LTO cleaning cartridge
The IBM® LTO cleaning cartridge is used to clean LTO tape drives.
To maintain the operating efficiency of the drive, IBM
supplies a cleaning cartridge with the first frame of each media type. Thus if the tape library
contains frames with both LTO and 3592 tape drives, IBM supplies one LTO cleaning cartridge and one 3592
cleaning cartridge regardless of how many frames of each type are in the library. Each drive
determines when it needs to be cleaned and alerts the library. The TS4500 tape library automatically cleans drives as needed; however,
you can also use the TS4500 management GUI to initiate a manual
cleaning if necessary.
Note: The volume serial (VOLSER) number on the cleaning cartridge's bar code
label must begin with CLN or the library treats the cleaning cartridge as a data cartridge
during an inventory.
The LTO Cleaning Cartridge is compatible with all LTO tape drives.
Before a drive can be cleaned, ensure that a cleaning cartridge is loaded in the library. You can load multiple cleaning cartridges and store them in any cartridge storage slots.
The tape library monitors the use of all cleaning cartridges. The IBM cleaning cartridges are valid for 50 uses. When a cleaning cartridge is
almost expired, a warning icon displays on the TS4500 management GUI. When a cleaning cartridge has expired, an error icon displays. You can also enable automatic
eject of expired cleaning cartridges through the TS4500 management GUI by selecting .
Note: It is the operator’s responsibility to monitor the use of all cleaning
cartridges and to remove and replace expired cartridges as necessary.