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Re: [Networker] Cleaning question
2010-06-24 18:05:15
Frank Swasey wrote:
On 6/24/10 3:02 PM, George Sinclair wrote:
Francis Swasey wrote:
On 6/24/10 12:41 PM, George Sinclair wrote:
I know there's been a lot of discussion over having NW clean versus
having the tape library do the cleaning. I realize that not all
methods work best for everyone, but I have a fundamental technical
question:
If you do have the tape library do the cleaning, will most tape
libraries wait until the drive is empty?
I have a tape library that will only clean drives in physical mode, and
since I run it in logical mode, I would have to shut NW down to let the
library clean the tape drives -- it's a Qualstar XLS 8000 series, in
case you are wondering.
What do you mean by physical mode versus logical mode?
I'm sorry. The Tape Library allows being partitioned. In fact, back in
2007 when we installed it, we had to partition it because on there were
unused tape drive slots and NW couldn't handle the idea of tape drive
slots that didn't have tape drives in them.
Ours can be partitioned, too. I think we have one partition, and all the
slots are available for NW.
So, when I say physical mode, I mean all the logical partitions are
turned off and the tape library is operating on the real hardware
(instead of virtualizing it for the logical partitions).
Therefore, I have configured the library to send me an email when a
drive needs to be cleaned and I go check the box in NMC to tell
NetWorker to clean the drive...
According to Dell, I can configure a cleaning slot on the physical tape
library (no surprise), and the library will then use that slot to get a
cleaner when a drive needs cleaning, *BUT* the cleaning will only happen
when the drive is empty. I suspected as much because if a drive is idle,
and it unloads a tape in the drive to clean the drive then NW would be
out of the loop, and that would cause problems when NW later goes to
unmount the tape since it would no longer be loaded, resulting in the
'invalid argument' error or some such thing.
So, essentially, as long as the backup software has a reservation on the
drive, the library won't clean it. Also, most of the drives always have
tapes because even when NW is done writing, it doesn't just unmount a
tape unless it needs another one, or there's a request to mount another
or different pool tape. So, configuring a cleaning slot on the library
doesn't seem to buy me much and 1. this will require having to
re-partition the library so that the slot will not be available for
normal operations or even to NW, 2. I'll then need to tell or
reconfigure NW so it no longer has that slot available., and 3. How
would I know that a drive had been cleaned and how would I know I was
getting low on remaining cleanings, unless the library e-mails me? At
least NW will decrement the uses, if I can get it to clean when it should.
I can configure the library to email me about events, however, and that
would probably be worth doing so that if NW doesn't do it, at least I'll
know there's a drive that needs cleaning without having to go look at
the library GUI to find out. Still doesn't help me, though, if I'm gone.
I might be able to do that on ours - it's a Dell ML6000, but mimics an
ADIC Scalar i500 - but that won't help me if I'm out of town.
I'd like to have NW do the cleaning. I do have a cleaning slot set
aside in NW, and NW lists the cleaning tape in that slot and reports
the number of uses left, but even though the 'Cleaning required' check
box for a given drive does get turned on when a drive needs cleaning,
it never loads the cleaning tape. I end up doing it manually from the
library and then manually decrementing the 'Uses left' count. Also, I
do have the cleaning even notifications in NW set to e-mail me, but I
never receive any messages. I do get savegrp notifications, however,
and the e-mail is the same.
I do have 'Auto clean' turned on for the jukebox, but I also have the
'Cleaning interval' set to '6 months', and 'Date last cleaned' shows
Jan 27, 2010, so obviously it won't clean until July 27 or so, but I
thought it would still clean before then, assuming that it detected
that the drive needed cleaning. We do have CDI set to 'SCSCI commands'
under the Properties for the drives. Every time that the library
indicates that a cleaning is required (amber light on GUI), NW checks
the 'Cleaning required' box for that drive, so I know NW is picking
this up.
Do I need to make the 'Cleaning interval' blank in order to get NW to
act on it?
I do not think blank is a legal value for the cleaning interval.
That's what I thought, too, but I just changed it to blank, and it took
it with no complaints, so we'll see what happens the next time a drive
needs cleaning. I originally set it to '6 months' because I thought that
was far enough in the future that it would give me some time to play
around until I found a solution, and I thought it had to be non-blank.
Maybe that's what's kept NW from acting on it because the interval
hadn't passed yet?
I'd really prefer not to have NW just clean at preset intervals, but I
thought I had to have a value in the 'Cleaning interval' if 'Auto
clean' was turned on?
I agree. I want NW to clean the tape drive (I'm using LTO4 drives) when
the tape drive says, I've been sliding tape over my heads for long
enough that I should be cleaned... The bit I ran into is my drives turn
on the "Cleaning Required" light, when they send the "Cleaning Request"
TAPEALERT call, which NetWorker doesn't clean the drives in response to
(or didn't). I often found it in the same situation you describe -- the
check box was turned on, but the drive didn't get cleaned. It would if
I put it into service mode -- NW would clean the drive immediately when
I did that if the cleaning check box had been checked by NW. If I check
the box myself, NW will clean the drive whether I put it in service mode
or not.
I've not tried the 'service mode' technique to force cleaning, but I'll
try that next time, assuming NW doesn't act on it.
I still find it odd, though, that NW doesn't send me an e-mail
notification for cleaning? I have both of 'Device cleaned' and 'Device
cleaning required' notification set up to email me, same as the savegrp
notifications.
So, if you manually check that box, then NW cleans the drive, but was
the box not already checked beforehand by NW?
I've forgotten, what version of NW are you working with?
Running 7.51
George
--
George Sinclair
Voice: (301) 713-3284 x210
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