how to know sg_sanitize is supported?

Question

i have installed sg-utills in ubuntu in vmware workstation:

sudo apt instll sg-utills

and i want to use sg_sanitize. as you can see in https://rackhd.readthedocs.io/en/latest/server_workflow/secure_erase.html , about sg_sanitize: "not all SCSI drives support SANITIZE command". how can i know if my drive supports sg_sanitize or not? when i enter the following command:

sg_sanitize --overwrite --zero /dev/sdc

the output is : ​

 VMware,   VMware Virtual S  1.0    peripheral_type: disk [0x0]

A SANITIZE will commence in 15 seconds
    ALL data on /dev/sdc will be DESTROYED
        Press control-C to abort

A SANITIZE will commence in 10 seconds
    ALL data on /dev/sdc will be DESTROYED
        Press control-C to abort

A SANITIZE will commence in 5 seconds
    ALL data on /dev/sdc will be DESTROYED
        Press control-C to abort
Sanitize failed: Illegal request, Invalid opcode
sg_sanitize failed: Illegal request, Invalid opcode

Answer 1

The "SCSI way" is basically to do exactly what you did: try the command. If it works, then the device supports it. There is a MAINTENANCE IN / REPORT SUPPORTED OPCODES action that is nice when it works, but not all devices actually respond to it. And, even when they do, sometimes its output isn't up to date.

You can try it on your system with the sg_opcodes command. Here's what it looks like on a high-end SAS drive:

% sg_opcodes /dev/sdc | grep -i sani
 48        2        10    Sanitize
 48       1f        10    Sanitize

But, I think you'll find that VMware doesn't support that opcode either.