What standards are out there for self-encrypting drives? Are these all SCSI command set based drives (SCSI, SAS, FC, hypothetically iSCSI) or are there standards applicable to SATA drives as well?
Would a standards-compliant self-encrypting drive work with any controller (supporting the appropriate interface and command set, and supported by the OS), or is matching controller support also required? What support does Solaris/OpenSolaris have (or might reasonably be anticipated if it's not there yet)? How about boot vs non-boot drives? (I assume that it's probably either there or on the way, and wouldn't be totally shocked if it's not being talked about yet...that's not what I want to hear, but I'd understand if that's how it goes.) I've got to add space to my home storage farm; the drives I want (Seagate Constellation ES, 2TB SAS) may be generally available early next year, and there's a Self-Encrypting Drive option available. So I guess I'm really asking if I should bother (assuming for the moment that whatever cost difference is minor). There are also other reasons I can imagine that encrypted "storage at rest" might be of interest, although I make a point of not speaking on anyone else's behalf here. Right now, I'm not mainly thinking about laptops and such, although I wouldn't exclude that (although I gather they'd probably need a TPM module and support for same to complement the self-encrypting storage). -- This message posted from opensolaris.org
