ADSM-L

Re: Excessive usage of cleaning cartridge

2000-01-03 13:52:28
Subject: Re: Excessive usage of cleaning cartridge
From: "Prather, Wanda" <Wanda.Prather AT JHUAPL DOT EDU>
Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2000 13:52:28 -0500
Yes.  We have this happen frequently.  We sometimes get more than 20 cleans
a day, on a total of 7 drives.  Since the cleaning cartridge can only be
used 20 times, that means the cleaning cartridge becomes ineffective for the
last cleans overnight.

The vendor has no explanation - we've been told that, as you said, the
cleaning cartridge should last for months.  But it doesn't always work that
way.

We know that many of our cleans are "false cleans", because we see the same
drive getting cleaned many times a day.  The way the DLT7000's are designed,
if one drive writes a tape that is a little misaligned, another drive
reading that cartridge will detect weak signal strength on the heads, and
request a cleaning, even though there is nothing wrong that a cleaning will
fix.  So you use up your cleaning tape, which means that when a drive really
DOES need cleaning it can't be cleaned, so that uncleaned drive generates
more bad tapes, and the whole thing goes downhill.

If you have a problem tape, as you did, and ADSM tries to mount it for
something like a reclaim, and tries over and over, it may have caused a
"false clean" each time.  So running the audits may have cleared up your
problem, or maybe not.

It's a very badly-designed system.  We're replacing our DLT7000's.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joyce Woods [SMTP:Joyce.Woods AT ITPMS DOT COM]
> Sent: Thursday, December 30, 1999 10:48 AM
> To:   ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> Subject:      Excessive usage of cleaning cartridge
>
> Happy New Year Everyone !!!!
>
> I have had a problem with the cleaning cartridges on the DLT7000.  I have
> 4
> drives...but the cleaning cartridge has been getting used up in only 2
> days.
> I've had a cleaning cartridge last for 6 months.  Now....I did have
> problems
> with a couple of tapes and ran audits to fix the tape.  But, it just seems
> excessive.  Has this happened to anyone else ???
>
> Thanks,
> Joyce
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