Veritas-bu

[Veritas-bu] Cleaning Frequency

2003-03-20 10:07:05
Subject: [Veritas-bu] Cleaning Frequency
From: gdrew AT deathstar DOT org (George Drew)
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2003 10:07:05 -0500 (EST)
OK, here goes.

TapeAlert is a standard, and drives either support the specification or
they don't. There's nothing to enable or disable. It is a log page on the
device that can be read by software or hardware. As far as I know, robots
that handle drive cleaning do so through the TapeAlert log page.

Each drive is going to handle its own cleaning requests, so the question of
which machine in an SSO environment is going to see the request is answered
by "whichever machine happens to check that log page first." When the log
page is read it is also cleared, so the next device to read that log page
will not find any alerts set.

Netbackup will allow STK L-series robots to handle drive cleaning. The
minimum firmware on the robot needs to be 2.30, and netbackup needs to
be patched to > 3.4.1 (though you should get 3.4.3 or higher; 4.5 works
at any revision). If you have dlt drives in your robot then you need to
have a recent revision of the firmware for those as well (v106 for 7k,
and I'm not sure of the revision for 8k, if it is necessary).

So, your choices for drive cleaning are as follows:

1) Frequency-based. Fine for drives that don't support TapeAlert. Not a
good idea in SSO environments.

2) Netbackup using TapeAlert. The recommended approach, as netbackup likes
to have complete control over anything that goes into a drive. Plus, the
drives only get cleaned when they think they need it. Beware of that little
light on dlt drives, as it can get turned on for two separate reasons, only
one of which is part of the TapeAlert specification. In other words, just
because the light's on doesn't mean the drive really needs cleaning.

3) STK L-series robots handling cleaning. This will also work. I would
recommend that you patch netbackup to > 3.4.4 or > 4.5_MP3, and touch the
file:

        /usr/openv/volmgr/database/NO_TAPEALERT

as netbackup will continue to check the TapeAlert log page unless you
tell it otherwise. Make sure that there are *NO* cleaning tapes in the
volume database.

The NO_TAPEALERT touch file is also useful for API robots types (ACS, TLH,
TLM), where netbackup can't handle drive cleaning.

George

On Wed, 19 Mar 2003 Klaus.Micheler AT infineon DOT com wrote:

> Hi There,
>
> we have installed Netbackup v4.5FP3 on a Unix Server (Sol7).
> And i have a problem that TapeAlert is not working. In the Storage unit
> drives section tapeAlert is set to off.
>
>
> We have DLT8000- and SDT320-Drives connected to a NDMP Storage Unit
> (Netapp).
> Drives are located in a Storagetek L700e Tape Library.
> Cleaning Tapes are inthe "standard Cells" and defined as "DLT_CLN" and
> "DLT_CLN2" in Netbackup Media Manager.
>
> How can i enable tapealert???
>
>
> regards,
> Klaus Micheler
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Penelope Carr [mailto:Penelope.Carr AT veritas DOT com]
> Sent: Mittwoch, 19. März 2003 15:07
> To: Weber, Philip; 'veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu'
> Subject: RE: [Veritas-bu] Cleaning Frequency
>
>
> Yes it is with patch 34_3.  You have to have to capability on the robot
> itself and the drives have to have the proper firmware as well to make this
> work.  I would suggest letting Netbackup do the cleaning as apposed to the
> robot because NBU gets confused and will try to use the drive at the same
> time as the robot is doing the cleaning.
>
> Penelope
>
>
>
> Penelope Carr
> Business Critical Support
>
> DIRECT: 914-934-2404
> CELL: 914.439.4911
> FAX: 914.934.2685
>
> pcarr AT veritas DOT com
>
>
>
>
> VERITAS Software Corporation
> 119 Brush Hollow Crescent. | Rye Brook, NY 10573
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Weber, Philip [mailto:Philip.Weber AT egg DOT com]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2003 6:40 PM
> To: 'veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu'
> Subject: RE: [Veritas-bu] Cleaning Frequency
>
>
> 1.  I don't think tapealert is available at 3.4 ?
>
> 3.  Allowing the robot to control cleaning can cause problems (quote from a
> colleague) :  "If you get a duff drive that needs more than just cleaning
> (e.g. broken), it flags for a clean and then the robot cycles through all
> the cleaning tapes it has trying to fix the problem (which it cannot) and
> therefore trashes all available cleaning sessions on all cleaning tapes ...
> "
>
> 2.  I think is the best, but not sure what period ... my feeling is it
> should be a very large number.
>
> regards, Phil
>
> Phil Weber
> Egg Distributed Hosts - UNIX Systems Engineer
> Phone: 01384 26 4136
> Mobile:
>
>
>
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