RE: Tape Cartridge Cleaning Frequency

The tapes are different, and the ones that I cleaned today are older. The drives are almost identical twins (arrived the same week, rough delivery). I do use the same cleaning tape for both drives; like I said, I just note on it now which system was cleaned.

Hadn't thought about the different tape types and age. The system that has been cleaned since February uses the newer, higher capacity tapes. That's probably it - unless I come back in six months with the same question.

Thanks.

Jerry C. Adams
IBM System i Programmer/Analyst
--
B&W Wholesale
office: 615-995-7024
email: jerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bentley Pearson
Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 3:48 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: Tape Cartridge Cleaning Frequency

Could it be that the tapes used on the "please wipe my nose" more
frequently box are older? Or a different manufacturer? Are the drives
the same age? Do you use one cleaning tape for both drives?

I know for a fact that DELL tape libraries require a DELL cleaning tape
even though it is an IBM behind the plate....Go figure. We tried
Imation, Sony, IBM, NOPE had to be a DELL.



Bentley Pearson
Vice President - Information Services
Southland National Insurance Corporation
1812 University Blvd
Tuscaloosa, Al
35403
205 345 7410
bpearson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jerry Adams
Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 3:31 PM
To: Midrange-L (midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx)
Subject: Tape Cartridge Cleaning Frequency

I (we) have two [2] model 520's each with a 6384 tape drive. This
morning the tape drive's little amber "my-nose-needs-wiping" light was
on for one of them. Inserted the tape drive cleaning cartridge, and the
light went out. All pretty normal stuff, granted.

The thing is that about three months ago I started indicating the system
(box) on which the cleaning was done, as well as the date. Since then
(1 February) all loggings have gone against only one of the boxes. Both
boxes use approximately the same number of tape uses (nightly backups,
Save *All, etc.). The weekly tape error report [ PRTERRLOG
TYPE(*VOLSTAT) VOLTYPE(6384) VOLSTAT(*DLT) ] hasn't shown anything out
of the ordinary. The Service Action Log in System Service Tools doesn't
show any errors on the tape drive (don't know if a bad light would log
or not) going back to 1 January of last year.

I guess it's possible that the box that I cleaned today just gets dirty
faster, except that they are sitting about six inches apart on a table.
Plus for some reason I thought that the amber light was triggered by
either a time interval (like the cache batteries replacement message) or
some usage count, rather than an analog condition.

So my questions are these:

* How often should a cartridge tape drive be cleaned (one which
uses an average of one [1] tape per day)?

* Is there any way to determine (aside from a re-ipl, which
exercises the lights) if the light is working? (I tried the lamp test
(option 4). It didn't test the tape drive's lights, but it did turn on
the system attention light for a long time.)




Jerry C. Adams
IBM System i Programmer/Analyst
--
B&W Wholesale
office: 615-995-7024
email: jerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx