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PLA-Support>Sun Systems>TAPE>Tape Hardware>SN-TP: STK T-Series Drive
 

Applies to:

Goal

Procedures for proper Tape Drive Cleaning.
(DLT, SDLT, LTO, STK9840/9940)

Solution

Steps to Follow
Procedures and Requirements for Tape Drive Head Cleaning.

Contents:  
 1- Introduction, High End Tape Drives (HETD) head cleaning
 2- DLT7000/8000 drives Cleaning cartridge Requirements & Procedure
 3- SDLT220/320/600 drives Cleaning cartridge Requirements & Procedure
 4- LTO drives Cleaning cartridge Requirements & Procedure
 5- STK 9840/9940 drives Cleaning cartridge Requirements & Procedure
 6- Cleaning Tapes Max Usage and ID
 

1- Introduction, High End Tape Drives (HETD) head cleaning

High End Tape Drives (HETD) head cleaning.  Many questions and issues had been raised in the past regarding to head cleaning and what process to follow when advising customers. This Technical Instruction document will help answer many tape cleaning questions and provide good knowledge for our customer facing engineers, CFEs.

It is very important to strictly follow head cleaning procedures for each type of tape drives (as indicated below) in order to achieve very good performance with minimum Read/Write errors.
Adhering to such procedure will also help prolong the life of the Read/Write heads.

Please note that different manufactures have different cleaning cartridges suitable only for their specific products. Such cleaning cartridges should only be use for the intended tape drives ONLY. Using cartridges that are not intended for a particular drive, can result in permanent head damage and consequently the drive being replaced. Also note that excessive head cleaning can damage the integrity of the heads and thereby rendering the head and the drive itself totally inoperative.  Do not allow customers to initiate head cleaning every time a read or write errors occurs.  There must logical reasoning for all head cleaning to occur base on the recommendations provided by each manufactures, as you can see below.

**Most all of our Tape drive manufactures do not recommended for the tape drives to be cleaned via a scheduled time frame.**

In the same line of thought, we do not recommend to have the Library auto clean enabled. This is not necessary since the robot does not know when the heads truly need cleaning and if every time the 'clean LED' comes ON and the robot initiates a cleaning sequence, this can surely damage the heads permanently, sooner or later, perhaps affect performance by interrupting a backup process also.

High End Tape Drives, (HETD) have some intelligence to recognize when it is necessary to request for head cleaning to be performed, based on certain built-in algorithm with predefined number of media errors detections. Cleaning the tape drives based on such cleaning requests, coming from the drive itself, will be more smart and efficient rather than a scheduled cleaning process. But a customer may have a good reason, once in a while, to clean the heads per set schedule time if the site is too dusty. In that case we leave that to the customer's discretion after we educate them about cleaning in general.

But be aware, that some times a drive may get confused between a bad media and a dirty head. In other words when a bad media is loaded, the drive may think this is a dirty head problem and send out cleaning required messages and light up the cleaning LED. In such a case when a good media is loaded later, the cleaning LED can turns off and no cleaning required messages are sent out, if indeed the problem was a bad media causing the problem and not due to a dirty head.

But when the cleaning LED remains ON even when a different media is loaded, then it is better to clean the head and then try loading a known good media to see if the LED turns OFF and no cleaning message are sent.
But if the LED still remains ON after cleaning and even after changing good media, then for sure there is some thing wrong with the drive itself and this may need to be checked and corrected, perhaps by replacing the drive.

CAUTION: Attempting to re-use already expired cleaning cartridge may contaminate the heads farther. Customers must mark each use  of their cleaning tape and when the max usage is noted, the cleaning cartridge should be discarded promptly and never   re-introduced into the drives. See item-5 below for usage.

NOTE: It will help to educate the customer as needed on tape drives cleaning requirements and as such please feel free to copy sections below as needed and provide to the customers.
 
Here are 'head cleaning procedures' as specified by each manufacturer for their products and more:


2- DLT7000/8000 drives Cleaning cartridge Requirements & Procedure
   
It is NOT recommended to have scheduled cleaning operations. When cleaning is required the drive will put out the necessary  request and based on the following process sequence, you may  clean the drive. Remember a bad tape may cause the cleaning request or LED to come up and the head may not require cleaning at all, just replacing the tape will fix the cleaning request.

 IF: ---->                          IT MEANS: ---->                   
 The Use Cleaning         The drives head MAY need
 TAPE LED is steadily     cleaning 'OR' the tape is bad.
 illuminated

           ---->THEN YOU SHOULD:<----  
          Use the cleaning cartridge
          after you test by loading a
          good tape.
              
 Here are some simple rules to follow:

`TAPE CLEANING LED is ON'** -
indicates the drive detected one of the following conditions:
            CALIBRATION ERROR
            CALIBRATION SIGNAL/S ARE MARGINAL
            MEDIA READ ERROR
            MEDIA WRITE ERROR

** DO NOT IGNORE THIS INDICATOR, BACKUP FAILURE MAY RESULT**
To clear this indicator, try the following first:
  Use a different data cartridge unload and then reload the same data cartridge.

IF the LED still remains "ON":
  Unload the data cartridge Load the DLT Cleaning Tape, it will automatically:
            Perform a head cleaning routine
            Unload the tape
            Turn the LED "OFF"
The cleaning cartridge should then be removed and mark the label on the cleaning cartridge to indicate one usage, then load the data cartridge.

IF the LED REMAINS "ON" after the cleaning routine has been run:
  The cartridge has expired (20 passes have been run), run another DLT cleaning tape.

Two passes of the DLT cleaning tape should be run and a different data cartridge should be tried before it is decided that the DLT tape drive needs service. Repeat occurrences of the "USE CLEANING TAPE" LED with different data cartridges may indicate a problem that requires service.
    
       
3- SDLT220/320 drives Cleaning cartridge Requirements & Procedure
   
All SDLT drives will execute an SDLT head cleaning cycle if a cleaning cartridge is available for use.

SDLT drives may not require preventative cleaning, because of improvements in the head design. The frequency of cleaning is dictated, to a large degree, by the amount of ambient pollution and particulates in the environment. Use the SDLT Cleaning Tape if cleaning is indicated through your backup software or when the yellow alert light is ON. Do not clean the drive unless the drive specifically indicates cleaning is necessary.

When to Use the Cleaning Tape:
SDLT uses a built-in tape cleaning algorithm in conjunction with a cleaning tape. The SDLT cleaning tape is housed in a plastic case, and is light gray in color.
A yellow LED (light) located on the front bezel of the tape drive indicates when cleaning is needed.
NOTE: The tape cleaning algorithm is not used for the backward read compatible (BRC) head; this head style does not need cleaning.

Compatibility of the Cleaning Tape:
The SDLT Cleaning Tape is intended for use in SDLT drives, autoloaders and libraries only. Alternatively stated, the Cleaning Tape only cleans the SDLT MRC heads.
CAUTION: Never use a DLT cleaning tape in an SDLT drive; DLT cleaning tapes are incompatible with the SDLT heads.

Loading the Cleaning Tape Into a Tabletop Drive:

NOTE: To use the cleaning cartridge in an Autoloader or Library drive, refer to your owner's manual.
Follow these steps to load an SDLT Cleaning Tape into an SDLT tabletop drive:

I. Insert the cleaning cartridge, with the Front Slide Label Slot facing outward, fully into the drive until the drive engages with the cartridge and begins to take up the cleaning media. The green Drive Status LED will blink and the cleaning cycle will begin automatically.

II. When the cleaning cycle completes, the cartridge automatically ejects from the drive and the yellow alert LED turns off.
NOTE: On the last cleaning, the cleaning cartridge will not eject. Use the Eject button on the front of the drive to eject the expired cleaning cartridge and dispose of the cartridge.

III. Remove the cartridge, place it back into a plastic case, and mark the label after each cleaning.



4- LTO drives Cleaning cartridge Requirements & Procedure

If the Clean light is flashing, the drive considers that it needs cleaning. It will stay flashing until a supported cleaning tape is used, even if power is cycled. While cleaning is in progress, the light will be lit steadily and the Ready light will flash.
It is critical to ensure that the media you use matches the format of your tape drive. Cleaning cartridges and formatted data cartridges are unique for each drive technology. Damage may occur if inappropriate media is used in tape drives. Compatible media can be recognized by the Ultrium logo, which is the same as the
logo on the front of your drive.

Cleaning Cartridges
Ultrium tape drives have been developed to have a minimal cleaning requirement.
Only insert a cleaning cartridge into the tape library when the library's front operating panel indicates that cleaning is required - for details, refer to your tape library documentation. (The Clean orange LED on the front panel of the individual tape drive will also flash when the drive needs cleaning.) Only clean when indicated by the drive. The drive will complete its cleaning cycle and eject the cartridge on completion (which can take up to 5 minutes).

CAUTION: It is essential to use only Ultrium cleaning cartridges with Ultrium tape drives as other format cleaning cartridges will not load and run. We recommend the orange colored Ultrium Universal cartridge. Unlike some earlier Ultrium cleaning cartridges, the orange colored Ultrium Universal cleaning cartridge is designed to work with any Ultrium compliant drive. If you do not use the Ultrium Universal cartridge, to prevent possible head damage during the cleaning cycle use only a cleaning cartridge from the same manufacturer as that of the drive manufacturer. You must use only approved Ultrium cleaning cartridges to clean the tape heads. Do not use swabs or other means of cleaning the heads. The cleaning cartridge uses a special tape to clean the tape heads.
If the cleaning cartridge is ejected immediately then it has expired or it is not an approved Ultrium cleaning cartridge. Discard it and use a new one.

LED Status meaning:
Clean is FLASHING.
The drive requires cleaning. Load the Ultrium cleaning cartridge. If the clean LED is still flashing when you load a new or known data cartridge after cleaning, contact your tape library supplier.

Ready is FLASHING and Clean is ON. Cleaning is in progress.
None. The cleaning cartridge will eject on completion. The cleaning cycle can take up to 5 minutes to complete.

NOTE: If the status LED comes on continuously within 24 hours after a cleaning cycle, perform the cleaning cycle again. If after three cleaning cycles in a 72- hours period, the status LED lights up again, contact Technical Support.




5- STK 9840/9940 drives Cleaning cartridge Requirements & Procedure

Clean (amber) LED on(steady). Drive requires cleaning because:
- A firmware- defined length of tape has passed over the R/W heads.
- A read/write perm (permanent error) is detected, and at least one-half the firmware-defined length of tape has passed over the R/W heads.

To clean the tape drive:
CAUTION: Equipment Damage- Do not wet-clean the tape drive. Do not clean the tape drive unless the Clean indicator lights.

I. Make sure the tape drive is not in use before proceeding to step II.
II. Unload any data cartridge in the tape drive.
III. Insert a cleaning cartridge (appropriate for the drive model) in the tape drive.
Once loaded, the activity light flashes. When the activity and clean indicators turn off, cleaning is complete and the tape drive unloads the cleaning cartridge.

NOTE: The tape drive might immediately eject the cleaning cartridge and show the message Exp ClCart in the front panel display. This indicates that the cleaning cartridge has been used its maximum number of cleaning cycles. Discard the worn cleaning cartridge and insert a new cleaning cartridge into the tape drive.

If CHK xxxx appears in the tape drive's front panel display, where xxxx is the fault symptom code (FSC), a cleaning cartridge failure occurred.Try the procedure again with a different cleaning cartridge.

IV. Remove the cleaning cartridge from the tape drive.
This completes the cleaning process and the tape drive is ready to resume normal operations.


6- Cleaning Tapes Max Usage and ID

T10000 cleaning cartridges:

• CT label used with A/B drives, 50 uses
• CC label, used with C drive only, 50 uses
• CL label, used with A/B/C/D drives, 50 uses

Drive cleaning procedures are listed in Chapter 3 of the T10000 Operator's Guide. However, the procedure is really for the rack mounted tape drive. The steps are basically the same as for the 9840/9940 drives. The rack mounted T10000 is the only drive with the operator panel so you can see the Clean indicator on and see the error message for an expired cleaning cartridge.

The T9840 document is called a User's Reference Manual (Chapter 4 has process) while the T9940 document is called an Operator's Guide (Chapter 4 has process).

To view the Op Panel of a 9840/9940 drive you would have to open the library door which brings a whole set of other processes and considerations into play.

Our big libraries support auto clean and most tape backup apps can control loading of cleaning cartridges.

Unless there is an assumption that the drive tray has been pulled from the library and powered up using the tray tool and a spare power supply, these processes might work.

To cover the T10000 one most likely needs to deal with VOP especially if you have to remove a data cartridge from the drive.

tape cleaning, DLT, SDLT, LTO, Cleaning cartridge, Cleaning routine, Cleaning cartridge life usage, 9840, 9940
Previously Published As 83338

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