Dell NetWorker 19.9 Administration Guide

PDF

Tape alert

The TapeAlert feature provides, among other things, diagnostic information for devices for which hardware cleaning is enabled.

NetWorker provides the following attributes for tape device cleaning:

Cleaning required
Cleaning interval
Date last cleaned

When the Common Device Interface (CDI) is enabled, TapeAlert attributes provide tape drive status. SCSI Commands must be selected for the CDI attribute on the Configuration tab of the relevant device’s Properties. If CDI cannot be enabled, TapeAlert is not supported.

Devices that are capable of TapeAlert perform constant self-diagnostics and communicate the diagnostic information via the nsrmmd program to logs that can be viewed in the Monitoring task.

The following TapeAlert attributes are found in the device’s Properties, on the Volume tab.

TapeAlert Critical: Displays critical diagnostic information, such as for media or drive failure, when user intervention is urgent and data is at risk.
TapeAlert Warning: Displays a message when the media or device needs servicing.
TapeAlert Information: Displays status information.

The following table describes the nature of the tape alert levels.

Table 1. Tape alert severity
Severity	Urgently requires user intervention	Risks data loss	Explanatory
Critical	X	X
Warning		X	X
Informative			X

The messages indicate tape and drive states related to tape drive read/write management, cleaning management, or drive hardware errors.