Cleaning tape drive Surestore dlt vs80 on new Proliant server - no request for cleaning

[Pat Flanagan]

We installed a new Proliant server ML350G3 with a Surestore dlt vs80 tape drive at the beginning of March,2003. OS is Win2K Server, SP3. All patches are current. Tape backups, using dlt IV cartridges, are made 5 nights a week using different tapes for each backup. Backup software is Veritas Backup Exec ver. 8.5. I'm becoming concerned about running a cleaning job. Neither the backup drive (indicator lights on the front of the drive) nor the software has requested one yet. How often, in your experience, should the cleaning job be run, and are there any known issues with cleaning job notification using this hardware/software combination that would prevent notification of a cleaning request?
Thanks,
Pat

[Marino Meloni_1 · Accepted solution]

VS80 is using a similar technology as the classic DLT drives, you just need to wait for a cleaning request from the drive. If you do not have such a request that means that all the data are read without trouble and the firmware of the VS80 do not request the cleaning.
So no problem.

[Eugeny Brychkov]

Pat,
clean drive only by its request. Do not overclean drive - it will kill heads
Eugeny

[Vincent Farrugia]

Hello,

DLT technology are very reliable and require minimum cleaning. The drive is intelligent enough to sense that it requires cleaning. Only when it says so, do you have to give it a cleaning cycle.

And remember: the vs80 uses DIFFERENT cleaning cartridges from the other DLT drives. The cleaning cartridge is brown in colour, not off-white, like the other DLT drives. If you insert an off-white cleaning tape, the drive will reject it and no cleaning will be performed.

HTH,
Vince