In regard to: Re: [Networker] Questions on setting up cleaning for...:

Hmmm ... How do you avoid the problem wherein the library goes to load a
cleaner tape, but NetWorker is in the middle of writing or reading to
that device or waiting to use that device?

You don't, but in general that's very rare.  Most libraries only clean
a drive after its been idle for some period (perhaps 5 minutes).  That's
no guarantee that the library won't clean the drive just as NetWorker was
getting ready to use it, but in my experience it's extremely rare.

The alternative is NetWorker-controlled cleaning, which (at least through
v6, it may be different with the SCSI Alert handling in V7) is IMHO much
worse.  "Once a month, whether you need it or not" may be acceptable for
some things, but it's a really poor idea for drive cleaning.  You're either
cleaning too frequently or you're not cleaning often enough.  Either way,
you lose.

We've had problems with library-initiated cleaning on our STK 9710 since
we upgraded to SuperDLT drives, and I have to say it's my only gripe ever
with StorageTek.

I would rather completely disable any kind auto clean cleaning and monitor
the drives programmatically (or visually, if that's convenient for you,
for me it's not) than use NetWorker's (at least V6's) cleaning.

Tim
--
Tim Mooney                              mooney AT dogbert.cc.ndsu.NoDak DOT edu
Information Technology Services         (701) 231-1076 (Voice)
Room 242-J6, IACC Building              (701) 231-8541 (Fax)
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5164

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