I do backups to a HP Ultrium 2 tape drive (HP StorageWorks Ultrium 448). The drive has a 'Clean' LED that supposedly will light up or blink when the drive needs to be cleaned.
The drive has been in use since october 2005, and still the 'Clean' light has never been lit.
The drive statistics are:
- Total hours in use: 1603
- Total bytes written: 19.7 TB
- Total bytes read: 19.3 TB
My question is:
- How many hours of use can I expect before I need to clean the drive?
Edit:
I have not encountered any errors using the drive. I do restore tests every two months, and every backup is verified.
Edit 2:
The user manual says: "HP StorageWorks Ultrium tape drives do not require regular cleaning. An Ultrium universal cleaning cartridge should only be used when the orange Clean LED is flashing."
Update:
It is now May 2010 (4.5 years of use), and the LED is still off, I have not cleaned, backups verify and regular restore tests are done.
Best Answer
We have lots of LTO-2 drives scattered around the north west of the UK. On average we find they need cleaning every two months, that is with doing a backup 5 days a week so that would be after about 50 backups. How many hours use that is I'd have to guess. Say an average of 6 hours per backup so that's 300 hours use.
However it does seem to depend a lot on the site. Some sites need to clean the drive once a month or even sooner, whilst others seem to go months and months without a clean. I suspect it depends on how dusty the environment is and how careful the staff are in handling the tapes.
I am surprised that you haven't cleaned the drive for 4 years, but I suppose with only 1,600 hours use that's just about plausible. If you're at all concerned about the drive performance download the HP Library and Tape Tools tester from the HP web site and do an acceptance test. If that comes up green HP think your drive is OK!
JR