Disable Drive Auto Clean for SureStore E Tape Library 20/700

[Mihails Nikitins]

Hi,

Do I understand it correctly believing that I need just to avoid putting cleaning tapes in reserved area to disable Auto Clean? I want to allow Omniback software to control cleaning.

Is it enaugh to place cartridge in drive to complete manual cleaning procedure?

Thanks and points in advance!

BR,
Mihails

[Ted Ellis_2 · Accepted solution]

for a manual cleaning of a drive (at least for Ultrium, DLT and DAT), when you insert a cleaning tape in a cartridge, it will automatically run a cleaning cycle and eject the tape.

With OmniBack... it depends on what version of Omniback and the type of drive. If you have a library configuration, you can configure one of your tape slots as a cleaning cartridge slot. You would then enable the "dirty drive detection" from the advanced options of configuring a tape device. OmniBack 4.1 and Data Protector (OmniBack 5.0) support dirty drive detection for DLT and Ultrium, while version 3.5 does not handle Ultrium.

If you have cleaning tapes sitting in slots that are not part of the usable configuration (ie. a cleaning tape in mail slots) then the library will not cycle those tapes in for anything.

I am also pretty sure that your library will handle its own cleaning... though we had some issues with a SureStore library a few months ago (hung drives with OmniBack)... that was fixed with a firmware upgrade on the drives and robot.

Ted

[Dave COTTLE]

hi,

FYI others, this is a BIG library -- 20 drives, 700 slots.

to disable auto-clean, dont put any cleaning tapes in the playground, nor the reserved area. NB this is covered in the manual.

for OB2, enable barcode support for the library(already done im sure), but don't dedicate a cleaning slot, and ensure that your cleaning tapes have CLNxxx as the prefix for the barcode. you should have at least 4 cleaning tapes for a library this size.

ensure 'dirty drive detection' is set on each OB2 device in the library.

the 20/700 comes with a set of these already for you.

with OB2 you can request it to 'test' the cleaning functionality by setting a parameter like CLEANME -- search the OB2 admin doc for CLEANME for details.

manual cleaning can always be done as noted -- stick the tape in the drive and wait ~ 5 minutes.

[Michael Tully]

Hi,

I'm not sure why you would want to do this. It is far more efficient to let the library handle the cleaning. Omniback does not need to worry about it. As long as you have the cleaning tape(s) in the playground reserved area and the library configured to do the self-cleaning, let it do it. I have two of these units and don't have any problems at all.
If you are unsure of how the unit does it itself, start here for the documentation on this unit.

http://www.hp.com/products1/storage/products/automatedbackup/highend/20700series_tape/infolibrary/index.html

Michael

[Michael Tully]

Here is a much better place to find the on-line manuals:

http://www.hp.com/cposupport/manindex/hpsurestor19258_eng_man.html

Cheers
Michael

[Mihails Nikitins]

Many thanks for the replies!

To Michael:

I'm not a guru yet, so it's hard to me to ignore what Omniback manual recommends.

***
Some tape libraries have a functionality for cleaning drives automatically when a drive requests head cleaning. When the library detects a dirty drive, it automatically loads a cleaning tape, and
OmniBack II is not notified of this action. This interrupts any active session, causing it to fail. This specific hardware-managed cleaning procedure is not recommended, since it is not compatible with OmniBack II. Use automatic drive cleaning managed by OmniBack II instead.
***

Could you please quote a document that can persuade me your policy is safe? Being asked 'Why do you ignore HP recommendations?', I won't be able to tell 'Michael does not have problems with it'. :-)
I really hope to hear from you soon!

Best wishes,
Mihail