How often tape drive need to be clean?

[Aftab Sadiq]

Hi,

We are using DLT7000 tape drive for daily database backup which is about 60GB. Backup had failed at least once in a month for last three month because tape drive need to be cleaned. This is internal drive in K460 and we clean it once a week. I would appreciate if somebody can explain that how often tape drive need to be clean?

Thanks

[Tommy Brown]

Hi,
It is my understanding that the tape drive should only be cleaned when the " Clean" indicator is lighted. I have several units, and usually only get the Clean indicator when a tape is first loaded. Sometimes it is triggered in Omniback by the write protect switch being in the Safe position. You may be developing a hardware problem, if it is a very frequent occurence. Or you may need to replace the media causing the failure. Do you have a media management scheme in place to track potentially defective tapes?
Tommy

[Emma Sanford_2]

Cleaning of these drives mainly depends on their usage. You stated that you are cleaning once a week and doing daily backups of around 60Gb.....normally for mon-fri backups of a duration of between 2 - 5 hours weekly cleaning is recommended. If your backup is taking longer than this then you may need to clean twice a week.

[Marco Ortega]

Aftab, the dlt drives should never be cleaned on a regular schedule since the cleaning tape is very abrasive. this has the potential to wear down the heads on the dlt drive and result in failures. one common result of overcleaning is media labeled defective after a read or write operation has failed. the drive cannot recover from this condition since the heads have been physically damaged and the drive will need to be replaced. Only clean the drive when drive is prompting for a clean. I hope this answers your question.

[Joseph T. Wyckoff]

This may be an expensive alternative... but some media may be 'worn out.'

With magnetic tapes we often see 'clean me' events when a tape is first used (the first few times) and then after the tape has been used many times... there is something of a quiet period in between.

Try using new tapes (only) for a while ... if the symptom disappears then it is probably OLD TAPES.

Similarly, I understand that certain 'leader' technology was relatively messy. Getting your hardware checked out may well be in order...

Look around in your server room and tape storage area. Is there dust, carpet fiber, etc.? This is DEATH on tape drives. Is the temperature and humidity stable? Strange things happen if they are not.

Good Luck.

[Joseph T. Wyckoff]

Check your firmware... some firmware reports cleaning events a bit more often than necessary.

However if this had been working for you for a while, I doubt firmware is the real fix.

[Chad_7]

Only when it asks to be cleaned? You will wear out your drive(s) otherwise.

Always make sure you have the most current firmware!!!