Re: Server Grade Hardware Purchase [OT]

On Fri, June 27, 2008 6:57 pm, Bob K Mertz wrote:
>
> Interesting.... I wonder if they are doing something similar with the
> RAM for the servers (thus explaining the problems we've been having)
>
Probably. :) The "HP RAM" conversion process literally involved soldering
wires between pins on the RAM and then it magically worked. What a scam...

> I do have to give Dell credit for the support page and for the fact
> that they are supporters of open source but on that note I think Sun
> probably has a much better support for open source issues.  I also

Hm.. good to know. I know that I have always been impressed with how well
built Sun servers are, if nothing else.

> especially true with a lot of the PERC controllers and, to be honest,
> I think PERC is my biggest gripe about Dell.  From my experience they
> have been total crap.  I used to work for a company that used all Dell
Yeah, I agree with you here and you have a good point. To be honest, my
builds usually just do software RAID and those situations where I do
hardware, it is with 3Ware controllers. They have their quirks too, but
are not nearly as bad as some of the PERC (Adaptec) models.

> (we're talking about 15 racks of dell servers) and I was daily walking
> around reseating drives because PERC controllers (incorrectly) said it
> was a bad drive.  Once you'd pull a drive out and put it back in it
> would think "oh, new drive" and would run for months or years without

LOL We have had the same problem recently. It is good to know that someone
else has experienced this. I guess that explains why Dell Tech Support is
so adamant that you do just that -- reseat the drive -- before they will
warranty replace it.

> Interesting.  How old are these servers?  Between all of my customers
> I probably have no less than 500 drives in supermicro systems that I
> deal with and I've never actually had one break on me -- well, with
> the exception of leaving one on the floor and stepping on it :)

Not stepping on them is a good thing. ;) One server is probably 3 years
old (the most broken one) and the newer chassis are still on the market.

> however, have never seen the difficulty removing drives like you
> mention.  I'm curious, did you buy your systems from supermicro
> directly or from a supermicro system integrator?  This can make a huge
> difference.

I imagine they were not bought directly from SuperMicro, but from a 3rd
party reseller. Why do you say it makes a big difference?

-Dennis