we have a 3494 with 6 3590E1A and we have always let the drives decide
when to clean. I have a script that runs every morning on the AIX box
that has TSM on it and it creates a status report fort the Library and
one of the lines has to do with cleaning left on the cleaning
cartridges. When it gets below 50, I add another cartridge. been working
fine this way since 1998.



>>> zforray AT VCU DOT EDU 6/4/04 2:10:28 PM >>>

Lately, I have been noticing lots of "Clean Me" messages in ERRPT of
the
TSM AIX system, for the 3590E1A drives it uses.

So, I started looking into the setting on the 3494, which controls
cleaning. Currently, it is set to clean by usage (65).

Upon digging through the "IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Tape - A
Practical
Guide" Redbook, I found the paragraph:

We recommend that drive cleaning be based on a drive request. Use
time-based cleaning
only if drive usage is very low. For 3590 tape drives, use a value of
999
mounts to perform
cleaning based on a drive request rather than an initiated library.

So, what do you use to control the cleaning cycle for your 3494/3590
drives ?  Do you follow the above recommendation ?    Is this a global
recommendation that can be applied to *ALL* 359x drives ?

Inquiring minds want to know ?