In regard to: Re: [Networker] Networker and autocleaning, Davina Treiber...:

I believe that if your library supports cleaning, then you should let the library do it.

NetWorker controlled cleaning in its original form is flawed because it
cleans based on a time interval. This goes against the recommendation of
most tape drive manufacturers who suggest that you should clean a drive
only when the drive requests it.

Current versions of NetWorker are able to read the clean request signal from the drive using CDI and clean accordingly, and in some ways that is the ideal scenario because it gives the user a view of cleaning tape usage from the software. Without this you are relying on checking cleaning tape usage from a library front panel or a web GUI if available, this all depends on your hardware. However, many users have experienced problems with CDI and decided to disable it.

I agree 100% with Davina.  Before CDI, NetWorker cleaning was completely
flawed, and could actually be harmful, depending on what drives you're
using.

If you're at 7.x *and* CDI works well in your environment, then ok, use
it if you want.  We've used library-initiated cleaning for years now, with
three different types of drives (DLT7000, SuperDLT 1, and now LTO 3), and
I've never once been able to attribute a failed backup or other NetWorker
problem to the fact that the library occassionally does stuff "behind the
scenes".  Perhaps it has happened a few times over the years and I just
didn't realize it, but it certainly isn't something that's causing
constant (or even frequent) problems.

Tim
--
Tim Mooney                                           Tim.Mooney AT ndsu 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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