Help about Clean periodic Message

Hi Phani,

Agree with Shiva, Tape drives requires cleaning after certain writes. Make sure that you have cleaning tape present the tape library. If its not there, please configure the cleaning slot and Insert the cleaning tape, so that tape drive will automatically take the cleaning tape whenever it required.

You can refer the following KB article how to configure cleaning slot in NetWorker.

http://solutions.emc.com/EMCSolutionView.asp?id=esg92586&usertype=C

Regards

Panwar

Hi Siva,

Thanks for replying. I am not used of using Networker yet. From the help i found out that Cleaning attribute for device is set to Yes in my library.

Stuff from manual:

"Tape device cleaning is an automated, self-contained operation. It is no longer part of a media-loading operation. Tape device cleaning is automatically triggered if one of these conditions exist:

The last time the device was cleaned was a full cleaning interval ago.

The Cleaning Required attribute for the device is set to Yes in one of the following ways:

Manually by the user.

Automatically by the NetWorker server, after it receives a "device needs cleaning" notification.

When one of these conditions is met for a device, cleaning begins as soon as the device becomes available. Loaded devices are unloaded before a cleaning operation begins. Loading a cleaning cartridge (with the nsrjb -l cleaning cartridge command) to force a cleaning operation is no longer supported."

Cant understand last sentence which contradicts to first one.

Got couple of questions

Do we need to load a tape and tell Networker that we have loaded cleaning tape?

Do we have a separate tape for cleaning?

How to find out difference between th cleaning tape and the normal tape as i am working on remote location?

Just now saw the messages of networker and it have cleared the Clean periodic warning even though i havent inserted any cleaning tape.

Any info will be great.

Thanks,

Phani

Hi Phani,

The tape drive is due for routine cleaning. Please insert cleaning tape and perform the cleaning process.

Check the tape drive users manual for device specific cleaning instructions.

Thank you

ShivaKiran

Hi Phani,

For example, if you have 10 slots in your library, one slot you will allocate for cleaning catridge.

A cleaning tape is kept in that slot and this slot and tape is not used for any of your backup operations.

So when you configure the cleaning slot, you will mention that after how many runs device should be cleaned.

If you have a device /dev/nsr0 device which is been used for 10 times and if your cleaning is configured as 10, then when the drive  /dev/nsr0 is used for the 11th time will show your a media warning as cleaning required.

Depending upon manual or automatic, the cleaning tape is picked up and then cleaning is performed.

Thanks

ShivaKiran

Hi Phani,

Please let us know is it Physical tape library or virtual tape library.

Regards

Panwar

Hi Phani,

If you go to Devices Tab in NMC, Under Libraries -> Select the Library and go to its properties.

There you can find the cleaning slot option to set. If there is no option is selected and no slot number is mentioned then you can confirm that nothing has been configured earlier

You can use any slot as cleaning slot and you have a tape in there which will clean the device headers

out of 10 slots, If you want to set slot 10 as your cleaning slot, then you have to mention as 10-10

Then slot 10 will be assigned for cleaning slot and no other tape which has the data on it will get into the slot even though its free.

For more information and steps, you can refer the link given by panwar earlier

Hope this explanies

Thank you

ShivaKiran

Hi Shiva,

Thanks for explaning. As this networker has already been configured before, is there a way to find out which slot it is configured for cleaning and which tape?

Thanks,

Phani

Hi Panwar,

It is a physical tape library.

Thanks,

Phani

Hi Shiva,

Thanks a lot and i had look at the library properties and auto clean option is not checked, no slots mentioned for cleaning. That make me think no cleaning option slot has been configured before.

I am using 23 slot juke box lto-4 drive. Do we have any identication for a cleaning tape to be distinguished from other tapes?

Thanks,

Phani

Hi Phani,

Cleaning tape has a different bar code to that of other tapes.

You can check with the library vendor on this who can suggest you in this regard.

Thank you

ShivaKiran

Hi Phani,

Usually Cleaning Tape barcode starts with CLNXXXX . Please check for the those tapes in the Library.

Regards

Panwar

Hi Phani,

Have you tried setting this up without issues?

Thank you

ShivaKiran

Hi Shiva,

Apologizes for not replying before as i was out of town.

Since it has cleared the error by itself i did not change any configuration but i had a look about how this needs to be done from the information yourself and Panwar provided for future references which was very helful for the newbie like me.

Can i ask you some other question related to networker?

Thanks,

Phani

Hi Phani,

Thank you for the update provided.

Sure, Please save the information provided and you can use this for future reference.

If the new issue is not related to Cleaning Tape, then you can mark this as answered and open a new thread to avoid confusion.

We can start helping you once we see the new issue in the queue.

Thank you

ShivaKiran