Drive Cleaning?

[Mapleuser]

I have deployed Veeam to several of my company's branch office and they don't usually have an IT staff.
Without a simple cleaning operation like Backup Exec's right click on drive and clean, I really can't perform the cleaning remotely.
Do I really want to guide a non-IT staff over the phone to load tapes and go through all the hardware steps to clean?
And repeat this for every site? I guess not

Looking at this thread, nothing being done after 3 years!
Seems that Veeam is really lacking in many areas and I'm going to re-consider going back to Backup Exec which seems to be a more well-rounded backup solution

[veremin]

Looking at this thread, nothing being done after 3 years!

Actually, this feature has been given a high priority already and is scheduled to be released in one of the next product releases; so, stay tuned. Thanks.

[Didi7]

Hopefully in the next 9.0 Update!

Regards,
Didi7

[veremin]

It's a feature rather than a product enhancements. Thus, don't expect to see it the product update. Thanks.

[Moebius]

I have two IBM tape libraries (TS3100 and TS3200) that I set to autoclean. Maybe I've just been lucky so far, but they seem to be able to clean the drives when needed without disrupting the ongoing tape jobs. I guess they wait for the current tape to be ejected, flag the drive as busy, clean the drive and then resume the tape job. It's a feature of the IBM libraries maybe?

[rreed]

^This is what our Dell TL2000 (IBM-based drives) does. We may/may not get the "drive needs cleaning" email from Veeam, but next time the drives are quiet it cleans itself and goes on.

Still, this (and verify) does need to be added asap please.

[mike.r]

This is a feature every tape library has.
The market for tape libraries is small, the (unofficial) list of libraries compatible with veeam is even less.
Also most of them are technicaly identical.
And yes: Veeam get the message "drive needs cleaning" from library.
The problem from the first day on is, that Veeam can not PAUSE a tape job, put in a cleaning tape,
wait until cleaning job is done and CONTINUE the tape job with next tape.

The problem is clear, the solution is clear and Veeam got it on a "high priority list".
So, just do it !!!

[DDIT]

Bump.

With the imminent release of 9.5 can we expect any enhancements to the way Veeam handles a multi-tape job if the drive requests cleaning part way through?

Like others here, I have a SuperLoader 3 and also experiencing issues when multi-tape jobs fail after many hours as the AutoClean function has kicked in during a tape swap and Veeam has failed the job with a timeout error.

[veremin]

With the imminent release of 9.5 can we expect any enhancements to the way Veeam handles a multi-tape job if the drive requests cleaning part way through?

Yep, you can. According to the plan, drive cleaning option will be delivered as a part of 9.5 release. Thanks.

[Didi7]

Has this really been implemented in VBR 9.5 ?

Regards,
Didi7

[Shestakov]

Yes, the feature will be available in v 9.5

[Didi7]

Interesting!

[Dima P.]

Hey folks. The wait is over - new 9.5 is out and this option is available in tape library properties. Just do not forget to disable the cleaning in native tools if you are going to use tape cleaning within Veeam B&R.

More information regarding new features - Whats new in 9.5

[hukay]

Would we have to an option to tell Veeam that such and such is cleaning tape?

[Dima P.]

hukay,

Load it to the driver. Such tape should be recognized as cleaning during inventory operation.

[monstermania]

Hi fellow suffers,
we are waiting for that feature a long, long time.
The last times i've updated ASAP to new versions of B&R. And everytime we had some problems after the update.
So, before i update to B&R 9.5 i wait a little bit longer.
Can someone confirm that cleaning support now working as expected?

best regards
Dirk

[Shestakov]

Hi Dirk!
Tape cleaning works fine, but you can just wait for a first update which is going to be released in 4-8 weeks - this will have all teething issues addressed.
Thanks!

[hukay]

hukay,

Load it to the driver. Such tape should be recognized as cleaning during inventory operation.

I have tried running inventory multiple times, and it comes back with "Unrecognized". Not sure if it has anything to do with the tape or program. Might wait till next update and see how it stacks up.

Thank You

[Dima P.]

hukay,

That’s expected - cleaning media is stored in Unrecognized system media pool. Once cleaning is requested tape drive will take it from there.

[hukay]

Dima,

Okay, just wanted to make sure that thats how it supposed to show. Since there is no way of telling from User POV.

[hukay]

Apologize for double post, but forgot to include, how would we tell if auto clean ran fine or there was an issue with it?

[lyapkost]

Hi. In case of any issues during cleaning (for example, no cleaning tapes found in the library or tape drive sends alert 'cleaning required' just after cleaning process) the job finishes with warning.

[mike.r]

Hi,
after using b&r 9.5 for a while, I have this situation:
Tape job used 8 tapes, after writing to tape 8 (last tape), the drive liked to be cleaned.
B&R tape job recognized that, sent a tape alert to logfile and ended the job with a warning.

Result:
Tape job ended succsessfully
Drive still likes to be cleaned

This is kind of OK, but it would have been better, if b&R had put in the cleaning tape (after writing to tape8) and continue / end the job after cleaning.

[Dima P.]

mike.r,

When enabled, cleaning check is performed at the beginning of every tape job. If cleaning tape is missing or locked, tape job will proceed. However, VBR logs a cleaning request and cleans the drive at the beginning of any tape job targeting this drive.

[mike.r]

Hi Dima P.,
I see !
Unfortunately it is difficult to get that situation again and double-check it.

[BrendaS]

What currently happens with a standalone tape drive when in the middle of a backup, the drive requests a cleaning.

Will the backup abort if I insert a cleaning tape when it requests the next tape ? Ideally, I'd like it to do a clean and then have it complain not a valid tape, insert a data tape and then continue on it's merry way when I insert the next tape in the sequence, but I'm not game to try it considering I'm ten tapes into a backup (yeah, I know I need a library, but we work with what we've got).

thanks
Brenda

[Dima P.]

Brenda,

If a job is running it is not interrupted by cleaning. Instead, cleaning should be performed at the beginning of next job run automatically.

What currently happens with a standalone tape drive

Unfortunately standalone drives are not supported. Automated drive cleaning requires cleaning media loaded in the tape library.

[radion]

Will we see the cleaning task inside a tape job protocol or will it log as a separate task e.g. in the "System" category under history?

Thanks,
radion

[Dima P.]

radion,

It should be a part of regular backup to tape/file to tape job session.

[DDIT]

Hi,

I have been using the automated drive cleaning with Veeam 9.5 for a few weeks. Whilst it works well and save me the manual administration of cleaning the drive, it still marks the current tape job as 'warning'.

I understand this happens because the check for cleaning is done at the start of each job. Is there a reason why the cleaning check and actual cleaning cannot be done at the end of the job that reports it? And therefore finish as 'successful'.

Thanks.