Greetings and Merry Christmas to all!
This thread is right on time for me, because I was just having this
conversation with our IBM CEs.
Is anybody surprised the IBM3584 manual recommends to use Automatic
cleaning? But that doesn't make it the best functionality.
I personally like the TSM cleaning method over the Automatic one, because it
is easy to query TSM to see how many cleaning tapes are installed, and how
many cleanings they have left. So it is easy to just build it into the
daily script the operators use when they checkin tapes to also look at the
cleaning tapes and make sure we are OK. We are getting ready to deploy
Servergraph, and are planning to set up alerts to let us know when cleaning
tapes need to be replaced.
When you need to change cleaning tapes, you can use the same checkin and
checkout commands, albeit with different options, so you can make the
scripts part of the Operator's menu they already use. No special training
for them.
With the IBM3584 Automatic method, you have to remember to go to the library
panel or the IBM3584 Web Specialist periodically to see if your cleaning
tapes are in good shape. To check in or out cleaning tapes requires a
separate method, and can't be scripted. If your tapes all run out of
cleanings, will anything automatically tell you that? It will show up on
the Operator Panel, but in our shop, the Operators might go days without
noticing a message on the library Operator Panel because they don't use it
for anything; they just put tapes in the I/O station or take them out.
Is there anything about TSM tape cleaning that you don't like? Does it fail
to work?
Best Regards,
John D. Schneider
Sr. System Administrator - Storage
Sisters of Mercy Health System
3637 South Geyer Road
St. Louis, MO. 63127
Email: schnjd AT stlo.mercy DOT net
Office: 314-364-3150, Cell: 314-486-2359
-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Kauffman, Tom
Sent: Friday, December 22, 2006 8:03 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] IBM 3584 Tape Cleaning
Use the library.
We had a 3584 with 10 SCSI LTO-1 drives for 3 years, then upgraded to a new
library with 10 (now 16) LTO-2 drives. We put in 4 cleaning tapes with the
initial tape load on the first library. Six years later, and ONE cleaning
tape shows 11 mounts. And all 11 were manually instigated in the first year
of the first library, to check out drives after maintenance in the early
versions of the LTO-1 microcode.
I've seen maybe 8 to 10 SCSI error messages indicating cleaning required
over the years, and all have cleared by the time of the tape dismount (LTO
was supposed to be self-cleaning; looks like it really is).
Tom Kauffman
NIBCO, Inc
-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Larry Peifer
Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2006 8:15 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: IBM 3584 Tape Cleaning
Those of you who have the IBM 3584 tape libraries - please weigh in on
pros/cons of using either the Automatic Cleaning method of the host library
or the Tape cleaning management method of the TSM server. We are
configuring two 3584's to replace our four 3583 libraries. Our environment
is TSM 5.3x server on AIX 5.3 with LTO2 drives and LTO2 tapes in the
libraries with each library configured as it's own single partition.
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email and any attachments are for the
exclusive and confidential use of the intended recipient. If you are not
the intended recipient, please do not read, distribute or take action in
reliance upon this message. If you have received this in error, please
notify us immediately by return email and promptly delete this message
and its attachments from your computer system. We do not waive
attorney-client or work product privilege by the transmission of this
message.
|
