TapeAlert Message Claiming Cleaning Needed Every Week

[Anthony_Mangion]

To Whom It May Concern:

I've recently become responsible for my office's tape backups. I'm not too familiar with everything I'm using just yet, but I think should be able to ask this properly...

I'm using Backup Exec 8.60 Rev. 3808. The tape machine I'm using is a Dell PowerVault 122T SDLT 320 Autoloader. I'm on Windows 2000 SP4. In addition, and this is where I'm really lacking in understanding what is what, we also have this this "TapeAlert" error reporting software/plug-in which I'm guessing is either integrated into the BackupExec software or the tape machine itself... After doing a little research, I see that HP developed this, and I'm not too sure of what it's relationship with the software or the hardware is or how it got integrated, but it's in there somewhere...

I have differential backups running M-Th and then a Full Backup that runs on Friday. I do have a cleaning job and a monthly backup job that runs every month, but the 1st month hasn't run out yet. The differentials run fine, every day they start, they finish, no errors. They use a series of 3 different tapes that are always in my tape machine. Now, on Fridays, my Full Backup runs, using a series of 10 tapes where 1 is always in the machine and I swap one out for a new one each week... The job itself succeeds, but at the end of each job, every week, I get a TapeAlert Message that says:

Critical
Device: DELL 2 ()
The tape drive needs cleaning:
1. If the operation has stopped, eject the tape and clean the drive.
2. If the operation has not stopped, wait for it to finish and then clean the drive.
Check the tape drive users manual for device specific cleaning instructions.

I've gotten this three weeks in a row with three different tapes, although I'm not sure if that's relevant or not.

Once this error is thrown, I get two more Operator Alerts:

1) Tape alert - attempting to clean drive.
2) Tape alert - drive cleaned.

It's almost like either the software or the hardware is configured to automatically clean the drive when it thinks it needs it. This is completely independent from my cleaning job, which hasn't run yet, because the month isn't up...

Now, from what I understand, cleaning isn't necessary every week, plus, if the cleaning was really necessary, why is it consistently throwing these errors on my Friday Full Backup and yet I get no errors on my differential jobs? I've also read in a few places that the TapeAlert message aren't always reliable, as a simple I/O problem could make the drive think it's dirty. I don't want to use up the cleaning tape this quickly...

Can anyone help me? Should I just eject the cleaning tape from it's dedicated slot and then just put it in there the day before my scheduled cleaning is supposed to take place? Is there a way to configure things to make it not automatically clean itself? Is there a way for me to figure out if there really is a problem? Any help would be appreciated, for I'm really in the dark here with limited help...

Thanks in advance to all :)

Sincerely,
Anthony Mangione

[Mike_Parkin]

I get this message all the time using 8.6 and a Dell powervault 120T AutoLoader.

During a normal backup schedule it doesn't appear. If the drive needs cleaning, it says so in the logs, and on the AutoLoader itself.

However, when I change the tapes (which I do weekly), I sometimes opt to do an Inventory. This is when it tells me about cleaning every tape it scans. Which it does automatically, but alerts me to it.

It also becomes annoying if it finds a 'bad tape'.
We have had the AutoLoader replaced a few times, and every time we do so, the new one can't read the tapes created using the older ones. So we have to do an inventory each time. Also, if it finds a 'bad media' tape, then it assumes any tapes in the same slot as it is bad, until I do a quick erase - which again means lots of cleaning messages.

The alerts can be set to automatically alert, or so that they only appear under the alert tab. Not much better, but at least you can select them all and clear them, instead of clicking for each one.

You may also want to check that the dedicated cleaning slot is labelled as such in the slots menu (there is a tick box to say 'cleaning tape').

If this is no help, then at least you are not alone.

Regards

Mike

[Anthony_Mangion]

Thanks for replying, but I'm a little confused here... Based on what you've seen, is the cleaning tape, which is in fact labeled as such in the slots menu, being constantly used or not despite the alerts? I have seen the message in the log, but not all the time. Sometimes it's just an alert in the software, other times, it's both.

I think my main concern is that the cleaning tape doesn't get unecessarily used because of it's cost to replace after 20 uses...

Everytime I put a new tape in any of the slots, I always do an inventory.

One thing I'm also still confused about is that, the cleaning tape is used to clean the tape drive, not the tapes themselves, correct? I haven't gotten any "bad tape" messages...

Should I just remove the cleaning tape from the tape machine until I need to use it?

[Mike_Parkin]

I assume everytime it says it does need the cleaning tape it does use it. I get a second message following the 'need cleaning' one to say 'succesfully cleaned'.
The backups run after hours, so can't say I've stayed behind to watch if it uses slot 8 (cleaning slot), then reverts back. Sometimes the logs say a clean is required and I select it manually on the autoloader, or I could run a clean job.

I think the cleaning tapes usually last longer than 20 uses. If they didn't I be replacing them every week as it wants to clean everytime it swaps tapes on an inventory. The Sony cleaning tapes we have say they should be used every 25 hours (presumably of backing up), or at least once a month. They also say up to 50 uses.
So if you base it on a backup as bad as ours which takes � a day, you get 2/3 cleans a week which is roughly 10 a month and therefore will last 5 months.

All cleaning tapes only have a certain length of tape and once that is used up, they dont get rewound, so you'll know when you need a new tape as it will moan (EOM messages).

The 'bad tape' message i was referring to is when you get CRC errors, or it says the tape is 'bad media'.

I'd leave the cleaning tape in there. It saves you having to do it manually.