Veritas-bu

[Veritas-bu] TapeAlert cleaning, TLD, and Pools

2002-05-15 09:12:13
Subject: [Veritas-bu] TapeAlert cleaning, TLD, and Pools
From: SparkK AT NORTHAMERICA.Stortek DOT com (Sparks, Klenton)
Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 07:12:13 -0600
There are of course two methods to cleaning tapes
software initiated and library initiated the DLT tape 
drives are made by Quantum and they will signal the need
for cleaning. Software cleaning will override this feature
and use the parameters that you set. library cleaning will
heed the message and clean upon demand.
Conflict can occur if Netbackup is not properly patched it will
not recognize the library cleaning and will either try and mount
a tape for writes while the cleaning is being done causing a timeout failure
or if you are lucky and the timing is right it will just get cleaned again
by the software
thus the statement of wearing out your tapes heads and using up your
cleaning tapes.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff A. Earickson [mailto:jaearick AT colby DOT edu]
Sent: May 15, 2002 7:59 AM
To: William Enestvedt
Cc: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] TapeAlert cleaning, TLD, and Pools


Beware.  I have a Sun L20 tape robot.  When I got it and wondered about
setting up the auto-tape-cleaning facility on Netbackup, I then wondered
how often DLT tape drives should be cleaned.  So I called Sun and got
their tape gurus.  Their response was "don't auto-clean your drives,
you will wear out your tape heads".  The party line from Sun is:
clean your drives when they need cleaning, ie when you see the "needs
cleaning" icon appear on the LCD of the tape robot.

Is this good advice?  I don't know.  Since installing my L20 last summer
and cleaning the drives once at the start, I have never seen the "needs
cleaning" icon appear on my LCS screen.  So I have never cleaned my
drives since.  I've had no problems or bad tapes either.  Maybe it was
good advice from Sun, or maybe I'm just lucky.  Any other opinions?

** Jeff A. Earickson, Ph.D                         PHONE: 207-872-3659
** Senior UNIX Sysadmin, Information Technology    EMAIL: jaearick AT colby DOT 
edu
** Colby College, 4214 Mayflower Hill,               FAX: 207-872-3076
** Waterville ME, 04901-8842
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Wed, 15 May 2002, William Enestvedt wrote:

> Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 08:47:09 -0400
> From: William Enestvedt <Will.Enestvedt AT jwu DOT edu>
> To: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> Subject: [Veritas-bu] TapeAlert cleaning, TLD, and Pools
>
> If I want my DLT robots to clean themselves automatically -- instead of
> downing the drive and mewling until I return in the morning -- do the
> cleaning tapes need to be in a specific Pool? My environment is: NBU
> DataCenter 3.4; Solaris 2.6 on servers & clients; a Master Server w/Sun L9
> (a Quantum DLT8000 drive with 9 tapes), and a Media Server w/Sun L9.
>    Thanks in adnvance for any suggestions.
> -wde
> --
> Will Enestvedt
> UNIX System Administrator
> Johnson & Wales University -- Providence, RI
> _______________________________________________
> Veritas-bu maillist  -  Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
>

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