Cleaning Tape Library Drives

Following are ways to clean tape library drives:

  • For certain tape libraries, you may be able to instruct the tape library hardware to clean the drive. This is performed outside of the application. See your tape library’s operating guide.

  • For certain tape libraries, you can clean a drive by using the load feature in the Operate Tape Library window.

    1. If AutoClean is a feature of your tape library, disable AutoClean on the tape library.

    2. In DPX , set the Cleaning Slot parameter when you configure the tape library or edit the tape library configuration.

    3. From the Operate Tape Library window, select the load media function.

    4. Drag the cleaning tape from the cleaning slot to the drive, or select the cleaning tape and the drive, then click Go.

    5. From the Operate Tape Library window, select the unload tape from device function.

Note. Cleaning tape library drives in this way is a function of the tape library, not DPX. Therefore, DPX counts this as one pass toward the cleaning threshold and does not reset the cleaning threshold counter.

  • You can automatically instruct your tape library to clean a drive after the drive has been used a specified number of times.

    1. If AutoClean is a feature of your tape library, disable AutoClean on the tape library.

    2. In DPX, set the Cleaning Slot and Cleaning Threshold parameters when you configure the tape library or edit the tape library configuration.

  • You can define and schedule a tape library cleaning job.

    1. If AutoClean is a feature of your tape library, disable AutoClean on the tape library.

    2. In DPX, set the Cleaning Slot parameter to define at least one cleaning tape slot when you configure the tape library or edit the tape library configuration.

    3. If at least one cleaning tape in a cleaning slot is not assigned to a media pool, add it by doing one of the following in the Operate Tape Library window:

      • If the cleaning tape has a bar code and the tape library has a bar code reader, add the cleaning tape to a media pool by selecting Use Barcode in the Media_Label pull-down list.

      • If the cleaning tape does not have a bar code or the tape library does not have a barcode reader and there is a free volume serial number available in a media pool, add the cleaning tape to a media pool by selecting Use Free VOLSER in the Media_Label pull-down list.

      • If the cleaning tape does not have a bar code or the tape library does not have a barcode reader and there is no free volume serial number available in a media pool, add the cleaning tape to a media pool by selecting Specify Starting VOLSER in the Media_Label pull-down list.

    4. Select the Control Devices tab on the Function Tab bar. Then click Tape Library Cleaning Jobs. If you right-click, the Clean Tape Library window opens as a new window.

    5. In the Clean Tape Library window, do one of the following:

      • To clean all drives in a tape library, select the tape library.

      • To clean a single drive in a tape library, select the drive.

    6. Schedule and save the cleaning job.

Tip. You can run the job without scheduling it by saving the job and click Run or Run and Monitor.

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