MLS6030 Automatic Cleaning / Reserved Slot

[JohnWRuffo]

/poke Dave Ruska:

We intend to use a reserved slot for automatic cleaning... and the backup software we have chosen thus far has been a hair pulling workout to get a quality answer on how we can do this via their inerface.

Question 1: How do we know how many passes have been done on the cleaning tape? Is there something in one of the logs we can parse for? Is there a way to determine if we really can get 15 passes on the cleaning tape?

We may have to determine remotely if the local SA has been lax in his/her duties and not replaced the tape...

Question 2: Since none of our 6030's has ever needed cleaning (no we are not going to toss a handfull of dust into it.. LOL), is there a pop up on the console that informs the local SA that cleaning has been performed or some other interaction that we can capture?

Offline: I am going to try an contact Mike Cross about these questions and see if he can get me some good answers... but he is moving offices at the moment.

[Kurt Beyers.]

John,

The cleaning frequency of LTO drives is once a year, so it is normal that you don't see it that often.

What is your backup software? Check if it has a log file. For instance, Data Protector has a log file cleaning.log where the usage of a cleaning cartridge is logged.

A message will be logged on the control panel that a drive needs to be cleaned.

A message will appear on the front panel display when the cleaning cartridge has
expired (used more then 15 or 20 times).

Either setup automatically cleaning in the backup software or in the library setup itself. Don't use them both and don't clean preventive.

best regards,
Kurt

[JohnWRuffo]

Thanks Kurt:

Yeah, I expect a message that the drive needs cleaning will "pop up" when it needs cleaning, but will it pop up if it is in automatic cleaning and remain for the administrator to come by later and clear it or will it also clear after the job is complete?

I would think there would be some sort of error that states the cleaning tape is expired, but, once again will it pop up for the admin to acknowledge it or will it do something else?

our software is NetVault on RHEL3.0 and they are maturing daily... just a mater of time.

I still would like to know if the automatic cleaning process can be parsed from the logs on the box, or if I am SOL.

...can't find a definitive answer in the manual.

/poke moderator

[Kurt Beyers.]

John,

Just enable automatic cleaning on the MSL library itself. Enable the 'auto clean mode' on the library. Setup a reserved slot for the cleaning tape first. This is well discussed in the user guide of the MSL library, which you can download from http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?contentType=SupportManual&docIndexId=3124&locale=en_US&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=316040

Whenever a dirty drive is detected, it will be cleaned automatically. A backup job that might be running at that moment could fail then. But that's about it. And the frequency or possibility of this event is so low that you shouldn't worry about it.

best regards,
Kurt

[Dave Dewar]

Hi Kurt, John,

There is no 1 year or other cleaning frequency recommendation for HP LTO drives. The drive will prompt for cleaning when it needs it which should not be very often and it is in response to this prompt that a cleaning operation should be performed.

The MSL will take the drive prompt and act on it if the auto cleaning is setup or will message user by front panel and host interface.

Below are a couple of links with further info

Cheers,

Dave Dewar.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=lpg50082&locale=en_US

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?locale=en_US&objectID=lpg50177&locale=en_US&taskId=101&prodSeriesId=238671&prodTypeId=12169

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=lpg50217&locale=en_US

[Scott McIntosh_2]

Usually, it's best to let the top of the chain manage what's going on. That's true for Data Protector, and appears to be true for NetVault.

There are two types of library cleaning setups in NetVault, standard and generic. As for the HP MSL libraries, it appears that standard is the supported method for LTO based libraries and generic is the supported method for SDLT based libraries.

Two more things specific to LTO, at least per marketing people. LTO cleaning tapes can be loaded all you want but the drive won't run it through unless it wants to be cleaned. LTO cleaning tapes remember (due to the CM) how many times they have been used, and won't run with an "expired" cleaning tape.

So you should not be defining any automated (scheduled) cleaning cycle within NetVault.

The MSL might track cleaning tape usage as well, but how would you get that information out of the library? By using the web interface? By getting a SNMP MIB for the MSL and using some device management software which could regularly poll for that value and trigger a notification upon a value greater than X?

NetVault allows a cleaning tape usage value, but I don't know what it does when that value is met.

NetVault can track cleaning media uses, but it would only seem to be able to do so if the the cleaning tape is identified by slot rather than barcode prefix. Since the reserved slots in an MSL are not even presented to the OS, you cannot reference those slots in any application.

So I would not set up a reserved slot, but can you do autoclean on an MSL with no reserved slot?

Sounds like you need to be talking to BakBone and say "hey, your MSL6000 device notes are woefully inadequate regarding the configuration of hardware and software in regards to cleaning".

Good luck,
Scott
HP Support

[JohnWRuffo]

Scott:

We would use NetVault as the "manager" of this solution if NetVault had not definitively said use Hardware. We could configure the app to do the cleaning on a schedule, but we don't want that. That would just be harsh media aggravation on the tape drive and degradation is something we really want to avoid. (HP also says Do Not Over Clean) We know it will self clean when it detects a cleaning is needed but we think we can remotely check that it has occured. We can use the RMI to get this from the logs if it is logged.

So, my question still stands, what is the text to parse for and in what log would it be in to determine that a cleaning cycle has been acomplished?

Then, what would be the text to state that the media has expired?

Speaking of documetation, the MSL6030 users guide is a year old (not that its a bad thing) but a lot has changed since bios 4.14 and we have a lot of lessons learned... I am sure you folkz at HP have too...

[JohnWRuffo]

Ok... new questions on the same topic:

Setup: MSL6030 with two Ultrium 460 drives each with its own connection to the two channels of an Ultra320 SCSI Controller (268351-B21)

What would be the order of operation if we reserve "two" slots in the library and install two cleaning tapes...

Will it rotate through the tapes automatically? (the documentation refers to "a cleaning tape" and does not specifically state the use of multiple tapes)

If the first cleaning tape is expired, and the Library does rotate to the second tape, will a FSC 5015 be displayed on the GUI?

If we have two cleaning tapes in the library reserved and installed, will it use the "first" reservation in slot 28 and then Slot 27? Are the cleaning tapes sequentially used or is it a random order?

Real experience please... not theoretical.