Drive Eraser 6.4.0 - Release notes

Features:

• Drive hotswap: improvements and fixes.
  • Continuing the improvements started in v6.3.0. The overall hotswap is more stable, the drive detection is more reliable.
  • A particular emphasis has been put on detecting/handling faulty drives. A.k.a. drive hotplug. For SCSI/SAS and SATA drives erased in environments where drive hotswapping is required. Achieves a higher throughput and better software usability.
• Simplified licensing.
  • The BDE licensing has been simplified to support one erasure license pool only.
  • This corresponds to the licensing existing up to the version 5.11.0.
  • Contact your Sales Manager if you wish to have more details about this change.
• Blancco Drive Eraser in 64-bit only.
  • Starting from the 6.4.0, BDE will be delivered in 64-bit images only.
  • 32-bit images won't be delivered anymore. All machines manufactured in the last 10 years have 64-bit processors and support 64-bit images. Major operating systems such as Windows or Linux have already dropped 32-bit support.
  • Customers requiring 32-bit images can still use older BDE releases (up to version 6.3.0). 6.4.0 32-bit images can also be created manually in case of an emergency, simply contact Blancco Support.

Bug fixes/Improvements:

• ALBUS-5579 - Fix for a problem where refreshing the list of drives caused a never-ending spinning circle. Occurred very occasionally when connecting faulty drives into the Appliance but ultimately forced the Blancco Hardware Appliance to be rebooted. This fix comes with a more informative user interface and a more robust detection engine which aim is to prevent these situations from happening.
• ALBUS-5609 - Fix for a problem where all the user interface settings (e.g. BMC credentials, language of the user interface, etc.) were lost after a Blancco Hardware Appliance crash. The user interface settings are now saved and are not lost anymore.
• ALBUS-5583 - Fix for a problem where hotswapping a drive or refreshing the list of drives did cancel ongoing erasures. Several fixes and extra protection have been added to prevent these problems from happening. Please refer to the "Know Issues & Recommendations" section for additional details.
• ALBUS-5578 - Fix for a problem where the active network interface in the Blancco Hardware Appliance was working but was not visible from the BDE user interface. Because of this bug, this network interface could not be modified.
• ALBUS-5611 - Fix for a problem where only one network interface (out of two) in the Blancco Hardware Appliance was displayed from the BDE user interface.
• ALBUS-5576 - Fix for a problem where some overwriting standards were shown as "Not Supported" with logical drives. Problem occurred in 6.3.0 only. As a result, the erasure could not be started. The overwriting standards included the HMG standards, the CESG standard and a few more.
• ALBUS-5630 - Fix for a problem where the BSI-GS/E erasure standards did not support SSDs or NVMe drives. Problem occurred in 6.3.0 only. BSI-GS/E are meant to erase HDDs only but can be used on SSDs/NVMes for contractual reasons.
• ALBUS-5623 - Fix for a problem where SAS drives were detected as SPI drives. Problem occurred in 6.3.0 only.

Known issues & Recommendations:

• ALBUS-5658 - Some Intenso SSD drives (128GB) are detected as 1GB drives. This problem also occurs when these drives are connected to a Windows machine. It is possible that the drives are bricked and report a wrong capacity.
• Faulty drives handling:
  • occasionally connecting a faulty drive (e.g. a drive that presents I/O errors) in a Blancco appliance can produce unexpected problems:
    • The controller may freeze, as a result any ongoing erasure on another drive connected to this controller will be reset and lost.
    • The controller may freeze and hang the whole Appliance, which will require a reboot. All ongoing erasures will be lost.
    • The 6.4.0 release brings many fixes and improvements that prevent these problems from happening. Nevertheless, it is not possible to be 100% certain that all the problems will disappear, especially if the origin of an issue is a malfunctioning drive. As a rule, it is recommended to quickly identify problematic drives (take note of their make and model), erase them in batches of similar drives or put them aside. It is also recommended to use antistatic wrist strap to prevent electrostatic discharges (which can be a cause of hardware failures).