Manually Cleaning Tape Drives

This topic describes how to manually clean tape drives. For an overview of manual tape drive cleaning, see About Manually Cleaning Tape Drives.

The associated partition is taken offline during the operation and brought back online when the operation completes. You will be asked to confirm that you want to take the partition offline.

Users with administrative privileges can manually clean tape drives, but users with user privileges cannot.

NOTE: Be sure to unload the tape drive before attempting to clean it. If the tape drive is loaded with a cartridge, it will not be available for this operation.

NOTE: If the library contains zero import/export (I/E) station slots, you will not be able to manually clean tape drives. See About I/E Station Slots for more information.

The following procedure requires you to have access to both the remote Web client and the local operator panel. If you need to perform this procedure remotely, you must first insert a cleaning cartridge into the library's topmost I/E station slot before performing this procedure from a remote location.

  1. Using the Web client, select Tools > Drive Operations.

    The Tools - Drive Operations screen appears.

  2. Using the Web client, select Clean a tape drive and click Next.

    If more than one partition exists, the Operations - Clean Drive screen appears.

  3. Select a partition and click Next.

    The Clean Drive - Partition (Mode) screen appears, where Partition is the name of the partition and Mode is the current mode of the partition. This screen contains a list of tape drives assigned to the partition.

  4. If you have no cleaning slots configured, skip this step (you will use the top I/E station slot as the source for your cleaning cartridge). If you have at least one cleaning slot configured, you are asked to Select Cleaning Source. (For instructions on how to configure cleaning slots, see Configuring Cleaning Slots.) Select which location to take the cleaning cartridge from:
  5. Using the Web client, select one or more tape drives to clean.
  6. NOTE: If not all tape drives appear on the screen, use the Page 1 of x arrows to view the additional tape drives.

    NOTE: Bold column headings in the table can be sorted. For example, selecting the Location column heading will sort by location coordinates.

  7. Do one of the following:
  8. Click Apply.
  9. A CAUTION dialog box opens letting you know the partition will be taken offline and asking you to confirm you want to perform the operation.

  10. Click OK.
  11. The Progress Window appears. The Progress Window contains information on the action, elapsed time, and status of the requested operation. Do one of the following:

See also: