TapeAlert is enabled based on the drive firmware.

I stand corrected on my tpautoconf -t command.... I think it has to be 4.5
in order to show the TapeAlert enabled.  Here's an example output from 4.5
with a drive that supports TapeAlert:

TPAC45 QUANTUM DLT8000         0250 PMC40P1629 -1 -1 -1 -1 /dev/rmt/0cbn -
TapeAlert enabled

I guess you will have to confirm with STK if the 9480 version 1.30
firmware supports TapeAlert.

Then it's just a matter of configuring a cleaning tape in the
library.  Then when the drive needs cleaning, NBU can just grab the tape
and clean the drive.

-Tim

On Mon, 3 Mar 2003, vidit kohli wrote:

> Tim
> 
> How to setup tape-alert in 3.41_3 on windows 2000
> 
> before that how to check ith tpautoconf -t command, i mean what all 
> following lines means
> 
> E:\VERITAS\Volmgr\bin>tpautoconf -t
> STK     9840            1.30 331000039964 3 0 0 0 Tape0
> STK     9840            1.30 331000040407 3 0 1 0 Tape1
> STK     9840            1.30 - 3 0 2 0 Tape2
> STK     9840            1.30 331000040134 4 0 3 0 Tape3
> STK     9840            1.30 331000051916 4 0 4 0 Tape4
> STK     9840            1.30 331000051080 4 0 5 0 Tape5
> STK     9840            1.30 331002052015 5 0 6 0 Tape6
> STK     9840            1.30 331002036295 5 0 7 0 Tape7
> 
> 
> 
> vk
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> From: "Paul Bleimeyer" <paulb AT mayo DOT edu>
> Reply-To: "Bleimeyer, Paul W." <paulb AT mayo DOT edu>
> To: "'Tim Hoke'" <thoke AT northpeak DOT com>
> CC: <veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu>, "'vidit kohli'" 
> <vidit_k AT hotmail DOT com>
> Subject: RE: [Veritas-bu] RE: Veritas-bu digest, Vol 1 #1990 - 3 msgs
> Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 16:49:58 -0600
> 
> Tim,
> 
> Thanks for the update on the tape alert. This was and has not been our
> experience
> with NBU under 341. At the same time we just moved to 4a a couple months
> ago. I will
> stay with my previous statement concerning frequency based tape cleaning
> while
> running SSO. It just walks over the top of the value. At least at 341_4A
> with
> 9840A drives, and an L700 at 3.01.02 of the firmware. If someone has a
> different experience
> with frequency based cleaning and SSO under 4.5 I would be VERY interested
> in hearing about
> it. My plan at this time is to let the library keep doing the cleaning and
> keep it simple.
> I can always issue a tpclean command as needed, which has not been an issue
> since
> converting to library based cleaning.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Paul
> 
>  > -----Original Message-----
>  > From: Tim Hoke [mailto:thoke AT northpeak DOT com]
>  > Sent: Monday, March 03, 2003 4:19 PM
>  > To: Paul Bleimeyer
>  > Cc: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu; 'vidit kohli'
>  > Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] RE: Veritas-bu digest, Vol 1 #1990 - 3 msgs
>  >
>  >
>  > Hmmm...
>  >
>  > Well, NBU does work in SSO with TapeAlert, as long as the
>  > drives support
>  > it.
>  >
>  > tpautoconf -t will show if they do or not.
>  >
>  > Frequency based cleaning doesn't (as noted) work in SSO.
>  >
>  > IF however, you are going to use Library based (Since
>  > tapealert might not
>  > work), then make sure to disable tape alert within NetBackup....
>  >
>  > On each media server:
>  >
>  > touch /usr/openv/volmgr/database/NO_TAPEALERT
>  >
>  > Then restart the daemons.
>  >
>  > And make sure you are at 3.4_4 or 4.5_1
>  >
>  > -Tim
>  > thoke AT northpeak DOT com
>  >
>  > On Mon, 3 Mar 2003, Paul Bleimeyer wrote:
>  >
>  > > > From: "vidit kohli" <vidit_k AT hotmail DOT com>
>  > > > Subject: [Veritas-bu] 9840 drive cleaning in L700
>  > >
>  > > > I have setup Netbackup 3.4 to control 9840 drive cleaning in
>  > > > L700, but
>  > > > problem is that it don't work as required.
>  > > > [my understanding was that when ever any drive needs cleaning
>  > > > , netbackup
>  > > > will perform before next backup starts for that 9840 drive]
>  > > >
>  > > > I have two cleaning media in the slots detected by media manager,
>  > > > also tpclean -c option does manual clean fine
>  > > >
>  > > > Please advise if I'm missing any settings?
>  > > >
>  > >
>  > >
>  > > Vidit,
>  > >
>  > > I am going to reply here since I faced the same thing as
>  > you about a year
>  > > ago
>  > > and this might help someone else out as well if they read
>  > the archives later
>  > > on.
>  > >
>  > > You mentioned in an email to me that you had SSO enabled on
>  > your media and
>  > > master
>  > > servers. The reason I asked this is because we did the same
>  > thing. Same
>  > > problems too!
>  > >
>  > > In an SSO environment with an L700 you want the library to
>  > clean the tape
>  > > drives and not have veritas handle it. The reason is that
>  > frequency base
>  > > tape cleaning and tape alert fails under environments using SSO with
>  > > veritas. The library should be made responsible for
>  > cleaning the drives.
>  > > This is not totally clear in the Veritas documentation when
>  > referencing SSO
>  > > environments. At least the last time I looked it was a
>  > little sparse.
>  > >
>  > > So what the heck is going on then? Why does it fail under
>  > SSO and not
>  > > others?
>  > > Here is why. It has to do with the tape cleaning and usage
>  > counter getting
>  > > reset.
>  > > When you first media server mounts the tape and starts
>  > using the drive, then
>  > > the counter on usage in the drive starts running. For
>  > example, you run about
>  > > 10 tapes through this same drive via the
>  > > same media server all weekend long during a full. The last
>  > tape unmounts and
>  > > the veritas
>  > > media server notifies your master that it is done with the
>  > drive and the
>  > > drive is released.
>  > > At this point your tape drive has a usage counter for the
>  > amount of time
>  > > this drive
>  > > has been in use. Now veritas is currently setup to detect
>  > this and will
>  > > attempt to clean
>  > > the drives. Everything looks great right?
>  > >
>  > > Here is where SSO gets in the mix. Now along comes media
>  > server number 2.
>  > >
>  > > It has a number of policies/classes it is supposed to run as
>  > > well and starts allocating drives. Including the one your
>  > first media server
>  > > just got done
>  > > using. As soon as it connects to the tape drive that media
>  > server 1 was just
>  > > using, it
>  > > resets the tape usage/cleaning counter on the drive and the
>  > veritas job for
>  > > cleaning
>  > > never fires. Not good.
>  > >
>  > > So how do we fix this behavior? With SSO in the mix you
>  > want to make sure
>  > > that the library itself handles this process for you. Now
>  > this gets a little
>  > > bit interesting as well, since some of the prior releases
>  > of firmware on the
>  > > L700 didn't always handle this properly as well.
>  > >
>  > > Here is a link from support about the version issues:
>  > > http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/240940.htm
>  > >
>  > > So once you get the veritas jobs disabled, now you want to
>  > go to the front
>  > > panel of your l700 or
>  > > you can do this remotely if you have the horizon code
>  > installed for remote
>  > > support as well.
>  > > You want to select the menu button and then find the main
>  > library portion
>  > > and enable library
>  > > cleaning. This way when the "clean drive" light comes on,
>  > your library will
>  > > pull a cleaning tape
>  > > and insert it into the drive for cleaning at the next
>  > available interval.
>  > > You also want to keep
>  > > at least a couple tapes in your normal silo space for
>  > running a manual
>  > > cleaning at times.
>  > > Every once in a while you may get a tape that ends up being
>  > frozen and
>  > > veritas decides to freeze
>  > > it since it looks like a bad tape. Go ahead and manually
>  > clean the drive and
>  > > reload the tape again
>  > > with it unfrozen. In some cases, this is just a drive that
>  > is very close to
>  > > needing a cleaning
>  > > and has not tripped the clean drive light. Just a suggestion.
>  > >
>  > > I can tell you that we are running with horizon load level
>  > 3.01.02 and
>  > > 130.112E on our drives
>  > > and its working like a champ. I would also recommend you
>  > consider upgrading
>  > > to the 341_4A patch
>  > > if you can, since it also has some corrections in it for
>  > releasing the
>  > > drives properly. Just
>  > > a suggestion. As always, check your fabric rev levels, tape
>  > drivers, drive
>  > > firmware, library firmware,
>  > > and switch rev levels into account before changing anything
>  > in your SAN.
>  > >
>  > > Here is the readme on 4a.
>  > > http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/240940.htm
>  > >
>  > >
>  > > Hope this helps you out.
>  > >
>  > > Regards,
>  > >
>  > > Paul Bleimeyer
>  > > Research Computing Facility
>  > > Mayo Foundation, Rochester MN
>  > >
>  > > _______________________________________________
>  > > Veritas-bu maillist  -  Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
>  > > http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
>  > >
>  >
>  >
> 
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