[OpenIndiana-discuss] Good enterprise hardware

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On Sat, 19 Oct 2013, Edward Ned Harvey (openindiana) wrote:

> I'm planning to build a ZFS storage server in the datacenter. 
> Mission critical storage for virtualization, requiring hardware 
> support, 24/7, 4hr, sameday onsite.
>
> I thought I was going with silicon mechanics, and just learned, that 
> their 24/7 4hr sameday service is pointless - because they don't get 
> parts to you.  You have to buy spare parts including memory and 
> whatever else, but if something like a motherboard or CPU dies, you 
> still have to ship it back to the depot.
>
> My next thought is, obviously I can get some good hardware with good 
> support from oracle.  But I'd like to know what other alternatives 
> there are.
>
> Recommendations?

Using a whole hot-standby system (or at least a well-tested and burned 
in standby system) may be best.  If you purchase from the right vendor 
you can likely get a reasonable price since the big-brand vendor 
likely charges 2X or 3X the amount for the same thing.

Spare parts is likely second best, although they may charge more for 
the spare parts than a whole system.  The problem with spare parts is 
that they may not work and the warranty expires while the parts are in 
your care.

A support contract from Oracle may be reasonable but sometimes system 
hardware does not fail cleanly and they may waste considerable time 
trying to remotely diagnose the problem while your system is 
misbehaving.

Bob
-- 
Bob Friesenhahn
bfriesen at simple.dallas.tx.us, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/