Archive Python needs to be cleaned?

Question

6 weeks ago I had a alert warning (Warning 1320) for the routine cleaning.  So I put in the cleaning cartridge and waited until it was finished before putting the next tape in.   The following day I got a new message : 'The device Dev-1.0.6.0: Archive Python needs to be cleaned'.  Put the cleaning cartridge in etc. For the next few days I kept getting the message, and put the cleaning tape in - but it did not make a difference.    I arranged to get a new cleaning cartridge, started using it for every day for 2 weeks but the same message. 'The device Dev-1.0.6.0: Archive Python needs to be cleaned' . I contacted our Service supplier and they suggested they take a look. They siad they would 'clean it' and if that did not work they would replace it. The cleaned it and said that had solved the problem.   3 days later I had a alert warning (Warning 1320) for the routine cleaning.  So I put in the cleaning cartridge and waited until it was finished before putting the next tape in. The following day the message reappeared : 'The device Dev-1.0.6.0: Archive Python needs to be cleaned'. I put the cleaning cartridge in etc. .............   It's now a week later and the message is still there.   Any suggestions, or is it time to get a replacement?

powerpodge · Answer

Hi, The drive head is beyond the usual cleaning or it is slighlty misaligned. Time for new toys!

Sabersoul · Answer

What backup software are you using?  If you're using Backup Exec, it has a cleaning counter on it that may not be resetting itself.  If you go to the Devices tab, right click on your tape drive and choose properties, on one of the tabs you will have a button labeled 'Reset Cleaning Statistics'.  Reset that and it should take care of it.  Weekly cleanings are recommended when using DDS/DAT tape drives if you're doing daily backups.  In addition to that, flash your tape drive firmware up to the latest release on support.dell.com and check to see if the cleaning error follows any particular tapes in your rotation.  If it does, that is a sign that your tape is going bad.

fgolding · Answer

The software is: tapeware storage server. Back ups are done daily, and cleaner tapes put in regulary (different message). I think it is a hardware problem.   We buy hours from a company to look after our IT requirements, but unless we know what we need - nothing happens. Stupid system, but I don't make the decisions, I'm just supposed to guess whats wrong and book hours for them to fix it!   We have a new Dell RAID server (bought for another office which closed 6 months later). Its twice the memory size has more up to date software, but the quotes we have received have varied from 1 day (1 engineer) to 4+ days (2 Engineers) to set it up to replace the existing Server. So its still sitting on the side, 3 months after we received it.

Sabersoul · Answer

I've heard about that problem from TapeWare with version 7, but have yet to hear of a fix for it. One way to make sure that it's just TapeWare would be to stop your TapeWare services, clean the drive, then run some backups using NTBackup and see what happens. Also, when you get this message, does the far left LED on the drive turn on? This is the cleaning LED on the DDS4 and DAT72 drives that will turn on after 50 hours of tape motion.

fgolding · Answer

I arranged for an engineer to clean it, and the message stopped.  But it started again a few days later.   The LED light is on all the time - but I presumed the light was on because it has the next back up tape in it.

Sabersoul · Answer

There are 3 lights on the drive. There's one on the left which is cleaning, one in the middle which means there's a tape in the drive and one on the right which is orange that shows when the drive is moving tape inside it.

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