Cleaning Tape Not Recognized in Veeam with Quantum Scalar i3

Hi ​@itsadmin 

you have to put the cleaning tape in a normal slot on the partition presented to Veeam.

My recommendation :
I prefer to configure cleaning slot in the library and configure a policie. Cleaning slots are system assigned, reserved storage slots to store LTO cleaning media for library-initiated, automatic drive cleaning operations (configurable as a partition cleaning policy on a per partition basis), or user-initiated, manual drive cleaning operations.

Configure a policie for partition Cleaning
 

Manual Cleaning (Default): Allows you to manually initiate cleaning. You will receive a RAS ticket notification that cleaning is needed.

Application-Managed Cleaning: Allows you to let a third party application determine when drives need to be cleaned.

Library-Initiated Automatic Cleaning: Allows you to set up the library to communicate with drives to determine when they need to be cleaned and automatically clean the drive. You must have cleaning slots defined to use this feature.

As stated by Stabz it is usually best to let the tape unit do the auto-cleaning with the tape, but as noted Veeam needs to see the tape in the partition first.

I’ve already tried the initial steps that were suggested, including:

Steps already taken:

• Rescanned the tape library in Veeam

• Performed a full inventory

• Ran the catalog operation again

I might be overlooking something either in Veeam or on the Quantum Scalar side.

Would it help if I uploaded screenshots of the current configuration?

I also just noticed that I’m not even able to initiate the tape cleaning process manually from the Scalar web interface — or maybe I’m in the wrong menu/view.

Is the Scalar unit partitioned or are all the slots in one partition presented to Veeam?  That is where you need to look first.  Unsure about the cleaning option in the menus as I don’t use Scalar at all.

​@itsadmin you must first switch your drive offline for a manual cleaning.

could you please provide a capture of your partitions ?

 

You can try application-managed cleaning but I would select the library automatic one instead.

I've tried all three options, including application-managed, but I still can't get it to work.
At this point, I may need to contact Quantum Scalar support to investigate further.

Might be a good idea to get this one sorted.

Little lost from the thread but ​@itsadmin, can you confirm you configured a specific cleaning slot as opposed to inserting the cleaning tape into an empty slot on the partition accessible by Veeam? Is that correct?

I haven’t worked with Quantum closely on this, but other tape vendors I’ve worked with do it the following way:

Manual or Library-initiated cleaning? Use a cleaner slot for the cleaning tape, cleaner will not be visible to client applications as typically the hardware prevents access from client applications to the cleaning slot (see below)

Application-initiated cleaning? Store the cleaner tape in a normal slot in the partition presented to the client application. The client application will check for alerts from the tape hardware an initiate drive cleaning as alerts appear

For Veeam to manage the cleaning, you’ll want to use Application-initiated cleaning or whatever equivalent your tape hardware documentation calls it. (DMA, media server, client application, etc)

For the vendors I worked with, the point of a cleaning slot is to prevent client applications from being able to grab the cleaning tape and to guarantee a location for the robotic arm to find a cleaning tape at. You don’t want the client application accidentally moving a cleaner tape to drive and trying to do normal tape operations with it -- while the tape vendors and client applications should have protections against accidentally working with the cleaner tape, these protections can fail, so my understanding was the tape vendors decided not to take chances.

Try the following, I have some hope it will work:

1. Set the Tape hardware to Application Managed Cleaning
2. Remove the cleaning slot
3. Move the cleaner tape to an empty slot in the partition Veeam can see
4. Rescan in the tape hardware (if possible)
5. Rescan tape server in Veeam Console
   1. You may need to perform an inventory as well, this should be pretty fast
   2. You should also see the cleaning tape in unrecognized and can just inventory that tape directly
6. The cleaner should now show up in the slot you placed it in
7. (optional but do it if not done yet) Configure Veeam to automatically clean the drive: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/vsphere/auto_drive_cleaning.html?zoom_highlight=tape+cleaning&ver=120

Little lost from the thread but ​@itsadmin, can you confirm you configured a specific cleaning slot as opposed to inserting the cleaning tape into an empty slot on the partition accessible by Veeam? Is that correct?

yes thats right. You cann se this here in the blue slot 

 

Manual or Library-initiated cleaning? Use a cleaner slot for the cleaning tape, cleaner will not be visible to client applications as typically the hardware prevents access from client applications to the cleaning slot (see below)

 

I try to use al 3 options.

At no option veeam say that it dont find the cleaning tape.


Application-initiated cleaning? Store the cleaner tape in a normal slot in the partition presented to the client application. The client application will check for alerts from the tape hardware an initiate drive cleaning as alerts appear

this is set on veeam.
 

Try the following, I have some hope it will work:

1. Set the Tape hardware to Application Managed Cleaning
2. Remove the cleaning slot
3. Move the cleaner tape to an empty slot in the partition Veeam can see
4. Rescan in the tape hardware (if possible)
5. Rescan tape server in Veeam Console
   1. You may need to perform an inventory as well, this should be pretty fast
   2. You should also see the cleaning tape in unrecognized and can just inventory that tape directly
6. The cleaner should now show up in the slot you placed it in
7. (optional but do it if not done yet) Configure Veeam to automatically clean the drive: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/vsphere/auto_drive_cleaning.html?zoom_highlight=tape+cleaning&ver=120

this i have tried, but it doesnt work either. 

I'm surprised that I can't initiate a cleaning through the Scalar either.

I found the solution for Veeam: I unmarked the cleaning tape as a cleaning tape in Quantum and moved it into the Veeam partition. After a rescan, Veeam detected the tape as unrecognized and then initiated the cleaning.

Why it still doesn’t work through the Quantum Scalar interface remains a mystery to me.

Glad you got it going itsadmin, and to be clear, what you did there is what I proposed, but probably the steps are described differently in the Quantum UI, it’s nothing unusual just how they call it.

I’m glad you got it going, but the main idea on why it had issues is that the cleaner tape/slots are not for client applications like Veeam, they’re for the library to self-manage. From my experience, if a tape is reserved via cleaning slot or marked as cleaning tape in the tape hardware specially, then that tape/slot are not presented to client applications interacting with the hardware.

But regardless, sounds like you’re in the right spot to at least let Veeam manage the cleaning for you. As for why you couldn’t from the Quantum, would be best to ask Quantum support.

Glad you found the correct setting, that's what i said in my firt answers

you have to put the cleaning tape in a normal slot on the partition presented to Veeam.