04-23-2015 02:45 AM
In windows system log every 5 min I see this message.
I have two tape drive. Cleaning Frequency is set 120 and 140 hours
Screenshots are in the attachments.
And how to know what drive have index 0 ? One tape drive is tape library (robotics library) for 8 tapes, but cleaning tape in it is out.
Any ideas ?
Solved! Go to Solution.
04-23-2015 03:16 AM
Some cleaning tapes are good for 20 cleans, and some are good for 50 cleans, and varying amounts in between.
Is a cleaning tape present in the library?
Cleaning tapes do not last forever. All cleaning media only ever a specific cleaning count. And, obviously, one mount = one clean.
So, has the cleaning tape expired it's usage count?
.
FYI - all LTO media (all types, all variants, all capacities, all families, all vendors) all have a tiny 'near field' (RFID) chip in them that the LTO tape drives query and update (N.B: this has nothing to do whatsoever with NetBackup) - and so tape drives can detect how many mounts any tape, including cleaning tapes, have ever had, and so tape drives know when a cleaning tape has expired, i.e. tape drives when a cleaning media has hit its maximum clean usage count...
...and so, when a tape drive requests a clean, and a cleaning tape gets mounted, then the tape drive checks the tape, and if it has had too many mounts/uses/cleans, then it simply dismounts the tape without loading it, and so the tape drive does not get cleaned.
.
Anyway - your problem may be down to a mixed mis-configuration of cleaning regime. If your library is taking care of cleaning then you do not need to enter a cleaning interval of 120 or 140 hours. You only enter a cleaning interval into NetBackup if all of these following points are true:
1) The library cannot, or does not, or you do not want the library to, manage cleaning.
2) NetBackup cannot detect SCSI tape alerts for when tape drives request a clean.
3) You want to manually override cleaning alerts and force cleaning no matter whether the tape drive has requested a clean or not.
.
Interval based cleaning is usually not a good idea, nor (in most cases) recommended. Most tape drive vendors do not recommend interval based cleaning - and instead recommend alert based cleaning - because the cleaning tape is a form of mild abbrassive - and each act/event of cleaning has to attempt to scratch dirt (oxide accumulation) off of the tape drive head, but not so roughly that it scratches the tape head itself. In short, too many, too regular, cleans... shortens the life span of tape drive read/write heads - and thus slowly increases the chances of read and write failures.
.
If you don't know the answers, or don't understand any of the above, or you are unable to describe to yourself what your cleaning regime is, and more importantly if you do not understand why your cleaning regime is configured the way it is - then you need to start from the beginning, and read the manuals and release notes for the tape library and for the drives and read the relevant sections of the NetBAckup admin guides - and have a plan - before making any other changes.
04-23-2015 03:36 AM
Show us output of 'tpconfig -l' and 'vmoprcmd -d'.
(Commands are in ...\veritas\volmgr\bin)
Best NOT to configure periodic cleaning and rather rely on TapeAlert for cleaning.
To let NBU know that you have manually cleaned the drive, issue this command (from same dir as above):
tpclean -M <drive_name>
Some reading matter:
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/tape-drive-cleaning-0
04-23-2015 03:16 AM
Some cleaning tapes are good for 20 cleans, and some are good for 50 cleans, and varying amounts in between.
Is a cleaning tape present in the library?
Cleaning tapes do not last forever. All cleaning media only ever a specific cleaning count. And, obviously, one mount = one clean.
So, has the cleaning tape expired it's usage count?
.
FYI - all LTO media (all types, all variants, all capacities, all families, all vendors) all have a tiny 'near field' (RFID) chip in them that the LTO tape drives query and update (N.B: this has nothing to do whatsoever with NetBackup) - and so tape drives can detect how many mounts any tape, including cleaning tapes, have ever had, and so tape drives know when a cleaning tape has expired, i.e. tape drives when a cleaning media has hit its maximum clean usage count...
...and so, when a tape drive requests a clean, and a cleaning tape gets mounted, then the tape drive checks the tape, and if it has had too many mounts/uses/cleans, then it simply dismounts the tape without loading it, and so the tape drive does not get cleaned.
.
Anyway - your problem may be down to a mixed mis-configuration of cleaning regime. If your library is taking care of cleaning then you do not need to enter a cleaning interval of 120 or 140 hours. You only enter a cleaning interval into NetBackup if all of these following points are true:
1) The library cannot, or does not, or you do not want the library to, manage cleaning.
2) NetBackup cannot detect SCSI tape alerts for when tape drives request a clean.
3) You want to manually override cleaning alerts and force cleaning no matter whether the tape drive has requested a clean or not.
.
Interval based cleaning is usually not a good idea, nor (in most cases) recommended. Most tape drive vendors do not recommend interval based cleaning - and instead recommend alert based cleaning - because the cleaning tape is a form of mild abbrassive - and each act/event of cleaning has to attempt to scratch dirt (oxide accumulation) off of the tape drive head, but not so roughly that it scratches the tape head itself. In short, too many, too regular, cleans... shortens the life span of tape drive read/write heads - and thus slowly increases the chances of read and write failures.
.
If you don't know the answers, or don't understand any of the above, or you are unable to describe to yourself what your cleaning regime is, and more importantly if you do not understand why your cleaning regime is configured the way it is - then you need to start from the beginning, and read the manuals and release notes for the tape library and for the drives and read the relevant sections of the NetBAckup admin guides - and have a plan - before making any other changes.
04-23-2015 03:36 AM
Show us output of 'tpconfig -l' and 'vmoprcmd -d'.
(Commands are in ...\veritas\volmgr\bin)
Best NOT to configure periodic cleaning and rather rely on TapeAlert for cleaning.
To let NBU know that you have manually cleaned the drive, issue this command (from same dir as above):
tpclean -M <drive_name>
Some reading matter:
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/tape-drive-cleaning-0
04-23-2015 03:47 AM
Interval based cleaning can be thought of in at least three ways:
1) A left-over feature/capability of NetBackup for older tape drive technologies such as DDS, DAT, DLT, SDLT, AIT, etc. - which did not implement alert based cleaning, and where the tape drive vendors specifically recommended regular cleaning.
2) A required feature for other (non-LTO) modern tape drive technologies which do not implement alert based cleaning.
3) A required feature for when tape libraries and/or LTO tape drives are unable (for whatever reason) to alert to within the library itself, or even to NetBackup.
.
LTO is typically alert based cleaning, and not interval based cleaning. But sometimes, our only option is interval based cleaning. If I have LTO tape drives, I would do my best to avoid interval based cleaning, and do my research and try to implement either library based/managed cleaning (preferably) - or NetBackup based/managed cleaning (second choice) - before looking at the third choice of interval based cleaning.
.
P.S. Take a look at this recent post too:
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/cleaning-media-3
04-23-2015 03:50 AM
Usually, the choice of magazine is irrelevant, but then again it might not be - sometimes magazines are restricted to certain sides/spaces slot ranges within a library - and this gets more confusing if tape library partitioning is active.
.
Anyway, was it a brand new sealed (never opened before) cleaning tape?
Or an already opened (unsealed) cleaning tape which may have been used before? If so, maybe the internal mount count has been exceeded - and maybe the tape drive did not get cleaned, even though the cleaning was mounted (briefly). Did the cleaning tape stay mounted for a few minutes at least?
Maybe when you initiated a clean of drive 0 - it cleaned the other drive? Maybe the drive that you think is 'drive 0' is the other drive?
.
I, nor anyone else, can answer what you have to do... it's all down to the combination of tape library features/capabilities, tape drive features/capabilities - and the tape library and/or tape drive 'driver' features/capabilities, and HBA (SCSI, SAS, FC) features/capabilities - and sometimes even down to O/S implementation of two way SCSI traffic - i.e. are tape drives able to send an alert upwards without a SCSI sense/query having been initiated.
And sometimes, the tape library/drive vendor documentation is weak, or non-existent - in which case your only option is to have to try to implement a particular regime in order to discover that it does not work - so that you can try to implement another alternative/different regime.
04-23-2015 04:00 AM
C:\Program Files\VERITAS\Volmgr\bin>tpconfig -l
Device Robot Drive Robot Drive Device
Type Num Index Type DrNum Status Comment Name Path
drive - 0 hcart2 - UP PLEHANOVO HP.ULTRIUM5-SCSI.000 {5,7,0,0}
C:\Program Files\VERITAS\Volmgr\bin>tpclean -M HP.ULTRIUM5-SCSI.000
C:\Program Files\VERITAS\Volmgr\bin>vmoprcmd -d
PENDING REQUESTS
<NONE>
DRIVE STATUS
Drv Type Control User Label RecMID ExtMID Ready Wr.Enbl. ReqId
0 hcart2 AVR Yes A00026 A00026 Yes Yes 0
ADDITIONAL DRIVE STATUS
Drv DriveName Shared Assigned Comment
0 HP.ULTRIUM5-SCSI.000 No tmn-backup.utai PLEHANOVO
--------------
C:\Program Files\VERITAS\Volmgr\bin>tpclean -M HP.ULTRIUM5-SCSI.000
was run without any messages
---------------
Cleaning tape was run in robotics library 1 min.
04-23-2015 04:04 AM
I found that drive index 0 - is tape library (robotics library) and in Drive detail Information in Cleaning Comment - "Need Cleaning". I removed Right Magazine, inserted cleaning tape and make cleaning manually from display panel successfully. But then in Drive detail Information in Cleaning Comment I see again - "Need Cleaning". Why ?
Do I have to establish cleaning frequency in zero for my robotics library?
04-23-2015 05:47 AM
sdo, my cleaning tape is a new, count not exceeded 10 mount. Earlier when count of cleaning tape was exceeded my tape drive gave out failure and cleaning not working.
Now I see drive information of both tape drive, there both have an index 0
C:\Program Files\VERITAS\Volmgr\bin>tpconfig -l
Device Robot Drive Robot Drive Device
Type Num Index Type DrNum Status Comment Name Path
drive - 0 hcart2 - UP PLEHANOVO HP.ULTRIUM5-SCSI.000 {5,7,0,0}
C:\Program Files\VERITAS\Volmgr\bin>vmoprcmd -d
PENDING REQUESTS
<NONE>
DRIVE STATUS
Drv Type Control User Label RecMID ExtMID Ready Wr.Enbl. ReqId
0 hcart2 AVR Yes A00026 Yes Yes 0
ADDITIONAL DRIVE STATUS
Drv DriveName Shared Assigned Comment
0 HP.ULTRIUM5-SCSI.000 No - PLEHANOVO
C:\Program Files\VERITAS\Volmgr\bin>tpclean -M HP.ULTRIUM5-SCSI.000 - was run without any messages
04-23-2015 05:48 AM
I run command for my robotics library
tpclean -M HP.ULTRIUM3-SCSI.000
and then the message in Cleaning Comment - "Need Cleaning" disappeared. :)
So you suggest to remove the Сleaning frequency parameter on all tape devices? And for this purpose to establish this parameter in zero?
04-23-2015 05:49 AM
Apologies, I'm not suggesting to reduce the frequency to zero - I was only trying to outline why sometimes it may not be appropriate - I can't tell you what is, or what is not, approrpiate for your environment - because so many factors come in to play - it's just not possible for me to comment/suggest/recommend - other than to do some research, and planning, and possibly some testing. You could well leave the environment as it is, and never have a problem again. Who knows? All I wanted to do was to steer your thought process somewhat, to help you consider the possibilities, capabilities, limitations. All of which I have no visibility of. Only you can make the required decision based upon an informed and factual position.
04-23-2015 05:56 AM
Have you gone through the TN and forum discussion that I have posted above?
Best to disable Frequency cleaning and allow the tape drive to request cleaning via TapeAlert.
04-23-2015 06:00 AM
Yes Marianne. I read it.
04-23-2015 06:50 AM
Do you have SCSI sence key codes in event viewer. I suspect you may have a bad tape or drive that trigger the clean flag.