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Tim S.
Asked: 2015-05-20 08:22:53 +0800 CST

Determining LTO Cleaning Tape Expiration?

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I have some LTO tape drives, and use cleaning tapes as required, but the lifetime of the cleaning tapes is not as predictable as I would have expected. I'm looking for a way to query the system, whether it be the robot (Quantum i6000) or Veritas Netbackup to see if the tape has actually expired.

Honestly I'm not exactly sure what causes a tape to be expired -- I'd assume it winds to the end and stops, so it doesn't reuse a previously used section. Currently Netbackup is storing the number of "available cleans" in the "number of times mounted" field, which always starts out at 50, but I've noticed cleaning tapes can expire after as few as 15 cleaning cycles, perhaps for a particularly dirty drive. Thanks.

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4 Answers

  1. Very simple with an IBM LTO cleaning cartridge and a Tivoli Server. (which means it may be slightly different for whatever hardware combination you're using) but the command I use is simply:

    query libvolume f=d

    Or when "automatic cleaning" is enabled, the usage is accessed via:

     Main Menu > Usage Statistics > Cleaning Cartridge Usage

    Good luck and enjoy.

    Oh and shelf life/uses is determined by manufacture, I don't ever go beyond 50. I get nervous at around 40 uses.

    Edit/Update: Confirmed the label of a Quantum Cleaning Tape says maximum uses is 50. Tandberg and Fujifilm LTOs do not have their cleaning tapes marked accordingly with any recommendations on usage.

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  2. Quantum's official recommendation is to hand this task over to the backup application:

    LTO Tape Drive Cleaning (Quantum Support).

    This basically means that your backup software would have to handle the retention/expiration period of the barcoded cleaning tapes. If I recall correctly you should be able to enter an expiration date/period in Networker for individual tapes.

    Related issues with retention/expiration policies can be found in the following articles in the Networker Support Forum:

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  3. As can be checked here, there are three kinds of Ultrium drives with respect to cleaning, those of types I, S and H. The number of cleanings a cartridge supports is entirely dependant on the drive type.

    Drives of type I (from IBM) must be cleaned by a Type I cleaning cartridge (or an Universal cartridge), and a cartridge supports either 15 or 50 cleanings there, either an I cartridge or an universal one. These are e.g. the IBM 3580 (supporting 50 cleanings) or the IBM StorageSmart Half-Height (supporting 15).

    Drives of type S (from Seagate) must be cleaned by a Type S cleaning cartridge (or an Universal cartridge), and a cartridge supports 50 cleanings there.

    Drives of type H (from HP) must be cleaned by a type H cleaning cartridge (or an Universal cartridge), and a cartridge supports 15 cleanings there.

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  4. Googling slightly, it seems that apart from Netbackup-initiated cleanings, there could be additional cleanings initiated from elsewhere (your tape library/drives) and some of drives actually require regular cleaning. So you may want to check if this could be the case - I assume Netbackup wouldn't know about those.

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