Richard,

we installed our 3494/3590E1A in june 1999. Since then we noticed several read
only tapes every week. We tried new
micro code without success. Then we reduced the cleaning cycle from every 500
mounts to 250 mounts. No more
read only tapes came up since then.

Seems that at least our drives don't request cleaning. Or must they be
configured to do so?

Reinhold Wagner, Zeuna Staerker GmbH & Co. KG









Richard Sims <rbs AT BU DOT EDU> am 11.12.2000 20:15:55

Bitte antworten an "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>

An:   ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Kopie:     (Blindkopie: Reinhold Wagner/A/DE/ZEUNA)

Thema:    Re: tape drive needs cleaning



>We have an ibm h70 running aix 4.3.3 and TSM 3.7.3. It s hooked up to an ibm
>3494 with two magstar 3590 drives. A month ago we saw some tape drive needs
>cleaning messages in the aix error report. They repeated today..
>
>IDENTIFIER TIMESTAMP  T C RESOURCE_NAME  DESCRIPTION
>E507DCF9   1210101500 I H rmt1           TAPE DRIVE NEEDS CLEANING
>D1A1AE6F   1210101500 I H rmt1           TAPE SIM/MIM RECORD
>
>I m wondering if this is normal? To my knowledge the 3494 should be cleaning
>itself as it does have cleaning tapes and is all configured to do so
>automatically.

We all need cleaning every once in a while, which we perform by schedule and
by special need.  In the 3494 "Clean Schedule" you can define the interval for
cleaning; but in any case the drive will call for cleaning when it needs it.
Redbook "IBM Magstar Tape Products Family: A Practical Guide" (SG24-4632)
section 10.11.1 recommends forcing the 3494 schedule to ineffectuality so that
only drive-request cleaning prevails.

   Richard Sims, BU