Tape Library not auto cleaning

[Brian_Z]

I'm running on Backup Exec 2010 R3 and I have designated a slot as a cleaning slot and the tape only had 2 (of the 20 recommended) cleanings on it used and the drive requested a cleaning and nothing happened.  I had to go to the tape drive and manually tell it to clean itself using the tape slot.  The library knew which slot to use, so Backup Exec did assign it as a cleaning slot, so why did the drive not pull the tape and clean itself automatically?

Lastly, when I told the library to do a cleaning manually and not through backup exec, backup exec doesn't register the cleaning tape as having been used a 3rd time.  It still registers as 2.  This is a 2 drive library and drive 2 is in use finishing a backup, but drive 1 is the one that requested the cleaning.  Don't see how this can affect it, but feel it might be useful info.

[Larry_Fine]

What tape library and drives are you using?

How do you know that the drive requested a cleaning?

[Brian_Z]

We are using an IBM 3573 S4S tape library.

As for hwo I know about the cleaning, I received an email from the system stating it wanted to be cleaned.  When I went to the server rack, the library unit itself was saying that drive 1 is requesting a cleaning.  I went to the service option on it for a cleaning and it automatically knew slot 22 was a cleaning slot because that's how I have it setup in Backup Exec.

Something new I just learned about the library.  It has a feater to auto clean itself, but this is outside of Backup Exec and it does not keep track of how many cleanings a tape has been used for, so I'd rather this be setup for Backup Exec as it keeps track of stuff better.  Would disabling auto clean on the drive itself be a potential fix?  I'm only asking this because what confuses me about the drive is that it only recognizes slot 22 as a cleaning slot, which is the one I have marked in BE.  Not sure if that's because it has the only cleaning tape or not and i haven't tried moving the tape to see what the library would do.

[pkh]

If you configure the library to auto-clean itself, then you would not see that cleaning slot in BE. You should let BE do the cleaning. Disable the auto-clean function in the library interface. In the BE console, right-click on the slot with the cleaning tape and enable the cleaning slot property. If you are using barcode labels, make sure that the label conform to the IBM standard for cleaning tapes. Once this is done, you can either schedule a cleaning job or right-click on the tape drive and select Clean

[Brian_Z]

Is there not a way for the drive to auto clean upon request or do we have to manually do it everytime?

[Larry_Fine]

Did you receive a TapeAlert message/popup in BE that indicated that the drive needed cleaning?  If so, did you receive other BE alerts after that?

[Brian_Z]

No.  BE didn't give me any alert, only the library itself did.

[Larry_Fine]

If BE didn't give you a TapeAlert alert/popup that the drive needed cleaning, then I would suspect that the drive didn't send a TapeAlert to BE.  BE only triggers a drive cleaning when it gets a TapeAlert from the tape drive, or if a user starts a cleaning job.  You may need to update your library and drive firmware.  You may need to ask IBM if you somehow disabled TapeAlerts or something.

[pkh]

If you configure cleaning in BE, BE can only auto-clean the drive if it is notified by the device.  Without notification, there is no way for BE to know when to clean the drive.

For me, I schedule a cleaning job once every 3 months.  This is an arbitary schedule.  There are arguments for and against a fixed cleaning schedule.

[Brian_Z]

Should one clean the drive based on time or amount of data backed up or a combination of both?  Our tape library seems to think the drive needs a cleaning every week.

[pkh]

It is neither the amount of time nor the amount of data. It is how dirty the environment is. Once a week cleaning is excessive and is an indication of drive failure. You should get the drive replaced. To help your case, run the manufacturer's diagnostic utility against the tape drive. Select the write treat and so all the BE services beforehand