Managing disk drives of a data storage environment

A system comprising a processor having access to memory media storing instructions executable by the processor to:

• identifying a data storage environment including a plurality of disk drives;
• exposing for each of the disk drives of the data storage environment, a management interface of the disk drive to create a zero-capacity device for the disk drive;
• identifying a particular command for a particular disk drive of the plurality of disk drives;
• in response to determining that the particular command is a management command for the particular disk drive:
• i) identifying a particular zero-capacity device that corresponds to the particular disk drive;
• ii) providing the management command to the particular zero-capacity device;
• and
• iii) in response to providing the management command, receiving a response from the particular disk drive, the response including a processing result that is responsive to the management command;
• in response to determining that the particular command is a media read/write command for the particular disk drive, the read/write command being a command to update contents of the particular disk drive:
• i) identifying the particular zero-capacity device that corresponds to the particular disk drive;
• ii) in response to the particular zero-capacity device corresponding to the particular disk drive, a) blocking the media read/write command for the particular disk drive and the particular zero-capacity device and b) failing the media read/write command at the particular zero-capacity device.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more computers which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

• identifying a data storage environment including a plurality of disk drives;
• exposing for each of the disk drives of the data storage environment, a management interface of the disk drive to create a zero-capacity device for the disk drive;
• identifying a particular command for a particular disk drive of the plurality of disk drives;
• in response to determining that the particular command is a management command for the particular disk drive:
• i) identifying a particular zero-capacity device that corresponds to the particular disk drive;
• ii) providing the management command to the particular zero-capacity device;
• and
• iii) in response to providing the management command, receiving a response from the particular disk drive, the response including a processing result that is responsive to the management command;
• in response to determining that the particular command is a media read/write command for the particular disk drive, the read/write command being a command to update contents of the particular disk drive:
• i) identifying the particular zero-capacity device that corresponds to the particular disk drive;
• ii) in response to the particular zero-capacity device corresponding to the particular disk drive, a) blocking the media read/write command for the particular disk drive and the particular zero-capacity device and b) failing the media read/write command at the particular zero-capacity device.