Tape unit requiring too much cleaning

[akkie]

Hi,

Recently we are having troubles with one of our TL892 DLT tape libraries. The unit is indicating nearly every other days that it requires cleaning. Sometimes Networker backups fail but not always.
We have had our tapes analyzed by an external company. The tapes are not excessively dirty. There are more Tape libraries in the same server room which do not have these problems. We suspect there might be too much dust in the air.
Does anyone have any similar experience? Any advice?

Thanks,
Willem

 

[asfscott]

I am having the same problem with an HPDat8 tape drive.
The clean light contstantly comes on during backup, so
I run the clean tape, but get the same response. I run 5
tapes, so I know it is not the tapes.
Have you or anyone found out what can be done to resolve this problem?
Thanks for any help or response.
Scott

 

[alray]

It happens that I have just attended a Unix NetBackup 4.5 Admin. course at Veritas and this subject was brought up.

The Veritas lecturer stated that tape drives do not get dirty because the tapes do not actually touch the drives. The "clean me" message is issued when the tape drive gets out of syncronization and needs to be resync'd. The actual cleaning cartridge contains a measured amount of tape which is read twice, once forwards and once backwards (each track on the tape can be used only once, the inside and outside tracks are not used at all leaving 50 useable tracks, hence a cleaning cartridge can be used 25 times). This process allows the drive to be resync'd.

To stop the drives getting out of sync your system needs to be tuned (it seems that tuning and performance is another course that Veritas will be offering) with the main idea being that data is streamed constantly to the tape drive(s). The reason the drive get out of sync on a regular basis is that the drives keep starting and stopping rather than being in constant use.

I assume that the information I was given is true.

HTH

Ray

 

[akkie]

Thanks for your posts,

The other day we upgraded the firmware on the tape units. This seems to have helped as we are not getting the "clean me" warnings anymore. asfscott, it might be a good idea for you to check the firmware as well. Contact your supplier for more info.

Willem

 

[asfscott]

Hey, thanks for all the info. that helps. The firmware
upgrade is a great idea. I will give that a try.

 

[RobG2001]

I have a TL891 as well witht the same problem. How hard is the firmware upgrade?

 

[BFOJ]

Our tape backup software representative suggested our backup software not be configured for cleaning, let the tape drive itself manage when the cleaning needs to be done. Then there should be no issue with syncronization. Said that excessive use of cleaning tapes will reduce the life of the tape drive heads substantially. Understand that new tapes can add dust particles initially.

 

[123Jimmy]

I would just backup to disk like an Idealstor unit that doesn't require any cleaning.

http://www.idealstor.com