LINUX, REV. A 5
3.0 HARDWARE INSTALLATION
3.1 BRACKET INSTALLATION
If necessary, install the appropriate bracket on the Seagate X8 Accelerator device.
Single Board: If your single board device has nuts like the one in the picture below then, follow the single board instructions.
If your single board device does not have any nuts, please follow the double board instructions.
To replace brackets for a single board device, please remove only the two screws closest to the bracket (see picture below).
Please slide the bracket in horizontally to line up with the screw holes. You will need an 'm 2.5' screw driver and an 'm 2.5'
nut driver. The screws need to be tightened to 4lb-in (0.45Nm).
Double Board: To replace brackets for a double board device, or a single board device without retaining nuts, please remove
only the two screws nearest the bracket (see picture below). Please slide the bracket in horizontally to line up with the screw
holes. You will need an 'm 2.5' screw driver. The screws need to be tightened to 4lb-in (0.45Nm).
3.2 PCI SLOT SELECTION
Seagate X8 Accelerator devices need to be installed in x8 or x16 PCIe Gen 2 slots. If no PCIe x8/x16 slots are available, x4
slots can be used. However, using an x4 slot may result in up to 50% reduction in performance.
NOTE
Please observe Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) precautions while installing or handling an
X8 Accelerator device. ESD can damage server and/or device components.
NOTE
Make sure to power down the system before installing an X8 Accelerator device.
Disconnect the server from the AC power to ensure no dangerous voltages are present.
NOTE
Please use only brackets supplied with the device. Also, do not remove the heat sinks
during the bracket replacement process as doing so could incur damage to the device
and void the warranty.
NOTE
Some systems have PCIe slots with x8 physical connectors but only provide x4 electrical
connectivity. From a performance point of view these slots behave like an x4 slot. Check
your system documentation for PCIe slot specifications.
SEAGATE X8 ACCELERATOR USER GUIDE FOR LINUX, REV. A 6
4.0 SYSTEM BIOS SETTINGS
After a system restart, prior to booting the operating system, enter the system BIOS setup to verify several important
settings. Note that each BIOS often has its own nomenclature for these settings, so the exact wording of the configuration
parameters may not match the examples. Not all BIOS’s will have all of these options.
4.1 FAN SPEED SETTINGS IN BIOS
If your system has BIOS settings for configuring system fan speeds, select options that maximize the airflow.
On HP systems: BIOS -> Advanced Options -> Thermal Configuration -> Increased/Maximum Cooling
On Dell systems: System Settings -> iDRAC Settings -> Thermal
• Maximum Performance
• Fan Speed Offset
• High Fan Speed Offset
4.2 PROCESSOR SETTINGS IN BIOS
The following settings are often found under the "Advanced: Processor/Chipset Control" BIOS menus.
Disable the following optional settings:
• Processor Performance States / C States / C-State Tech / EIST
• C1E States / C1 Enhanced States
• (Link) Active State Power Management
Enable the following on Intel
™
based systems:
• Hyperthreading / Logical Processors
• Turbo Mode
Finally, if there are performance profiles (System Power Modes) available, set them to "Maximum Performance."
For details, please see Erratum BT160 in the document at the URL below:
http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/specification-updates/xeon-e5-family-spec-update.pdf
NOTE
Intel has identified an issue in Xeon E5-2600 series processors that may result in severe
drops of PCIe and X8 Accelerator bandwidth when running workloads that have low CPU
consumption. To avoid this issue, C2 and C1E processor power states must be disabled.
SEAGATE X8 ACCELERATOR USER GUIDE FOR LINUX, REV. A 7
5.0 OS SETTINGS
5.1 UBUNTU: USE "GENERIC" KERNELS FOR HIGHEST IO PERFORMANCE
While both "-server" and "-generic" kernels are supported by the Seagate X8 Accelerator device driver, for optimal
performance, use the "-generic" version of your selected kernel version. This "generic" version handles highly threaded IO
drivers much more efficiently than the "server" version.
To see which kernel is presently installed, execute "uname -r" and check if your kernel revision ends in "-generic" or "-server."
To install the generic version of the kernel, use the command, "apt-get install linux-generic".
5.2 SUSE: ENABLE UNSUPPORTED MODULES TO ALLOW DRIVER LOADING
While the Seagate X8 Accelerator device driver is fully tested under SUSE Linux, it is not certified by Novell. By default,
SUSE will not allow such modules to be loaded, so this setting must be changed to allow the Seagate device driver to load.
Edit the file "/etc/modprobe.d/unsupported-modules" and set the value "allow_unsupported_modules" to "1" as shown below.
5.3 ENHANCE PERFORMANCE BY DISABLING CPU THROTTLING
To obtain maximum performance, dynamic CPU frequency scaling should be disabled. This is especially important when
measuring I/O latencies. Use the following commands to disable cpuspeed daemon in Red Hat or CentOS:
NOTE
The device driver will be unable to load without this change.
vi /etc/modprobe.d/unsupported-modules
…
# Setting allow_unsupported_modules 1 enables loading of unsupported
# by modprobe, setting allow_unsupported_modules 0 disables it. This can
# be overriden using the --allow-unsupported-modules commandline switch.
allow_unsupported_modules 1
# service cpuspeed stop
# chkconfig cpuspeed off
SEAGATE X8 ACCELERATOR USER GUIDE FOR LINUX, REV. A 8
6.0 INSTALLING X8 ACCELERATOR DRIVER
Installation driver is found on the USB drive shipped with the X8 Accelerator or at http://www.seagate.com/support/
downloads/ for the supported Operating Systems versions. Installation will require administration privileges on the target
system.
The ‘install.sh’ script automatically performs the steps below of loading the drivers and utilities.
~# ./install.sh
Refer to sections 6.1 thru 6.3 In the event this script does not function correctly to manually install the driver.
All the following installation instructions need to be executed as the root user. Log in as root or "sudo bash" as appropriate.
6.1 VERIFY X8 ACCELERATOR DEVICES ARE INSTALLED AND DETECTED PROPERLY
After powering on the system for the first time with the device installed, verify that it is detected and initialized properly by the
PCI subsystem by using the "lspci" command.
You should see one device listed for every device installed. If the device is not detected, power down the server and ensure
it is seated properly. If it is still not detected, please contact Seagate support for further assistance.
6.2 INSTALLING DRIVERS AND UTILITIES PACKAGES
Before you can start using X8 Accelerator devices you need to install two RPMs (or corresponding DEB packages in Ubuntu/
Debian):
1) Drivers RPM:
kmod-vgc-drivers-<distribution or kernel version>-<driver version>-<driver build>.x86_64.rpm
2) Utilities RPM:
vgc-utils-<driver version>-<driver build>.x86_64.rpm
The driver and utilities packages are available on the Seagate Support site. You will need to select your distribution version.
If you are using Oracle Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, OpenSUSE, or Fedora Core you will need to select your kernel
version. You can confirm you are running kernel version with the "uname -a" command.
Install the packages using the standard RPM or DPKG commands.
Red Hat, CentOS
# lspci -d 1a78:
82:00.0 FLASH memory: Virident Systems Inc. Virident FlashMAX Drive V2
# rpm -ivh vgc-utils-3.2-55402.C7.x86_64.rpm
# rpm -ivh kmod-vgc-redhat6.1+-3.2-55402.C7.x86_64.rpm
SEAGATE X8 ACCELERATOR USER GUIDE FOR LINUX, REV. A 9
6.3 STARTING THE DRIVER
After installing the drivers and utilities packages, the driver will load automatically on every system boot.
To start the driver without rebooting the system, enter the following command:
After the driver starts successfully, you should be able to use the devices.
You can list available devices and block devices (physical partitions) using vgc-monitor command:
Confirm that the status of all devices listed by vgc-monitor is showing status value of Good.
You can list available block devices (physical partitions) using the ls command:
# service vgcd start
Loading kernel modules... [ OK ]
Rescanning SW RAID volumes... [ OK ]
Rescanning LVM volumes... [ OK ]
Enabling swap devices... [ OK ]
Rescanning mount points... [ OK ]
# vgc-monitor
vgc-monitor: 3.2.55402.C7)
Driver Uptime: 2:31
Card_Name Num_Partitions Card_Type Status
/dev/vgca 1 ST2200FS0000 Good
Partition Usable_Capacity RAID
vgca0 2222 GB enabled
# ls -l vgc??
brw-r---- 1 root disk 252, 0 Mar 23 03:20 /dev/vgca0
NOTE
When erasing or upgrading the RPMs, the configuration file /etc/sysconfig/vgcd.conf from the existing
installation is renamed and saved as /etc/sysconfig/vgcd.conf.rpmsave. This way the administrator
made changes and settings are preserved through an upgrade or uninstall. After an upgrade or a new
installation, the administrator is required to reconcile the new file (installed with the new RPM) and the
old file (the saved .rpm_save version from the previously installed version).
SEAGATE X8 ACCELERATOR USER GUIDE FOR LINUX, REV. A 10
7.0 VERIFYING PERFORMANCE
Before setting up a file system on the Seagate X8 Accelerator device, it is useful to measure the raw performance of each
device to ensure proper setup. This makes it easier to isolate and resolve any potential problems.
From the same page where you download drivers and utilities, you can download a simple performance testing script
"test.sh" that uses the GPL licensed FIO utility. Copy the required files "test.sh" and "fio" to the current directory and run it as
shown below:
# test.sh /dev/vgc[a, b, c, ...]0
7.1 SELECTING MAX PERFORMANCE OR MAX CAPACITY MODE
By default Seagate X8 Accelerator devices are formatted in Max Capacity mode. If your application is write intensive, setting
Max Performance mode instead of the default Max Capacity mode can be beneficial. Max Performance mode provides twice
the sustained random write performance of Max Capacity mode while reducing available user capacity of the device by 15%.
Read performance and sequential write performance are same in Max Performance and Max Capacity modes. Only
workloads that generate significant amount of random write I/O will benefit from using Max Performance mode.
Use the following command to check current configuration of all X8 Accelerator devices:
Command for formatting vgca0 in Max Performance mode:
Command for formatting vgca0 in Max Capacity mode:
NOTE
Please be aware that the test script will
destroy all existing data on the device.
# vgc-config
vgc-config: 3.2(55402.C7)
Current Configuration:
vgca 2 partition(s)
vgca0 mode=maxperformance sector-size=512 raid=enabled
vgca1 mode=maxperformance sector-size=512 raid=enabled
# vgc-config -d vgca -n 2 -m maxperformance
vgc-config: 3.2(55402.C7)
*** Formatting drive. Please wait... ***
# vgc-config -d vgca -n 2 -m maxcapacity
vgc-config: 3.2.55402.C7
*** Formatting drive. Please wait... ***
NOTE
Changing the performance mode using
vgc-config will erase existing data.
SEAGATE X8 ACCELERATOR USER GUIDE FOR LINUX, REV. A 11
8.0 CREATING FILE SYSTEMS
Any standard Linux file system may be placed on the Seagate X8 Accelerator device simply by using its standard mkfs utility.
If you need only one partition per device, Seagate recommends creating file system directly on a /dev/vgca0, /dev/vgcb0,…
block device. In such case creating a software partition using fdisk/gparted is not needed and therefore not recommended.
8.1 XFS HIGH PERFORMANCE OPTIONS
Performance of many applications can be improved if individual files are aligned on 4KB boundaries. XFS allows setting
"sector" size equal to 4KB, which guarantees the necessary alignment for all files.
Seagate recommends the following standard mkfs command line for XFS to enable the highest performance:
Note that some applications (e.g. Sybase) that use direct I/O of <4KB size may be incompatible with the “-s size=4096”
option. Such applications would report I/O errors. If you see such problem, do not use the “-s size=4096” option.
8.2 EXT3 HIGH PERFORMANCE OPTIONS
At high write workloads, EXT3 can bottleneck on writes to its journal, especially on devices as high in performance as the
Seagate X8 Accelerator device. To help eliminate this bottleneck, Seagate recommends that additional space be set aside
for the EXT3 journal using the following option:
Another alternative, applicable in cases where the EXT3 journaling is not needed at all e.g. scratch-areas, is to simply use
EXT2 which does not have journaling.
8.3 AUTO-MOUNTING SEAGATE DEVICE ON LINUX SYSTEMS
If auto mount of the Seagate X8 Accelerator device is desired at system startup, the following steps are required:
Step 1: In /etc/fstab add entries with 'noauto' keyword with 0,0 options for the X8 Accelerator device, to ensure that
auto-mount is not attempted before X8 Accelerator drivers are loaded during boot-up process.
Step 2: Modify /etc/sysconfig/vgcd.conf and assign space separated list of X8 Accelerator devices to a variable
MOUNT_POINTS.
During driver load, all devices specified with MOUNT_POINT variable and corresponding /etc/fstab entries will be considered
for auto-mount.
NOTE
fdisk does not work on devices larger than 2TB,
so "parted" must be used instead.
# mkfs.xfs -s size=4096 /dev/vgca0
# mkfs.ext3 -J size=400 <other standard options as required> /dev/vgca0
/dev/vgca0 /mnt1 ext3 noauto,defaults 0 0
/dev/vgcb0 /mnt2 xfs noauto,defaults 0 0
# The list of mount points that the script should mount
MOUNT_POINTS="/mnt1 /mnt2"
SEAGATE X8 ACCELERATOR USER GUIDE FOR LINUX, REV. A 12
9.0 SOFTWARE RAID
It is possible to use software RAID for striping or mirroring multiple X8 Accelerator devices.
Note that X8 Accelerator devices have embedded flash-aware RAID with 7+1P redundancy that provides protection against bad blocks
and flash component failures. This reduces the need for mirroring X8 Accelerator devices in some usage scenarios.
The default software RAID creation parameters are sufficient for good read and write performance.
Below is an example of creating a striped volume across two X8 Accelerator devices:
10.0 MANAGEMENT UTILITIES
10.1 vgc-monitor
vgc-monitor utility allows monitoring of X8 Accelerator device status and health. When called without parameters, it lists all
Seagate X8 Accelerator devices in the system with their configuration and health summary.
Command syntax:
Example. Detailed output for vgca drive:
#mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=0 --raid-devices=2 /dev/vgca0 /dev/vgca1
#vgc-monitor --help
vgc-monitor: 3.2.55402.C7
Utility to monitor Seagate X8 Accelerator drives
Usage:
vgc-monitor [-d|--drive <drive-name>]
vgc-monitor [-h|--help]
Options:
-d | --drive : drive name vgc[a,b,---]. display info for the given drive
-h | --help : display this help and exit
no arguments: display info for all drives
SEAGATE X8 ACCELERATOR USER GUIDE FOR LINUX, REV. A 13
10.2 vgc-secure-erase
The ‘secure erase’ feature ensures all user data is removed from flash media. The usage model is that if a device needs to be returned to
the factory for repair/replacement, or is being leveraged for a new project by the customer, all potentially sensitive data needs to be
securely removed prior to leaving the facility or redeployment for another project.
The standards call this process ‘sanitization’. The sanitization standards are different depending upon what type of media is being used.
For example, the standards for magnetic disk media are different than what is required for flash memory.
Seagate has a Secure Erase Utility that will perform this function for customers who need to securely erase data from a device.
Data Sanitization Standards
There are different levels of Sanitization specified in the standards: Clear and Purge. In most cases, the Clear level of Sanitization will
suffice for most use cases, but in some cases Purge will be required. Both types of sanitization are supported by the Seagate Secure
Erase Utility.
The Seagate Secure Erase Utility complies with the Clear and Purge levels of Sanitization in accordance with the following Government
standards:
• DOD 5220.22-M - Complies with sanitization requirements for Flash EPROM
(http://www.dss.mil/documents/pressroom/isl_2007_01_oct_11_2007_final_agreement.pdf)
• "NIST SP800-88 - Complies with instructions for Flash EPROM
(http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-88/NISTSP800-88_with-errata.pdf)
The specifications state the following requirements for the two levels of Sanitization:
• Clear (directly quoting from NIST and DOD publication): Perform a full chip purge as per manufacturer’s data sheets
• Purge (directly quoting from NIST and DOD publication): Overwrite all addressable locations with a single character,
followed by performing a full chip erase as per manufacturer’s data sheets.
Device specific:
# vgc-monitor -d vgca
vgc-monitor: 3.2.55402.C7
Driver Uptime : 2:36
Card_Name Num_Partitions Card_Type Status
vgca 1 ST2200FS0000 Good
Serial Number : SJ896465
Card Info : Part: 1HF3B0-001
Rev : X8 Accelerator 52879, x8 Gen2
Temperature : 48 C (Safe)
Temp Throttle : Inactive
Card State Details : Normal
Action Required : None
Partition Usable_Capacity RAID
vgca0 2222 GB enabled
Mode : maxcapacity
Total Flash Bytes : 175364360552448 (175.36TB) (reads)
371553975866924 (371.55TB) (writes)
Remaining Life : 97.48%
Partition State : READY
Flash Reserves Left : 97.02%
SEAGATE X8 ACCELERATOR USER GUIDE FOR LINUX, REV. A 14
Operation
The device needs to be in a minimally operative state in order to use the Secure Erase Utility. The Secure Erase Utility will
attempt to erase all user data from the device according to which ever method is chosen by the user (Clear or Purge). If it is
not successful due to the fact that some blocks that contain user data are no longer accessible due to media failure, error
messages will be produced. There are some cases where a block is not usable from the start and is marked bad when the
device is shipped from the factory, and therefore never receives any user data. These blocks cannot be ‘sanitized’ either, but
since they are guaranteed never to receive user data the tool can successfully sanitize a device when these blocks are
present.
Command syntax:
#vgc-secure-erase --help
vgc-secure-erase: 3.2.55402.C7
Utility to clear or purge Seagate X8 Accelerator drive partitions
Usage:
vgc-secure-erase [-c|--clear] [-y|--yes] <partition>
vgc-secure-erase [-p|--purge] [-y|--yes] <partition>
vgc-secure-erase -h|--help
Options:
-c | --clear : Clear (Erase) the contents of the partition. This is the
default option.
-h | --help : Displays options/parameters that vgc-secure-erase can take.
-p | --purge : Purge (Erase and overwrite) the contents of the partition.
-y | --yes : Start the operation without user confirmation.
partition : The partition name representing the Virident Drive instance
vgcxx (e.g. vgca0). options/parameters that vgc-secure-
erase can take.
-p | --purge : Purge (Erase and overwrite) the contents of the partition.
-y | --yes : Start the operation without user confirmation.
partition : The partition name representing the Virident Drive instance
vgcxx (e.g. vgca0).
If no option is given, 'clear' operation is performed on given partition.
It physically erases all data from the given partition. This operation can take
several minutes.
SEAGATE X8 ACCELERATOR USER GUIDE FOR LINUX, REV. A 15
Example. Clear device vgca0:
vgc-secure-erase will give error if secure erase is executed when the device is still mounted. /dev/vgca0: Device or resource
busy. Secure Erase (Clear) on device /dev/vgca0 failed. Please check kernel syslog for more details. Please unmount the
device before secure erase (umount / dev/vgca/mnt).
# vgc-secure-erase vgca0
vgc-secure-erase: 3.2.55402.C7
This operation will erase all data on the physical partition vgca0. It will take up to
20 minutes to complete.
Once started you cannot stop or undo this operation.
Do you want to continue? [yes/no] yes
[|-|]Starting Secure Erase (Clear) operation. Please wait...
Result:
Secure Erase (Clear) on partition vgca0 completed successfully.
Operation Summary:
Number of erase operations skipped due to factory bad blocks : 435
Number of erase operations skipped due to grown bad blocks : 0
Number of erase operation failures : 0
Reformatting the partition vgca0
#vgc-secure-erase vgca0 --yes
vgc-secure-erase: 3.2.55402.C7
[|-|]Starting Secure Erase (Clear) operation. Please wait ...
Result:
Secure Erase (Clear) on partition vgca0 completed successfully.
Operation Summary:
Number of erase operations skipped due to factory bad blocks : 435
Number of erase operations skipped due to grown bad blocks : 0
Number of erase operation failures : 0
Reformatting the partition vgca0
Starting Secure Erase (Clear) operation. Please wait …
Result:
Secure Erase (Clear) on device vgca0 completed successfully.
Reformatting the device vgca0
SEAGATE X8 ACCELERATOR USER GUIDE FOR LINUX, REV. A 16
10.3 vgc-config
The vgc-config utility allows switching between Max Capacity and Max Performance modes and also allows splitting a device
into two physical partitions of equal size.
By default X8 Accelerator devices are formatted in Max Capacity mode. If your application is write intensive, setting Max
Performance mode instead of the default Max Capacity mode can be beneficial. Max Performance mode provides twice the
sustained random write performance while reducing available user capacity of the device by 15%. Note that read
performance and sequential write performance are same in Max Performance and Max Capacity modes. Only workloads
that generate significant amount of random writes can benefit from using Max Performance mode.
Splitting X8 Accelerator device into two separate physical partitions allows complete physical isolation of workloads and data
on these partitions. The two physical partitions are presented as separate block devices, such as /dev/vgca0 and /dev/vgca1.
However, in most cases Seagate recommends using the default configuration with one physical partition and using software
partitions or LVM. Note that 550 GB and 1100GB models supports only one physical partition.
Example: Configure vgca device in two physical partitions in Max Performance mode:
NOTE
Making changes with vgc-config will erase
existing data on the affected device or partition.
# vgc-config --help
vgc-config: 3.2.55402.C7
Utility to configure Seagate X8 Accelerator drives
Usage:
vgc-config -d|--drive <drive name> [-l|--list]
vgc-config -d|--drive <drive name> -r|--reset [-f|--force]
vgc-config -d|--drive <drive name> -m |--mode <mode> [-f|--force]
-n|--num-partitions <num-partitions>
vgc-config -p|--partition <partition name> [-l|--list]
vgc-config -p|--partition <partition name> -r|--reset [-f|--force]
vgc-config -p|--partition <partition name> -m|--mode <mode> [-f|--force]
vgc-config [-l|--list]
vgc-config [-h|--help]
Options:
-d | --drive : drive name vgc[a,b,---]
-f | --force : do not prompt for confirmation
-h | --help : display this help and exit
-l | --list : list current configuration
-m | --mode : maxperformance/maxcapacity mode
-n | --num-partitions : number of partitions, (1/2)
-p | --partition : partition name vgc[a,b,---][0,1,---]
-r | --reset : reset to factory defaults
no arguments : list the current configuration of all drives/ partitions
# vgc-config -d vgca -n 2 -m maxperformance
Page is loading ...
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