Drive Eraser 6.5.0 - Release notes

Features:

• ALBUS-5381 - Improved detection for high-value hardware components.
  • Detection and reporting for hardware components that provide a higher value to an asset.
  • To allow a better asset pricing.
  • Components include: Webcams, Bluetooth, Fingerprint, Touchscreen, Modem/GPS, Current Screen Resolution, Processor Base and Maximum Frequency, SD Card Reader.
  • There is also an improved detection of wireless network adapters and a more accurate detection of the machine RAM.
• ALBUS-5665 - Retry reading a mismatching sector.
  • The verification on previous BDE versions failed when a drive contained a sector which content mismatched the expected pattern.
  • Now the verification algorithm attempts to read again the sector in this kind of situation.
  • To increase the verification success rate, especially on older drives.
• ALBUS-3266 - Self-monitoring attributes from SCSI/SAS drives.
  • Detection and reporting of internal attributes providing detailed information on how the drive is performing.
  • To allow a better SCSI/SAS drive grading.
  • Attributes include: internal errors, temperature, power-on hours, etc.
  • This information is available in the XML report.
• ALBUS-4503 - Configure the list of displayed erasure standards.
  • The list of erasure standards can be customized to display only those that your organization requires.
  • To improve the software usability and throughput while limiting the human errors (like picking the wrong erasure standard).
  • Requires BDECT 2.4.0 or higher.
• ALBUS-3406 - Saving the erasure report is required before shutdown.
  • In case the user decides to shutdown the machine before a report is saved (on a USB stick) or sent (to the Management Console or Cloud), the software displays a warning asking to save/send the report before.
  • To limit the cases where the user shuts down the machine after it has been erased (licenses and time consumed) without saving an erasure report (which is the proof that the machine has been erased).
• ALBUS-5668 - Allow sending Issue Reports to the Blancco Management Console (remote control).
  • When BDE is controlled remotely from the BMC, an issue report can be collected remotely from the BMC user interface.
  • Collecting issue reports from remotely erased machines is a major improvement to understand problems that cannot be analyzed otherwise.
  • Requires BMC 4.7.0 or higher.
• ALBUS-5426 - Cancel/Pause all ongoing erasures.
  • The user can now cancel/pause/unpause all ongoing erasures with new UI buttons and keyboard shortcuts.
  • To improve the software usability and throughput when erasing multiple drives.
• ALBUS-5736 - "Random Byte Overwrite (3x)" erasure standard.
  • A new erasure standard doing 3 overwrites, each one using a byte pattern selected randomly.
  • For companies that require this kind of erasure method.
• ALBUST-377 - Ability to export/import Drive Eraser configurations.
  • The user can now export and import BDE configurations through the Blancco Drive Eraser Configuration Tool.
  • To simplify and speed up the configuration of several images requiring small variations between them.
  • Requires BDECT 2.4.0 or higher.

Bug fixes:

• ALBUS-5733, ALBUS-5676 - Improving the internal XML communication between the BDE UI, its back-end and the BMC. This results in an overall more stable software and fixes some issues related to the erasure resume functionality. This effort will be continued in the next release to (potentially) fix two other tickets (ALBUS-5499 and ALBUS-5727).
• ALBUS-4424 - Improving the Automatic Restart/Shutdown feature. When the BDECT options "Restart/Shutdown, after successful erasure" are selected, the machine automatically restarts/shuts down after all drives are successfully erased with no exceptions at all or with informative exceptions only. This is based of customers' feedback, non-informative exceptions need to be analyzed before the machine is turned off.
• ALBUS-5508, ALBUS-5679, ALBUS-5485, ALBUS-5567, ALBUS-5618, ALBUS-5703, ALBUS-5705, ALBUS-5627, ALBUS-5656, ALBUS-5644, ALBUS-5633 - Fix for several problems with SAS (and occasionally SATA) drives behind HP Smart Array RAID controllers (failing erasure/verification, slow erasure, errors when erasing 2+TB drives). These problems partly originated in the v6.3.0 along with a kernel update that did not support adequately HPSA RAID passthrough. Other problems came from unsupported Write Same commands on large SAS drives. The implemented fix is generic and handles all SAS drives similarly, independently of their size, as a result the erasure of SAS drives behind HPSA may be a bit slower than in previous releases but works.
• ALBUS-5143 - Fix for a problem where the detected RAM was occasionally too low. Occurred mainly with desktops and servers where some memory slots are left empty. All slots are now checked and the total RAM is reported. Allows a better pricing of the machine, especially servers.
• ALBUS-4789 - Fix for a problem where the CPU reported speed (frequency) was the turbo/maximum speed. Now the nominal/base speed is reported along with the turbo/maximum speed. Allows a better pricing of the machine, especially servers.
• ALBUS-5457, ALBUS-4597 - Fix for a problem where the reported amount of CPU cores was incorrect. Now, the right amount of cores and threads is detected and reported along with the hyperthreading on Intel processors.    Also encompasses AMD processors and cores. This information is reported in the XML report, the UI and PDF only display the amount of cores.
• ALBUS-5751 - Fix for the support of the USB to Ethernet adapter "TrendNet TU2-ET100 USB 10/100". The support was dropped in the v6.3.0.
• ALBUS-5593, ALBUS-5725 - Fix for a problem where SATA SSDs were handled as SCSI drives (e.g. "Blancco SSD Erasure - SCSI" would fail with them). These drives are properly detected and thus erased now. Problem originated in the v6.3.0. Occurred mainly on Apple MacBooks where SATA SSDs do not respond properly to the ATA Identify command.
• ALBUS-5774 - Fix for a problem where network cards were not properly detected, especially the information on vendor and model IDs.   
• ALBUS-5763 - Fix for a problem where BDE would hang after its erasures were resumed. Rare issue discovered internally.
• ALBUS-5704 - Fix for a problem on the Blancco hardware appliances where connecting a drive to another erasure bay and refreshing the list of drives would show the drive in its initial bay. Now BDE redetects the drive correctly if moved to any bay. Issue was discovered while connecting Intenso SSD SATA III drives on a E2400 appliance. Only occurred when moving a drive to a bay behind a different controller.
• ALBUS-5583 - Adding extra protections to prevent issues where erasures are reset/lost/failed after hotswapping drives in Blancco hardware appliances. Check the recommendations part of the release notes for extra details about these issues.
• ALBUS-5587 - Fix for a problem where the erasure of FC HDDs would immediately fail if connected to QLE2562  controllers. These drives can normally be erased now. Issue was discovered while connecting such drives on a Blancco E800 hardware appliance delivered with this controller.
• ALBUS-5584 - Fix for a problem where erasures were canceled by accident. UI problem, after starting an erasure and staying on the "Erasure" step, the default focus was always on the Cancel button of the first erased drive. Pressing Enter or Spacebar, especially to quit the screensaver, would cancel that erasure. The focus has now been moved elsewhere.
• ALBUS-4780 - Fix for a problem where booting BDE with a USB stick while the CD/DVD for testing the Optical drive was inside the CD-tray would mess up the booting. Fixed via renaming the CD/DVD test images. Check the recommendations part of the release notes for additional details.
• ALBUS-3503 - Fix for a problem where the Keyboard test could not differentiate several keys on Japanese keyboards. Depending on the keyboard mode, keys such as "2" and "@" or "6" and "=" or "\" and "￥" would be activated at the same time.
• ALBUS-5776, ALBUS-5772, ALBUS-5744 - Several fixes in the BMC communication: BMC not receiving a BDE shutdown confirmation (2-way communication), erasure progress bar on the BMC not shown or displaying 0% when erasures were completed (2-way communication), erasure progress bar on the BMC missing (remote control & monitoring).    Several causes for these similar issues, all fixed.
• ALBUS-5699 - Fix for a problem where the wireless connection would not work if the DNS server has pinging disabled. Issue occurred on (mainly private) DNS servers where pinging is disabled for security reasons.
• ALBUS-5298, ALBUS-4802, ALBUS-5429 - Fix for a problem where connecting an  external USB device (e.g. scanner or keyboard) after BDE had booted would not pick the configured keyboard layout (e.g. "German - de") but use the default "English - us" instead.   
• ALBUS-5262 - Fix for a problem where remapped sectors appeared to be removed ("X remapped sectors was/were removed") but in fact they were simply erased and still on the drive. Issue occurred on SCSI/SAS drives only. The report will display this message only in case there are remapped sectors effectively removed.
• ALBUS-5685 - Fix for a problem where issue reports generated with specially customized images could not be imported into the BMC.    
• ALBUS-4433 - Adding information on the supported SCSI Sanitize commands in the XML report. On SCSI/SAS drives, such commands cannot be detected beforehand. They are reported under <blancco_hardware_report><disks><disk><features> only in case they have been successfully executed.
• ALBUS-5602 - Fix for a problem where custom field inputs were lost after updating the report and filling in other custom fields. Issue occurred with the "Report per drive" option whenever updating a custom field for a certain drive (A), then moving to another drive (B) and updating another custom field there, then moving back to the first drive (A): custom fields from drive A were empty.
• ALBUS-5698 - Fix for a problem with regular expressions on custom fields, if the regexp was invalid it would silently block sending reports to the BMC/Cloud. If the regexp is invalid, BDE purges it (red warning) and convert the field into a normal text field.
• ALBUS-4412 - Several fixes with dropdown and multidropdown lists where duplicated values were not correctly handled, also combining empty values with mandatory fields could lead to a situation where sending/saving the report would be blocked. "For these fields:
  • Duplicated values are always removed.
  • Empty values are removed if the field is mandatory.
  • If the field is mandatory and has empty values only, the field is converted into a normal text field (but remains mandatory)."

• ALBUS-2678, ALBUS-3315 - Improving the "Repor Issue" window: changing the position of the Description field and advising to contact the Blancco Support.    
• ALBUS-5535 - Improving the UI automatic restart in case the back-end crashes.    
• ALBUS-5560, ALBUS-3557 - Improving the UI messages: showing a failed message if the asset report sending fails due to lack of licenses, displaying a clearer tooltip in case the drive does not support the erasure options.  
• ALBUST-428 - Fix for a BDECT bug on old releases where the legacy setting "Prevent erasure if not supported" was not  preserved. "Issue occurred with old releases supporting this setting (e.g. v5.11.0) . Requires BDECT 2.4.0 or higher."

Known issues:

• ALBUS-5381 - "On the improved detection for high-value hardware components, some notes on the current screen resolution:
  • It is presently detected and reported only if the Chassis Type of the machine is ""Laptop"". It can be added for other chassis types in the future.
  • It is difficult to detect the maximum screen resolution of the screen of a laptop. But detecting the current screen resolution is quite easy. This is why this information is displayed in the BDE UI, Report-step, ""Current Resolution"" field.
  • As long as BDE is not booted with the option ""nomodeset"", the native mode of the video card is used. The reported ""Current Resolution"" of the screen corresponds to this mode and it is usually close to the maximum screen resolution. Therefore this value can be used to provide a better pricing for the laptop. Most BDE booting options don't use the ""nomodeset"" option.
  • If BDE is booted with the option ""nomodeset"", a safe mode is used for the video card which usually results in a standard Current Resolution of 1024*768, this resolution can be far from the maximum screen resolution (be aware). The BDE booting option ""Safe resolution"" uses the ""nomodeset"" option.
  • If you connect an external display (in addition to the built-in display of the laptop), the ""Current Resolution"" field displays the resolution of the display that is detected first: this is often (but not necessarily) the built-in display (be aware)."   
• ALBUS-5381 - "On the improved detection for high-value hardware components, some notes on the hardware components detection:
  • Many internal hardware components (Bluetooth, card reader, fingerprint, some webcams, etc.) are connected internally via the USB port. These components are displayed in the BDE UI, Report-step, ""USB Device"" fields.
  • Although the USB standard defines specific codes for specific USB devices (e.g. code A for webcams, code B for USB sticks, code C for keyboards, etc.), manufacturers usually don't follow these codes and implement their own customized codes. As a consequence, it is difficult to differentiate programmatically these USB devices. Therefore they are all displayed in the BDE UII and report without filtering (all USB devices, internally and externally connected, except USB hubs and HASP dongles).
  • For this very reason, if you boot e.g. BDE with a USB stick and an external USB keyboard, these USB devices are listed in the UI and report (be aware)."   
• ALBUST-377 - "The feature to export a BDE configuration creates an XML file (DEconfig.xml) containing most of the image settings. The BDE settings are listed in the following categories:
  • Settings that can be modified via BDECT, group 1: general settings, hardware tests, erasure standard & options, process options, custom fields, most BMC & network settings, most OS settings. All these settings are exported in the DEconfig.xml file, they can be modified manually (e.g. changing the erasure/process options, changing the IP address of the machine, adding/removing custom fields...) and imported back into another BDE image.
  • Settings that can be modified via BDECT, group 2: BMC & network passwords. These settings are also exported in the DEconfig.xml but they are encrypted, so modifying them manually is not recommended.
  • Settings that can be modified via BDECT, group 3: boot options, list of hybrid drives, memory test. These settings configure other image files and are not exported in the DEconfig.xml file.
  • Settings that cannot be modified via BDECT: product version, product name, configuration version. These settings should not be changed, if they are BDECT rejects the configuration file during the import.
  • Some settings (RAID, hotplug, some custom field settings) require a special combination. If such combination is not valid, the settings are ignored. Also, if the XML file structure is broken, the settings are ignored. If you are not sure, do not modify these settings and let the BDECT do the configuration for you.
  • You can import an older configuration into a new image (e.g. a BDE 6.2.0 configuration into a BDE 6.5.0 image) but not the other way round (e.g. a BDE 6.5.0 configuration into a BDE 6.2.0 image). Be aware that such backward compatibility does not apply to all BDE/B5 versions available."   
• ALBUS-5583 - "To understand these problems, one needs to understand the way the Blancco hardware appliances are built. A E2400 appliance built to erase SAS and SATA drives has 3 SAS/SATA controllers that connect 8 erasure bays each. The problems where ongoing erasures are reset/lost/failed during hotswap happen when two conditions are met:
  • the connected drive is faulty (or generates I/O errors),
  • the drive in question is plugged to an erasure bay that is connected to a controller where other erasures are ongoing.
    • As a result, the controller may hang which causes the ongoing erasures to fail or be reset/lost. In order to recover the controller (and its erasure bays), the appliance has to be rebooted.
  • In spite of the many improvements and protections added in the software to prevent these issues from happening, it is not possible to be 100% certain that all the problems will disappear, especially if all originates from a hardware problem (e.g. 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)."   
• ALBUS-4780 - "The new CD/DVD test images can be downloaded from:
  http://download.blancco.com/Test_media/Test_CD_for_HW_Test.zip
  http://download.blancco.com/Test_media/Test_DVD_for_HW_Test.zip

• • More information on how to use them in the BDE user manual. Both the old and the new images work with all BDE/B5 versions so, unless you face this problem, you don't have to create new CDs/DVDs."