Common Problems

• Trouble with IRS Compliance?
• Worried About Your Accountability?
• Data Corrupted?
• Costs Out-of-Control?
• Too Many Jobs Aborts or Processing Errors?

• Suffered a (natural) Disaster?
• Suffering from Poor System Performance?
• Too Many Media Formats?
• Need to Improve Data Center Profitability?
• Migrating to New Media Technology?

If you are experiencing high error activity or a loss of data integrity, Data Link Associates can help by performing a library profile or a library audit.

• Determine your data center's media-related performance inhibitors
• Analyze your data center's media performance and compliance with published IRS, NCITS (formerly ANSI), ISO 9002 and drive manufacturers' standards
• Recommend ROI-based solutions to meet drive manufacturers' productivity targets

What is a library profile?
A library profile is a thorough examination of your data center¹s tape library. Typically, a library profile is able to pinpoint problem areas before a significant loss in system efficiency or even worse a loss of your corporate data.

The Profile Process
Data Link starts by sending technical specialists on-site to review your entire library. Our process is to systematically pull and record cartridge serial numbers and look for obvious problem areas, such as damaged labels, cracked cartridges, and other external inhibitors. Next the specialists will profile your drives and automated library systems by type and analyze your system reports. Once the profile is complete, the serial number information is forwarded to our technical center for evaluation.

The results of our analysis are used to generate the profile report, which includes:

• An analysis of the composition of the library, including classification of inhibitor tapes or poor performers
• An analysis of your drive and system performance based on your own system reports
• Specific recommendations for improving system performance and the overall quality of your library

What is a Library Audit?
One step beyond a library profile, a library audit includes actual media testing on a sample of your library. Its purpose is to identify any possible media deterioration, detect any early aging, and confirm the expected improvements after cleaning. Library audits are ideal when sites are suffering higher error rates or retries, but are having difficulty isolating the problem.

Typical Audit Procedures

1. Review media housekeeping tasks, handling, environmental controls, storage, and transportation systems and compared with established NCITS, ISO, IBM and IRS recommendations.
2. Collect swab samples from within the operating environment, storage library, drive heads, and tape path for chemical and spectrum analysis.
3. Establish whether errors are temporary or caused by surface contamination by testing a statistical sample of media using appropriate test equipment and specifications. Typically loose oxide and debris can be removed by cleaning. However, if cleaning doesn¹t improve performance, it is a sign the tape may be deteriorating due to physical damage or chemical instability of the tape coating.
4. Visually examine any cartridges that still have a higher than expected error count after cleaning to determine the nature of the principal failures.
5. Deliver a detailed report with recommendations made by media type, age, vendor, etc. including environmental and storage conditions