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Do I need a cleaning job?

Artegic
Level 6

Backup Exec 2012 SP4 backing up to a Tandberg T24 LTO-5 tape library. The guy who set this up for us has scheduled a weekly cleaning job for the library. However most of the literature I could find on the topic seems to agree that LTO drives should only be cleaned when the drive requests it.

In the Backup Exec 2012 Administrator Manual, German version, I find a section titled "Reinigen eines Wechslerlaufwerks" ("Cleaning a changer drive"), stating:

"Sie können einen Reinigungsauftrag für ein Wechslerlaufwerk erstellen und planen. Befindet sich ein Reinigungsmedium im Schacht, reinigt Backup Exec ein
Wechslerlaufwerk automatisch, sobald dieses meldet, dass eine Reinigung erforderlich ist."

Translation:

"You can create and schedule a cleaning job for a changer drive. If a cleaning medium is present in the slot, Backup Exec will automatically clean a changer drive as soon as it signals that a cleaning is necessary."

The meaning of this paragraph is not clear to me. If I want the drive to be cleaned only when the cleaning indicator comes on, do I need a cleaning job or not? In other words, is it enough to configure a cleaning slot and load a cleaning tape into it for Backup Exec to automatically clean the drive whenever it requests a cleaning?

Apart from that, is it recommended to run scheduled cleanings even if the drive does not request a cleaning? If so, how often?

aTdHvAaNnKcSe,
Tilman

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Accepted Solutions

pkh
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There is no clear guideline on whether regular cleaning is required. The argument for regular cleaning is that you don't wait for a job to fail due to a dirty drive before you clean it. On the other hand, cleaning is an abrasive action and regular cleaning may damage the tape head. Unless your environment is very dirty, cleaning once a week is excessive. For me, as a compromise, I schedule a cleaning job once every 3 months

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pkh
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There is no clear guideline on whether regular cleaning is required. The argument for regular cleaning is that you don't wait for a job to fail due to a dirty drive before you clean it. On the other hand, cleaning is an abrasive action and regular cleaning may damage the tape head. Unless your environment is very dirty, cleaning once a week is excessive. For me, as a compromise, I schedule a cleaning job once every 3 months

Artegic
Level 6

Thanks pkh for your advice. I'll follow your example.

In the meantime I found the English version of the Administrator's Guide where the relevant section reads:

"You can create and schedule a cleaning job for a robotic library drive. Additionally, if a cleaning media is in the slot, Backup Exec automatically cleans a robotic library drive when the drive issues an alert that it requires cleaning."

The word "additionally", which is missing in the German version, seems to clarify that the automatic cleaning when requested by the drive does indeed happen independently of any cleaning job.

Larry_Fine
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In my opinion, no scheduled cleaning job is needed with LTO drives.

"You can create and schedule a cleaning job for a changer drive. If a cleaning medium is present in the slot, Backup Exec will automatically clean a changer drive as soon as it signals that a cleaning is necessary."

The meaning of this paragraph is not clear to me. If I want the drive to be cleaned only when the cleaning indicator comes on, do I need a cleaning job or not? In other words, is it enough to configure a cleaning slot and load a cleaning tape into it for Backup Exec to automatically clean the drive whenever it requests a cleaning?

To clarify the above, Yes, you CAN create a cleaning job.  With older versions of BE and/or older drive technologies, a scheduled cleaning job may have been the suggested action.  With modern versions of BE and modern tape drives (such as LTO), the drive can signal BE when the drive feels that it should be cleaned (via a TapeAlert message) and BE will attempt to act upon that request.

So, Yes, marking a slot as a cleaning slot and keeping a cleaning media in it is sufficient.

BE will also notify you when the tape drive reports that the cleaning media has expired (via a TapeAlert).

pkh
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For the HP MSL 2024 which I use, you can also configure the library to auto-clean when required, but this is not recommended. For auto-clean the recommendation is to let BE do it.

pkh
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A job may fail due to a dirty tape head before an auto-clean is done.I am not willing to risk this