[Networker] Question on manually cleaning drive?

Hi,

Question here on using manual operations to clean a drive, e.g. inventory.

When a drive on our tape library indicates that it needs to be cleaned(red led light), I usually run sjimm (or mtx) and move the cleaner tapefrom a designated slot into the device; it cleans, ejects, and then Irun the same command to move it back to the designated slot - all welland fine.

HOWEVER, what if a NW administrator needs to clean a drive, but theydon't have permission to run sjimm or mtx to manually move a tape into adrive? Obviously, they can just open the door to the tape library andmanually insert the tape into the drive, but I was wondering if theycould simply inventory the slot (from NW) that the cleaning cartridge is in?

I'm thinking that they can't use 'load' or 'load without mount' becauseboth of these options will expect there to be a label on the tape or atleast expect it to be a known NW volume before it loads it, which acleaner is not. On the other hand, they could do an inventory, but whena cleaner tape is inserted into a drive, the drive automatically ejectsit when it's done cleaning, but NW will also want to tell the drive toeject the tape when it's done inventorying it, so I'm thinking NW mightwait, and then try to eject it, but it won't be able to because thedrive will have already ejected it, and an 'invalid argument' errormight result? At that point, the operator wouldn't be able to move thetape back to the slot since it's not completely in the drive.



--
George Sinclair
Voice: (301) 713-3284 x210

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