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If a server @ Hetzner dies - do they save the disk and use them in a new server?
I have 4 servers at Hetzner just now. Planning to combine three, so I just have two servers.
One of the servers has 4 x 4 TB Enterprise disks, and I will store allot of backups and other files on that server.
If the server it self brakes, do they move the (working) hard drives to a new server? I understand if one of the disks fails, that's that for that disk. But if the motherboard or PSU or something goes, all the data is still intact.
Anybody with experience with this scenario?
Comments
That's usually the preferred action for a PSU or MB dying. They'll repair the server itself, or just swap the drives into a new machine.
This raises an interesting, more general question: How do providers manage proper disposal of drives to protect customer data? Do they even bother to consider data destruction requirements?
agreed.
I'd say for germany the answer is: hell yeah, at least if they are a somewhat bigger company.
I'm currently running dban on 80 odd drives for this very reason.
Depends on the volume - some will have a 3rd party handle the destruction of the drives. Smaller providers may just take a drill to them.
But what happens with hard drives when you buy a used server? Like me with the 4 x 4 TB server. Can I run recovery program to see if there is files left on the drives?
I would always use shred for this reason
Some providers may not overwrite the whole drive therefore you might be able to yes however we personally use shred to avoid any issues as @Sven mentioned.
They definitely do scrub the drives, using what specifc method I don't know.
Various people responded in various forms, "Yes, they definitely perform proper data destruction before reuse." I am not sure that it is true for many cases. Obviously no provider wants to admit publicly that they do not have full and complete data destruction plan and procedures.
Imagine this VPS provider structure:
I can imagine all kinds of failure scenarios in the layered example above, where nobody is sure who owns the responsibility for proper data destruction. Not just disk drive failures, but business failures - what if a company goes bankrupt and doesn't pay their bills? Does the layer above them assume the cost and effort to wipe drives, or do they simply redeploy them, since the data appeared to be "owned" by the bankrupt company? It gets messy fast.
What if a VPS provider owns a dedicated server in a remote data center and a drive fails? The VPS provider orders a replacement drive from the data center itself or another source (shipped to the data center). The datacenter staff replaces the drive and then what?
I wonder whether the third option is the most likely.
If you're a small provider, I'll shoot them if you ship them to me.
All providers should/will probably scrub customers disks after terminating their services. But mistakes can happen - I once ordered a dedicated somewhere, wanted to install my OS over IPMI and yada yada, a Windows Server was booting up, containing all files from the previous customer and whatnot.
I didn't abuse that ofcourse, but it was a good lesson to always scrub yoru data by yourself before cancelling a server. Unless you're being comfortable with the fact that anyone might theoretically get access to it.
Back to the thread, I was with Hetzner a few years ago and my mainboard died. They did exactly what was written above, providing a new server and swapping the disks.