16 LTO Media Handbook
The cleaning light on an LTO drive turns on for the following reasons:
• A periodic maintenance threshold has exceeded.
– If the tape drive has processed the number of equivalent FFP,
including read and writes for the generation of the drive (this can be
converted to TB) before reaching the maximum MM.
– The drive has processed the maximum MM for the generation of the
drive indicated (MMxE6) before reaching the maximum amount of
data that can be processed.
• A high error rate has occurred. This can happen due to the following:
– A head clog
– A hardware failure on the drive
– Bad or marginal media
NOTE: If you perform a backup with verification, you see a cleaning request twice
as frequently as you do when you perform a backup without verification.
Verification doubles the number of passes the tape makes over the head.
NOTE: Most backup applications support Tape Alerts. If the tape drive requests
cleaning, the backup software notifies you of the need to clean.
Characteristics of Expired LTO Cleaning Tape
Table 9. Characteristics of Expired LTO Cleaning Tape in Various Drives
Drive Type Cleaning with a Good Tape Cleaning with an Expired Tape
Dell PowerVault
110T LTO
• Ready light blinks green.
• Use cleaning cartridge
light turns on.
•Ejects tape when done.
•Ready light blinks green.
• Ejects tape out shortly after
inserting.
Dell PowerVault
110T LTO-1
• Power light on solid green.
• Activity light on solid
green.
• Status light on solid amber.
•Ejects tape when
complete.
• Power light on solid green.
• Activity light on solid green.
• Status light blinks amber.
• Ejects tape shortly after inserting.
