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My needs IMO were simple, what I wanted was: The challenge was finding a server that met all of these requirements. The really low end servers got me two of the three but no redundant power supplies, the high end servers could get me all three but were prohibitively expensive. I wanted a mid-level server, specifically a Poweredge 1800. The problem is that you can't configure a PE 1800 on the Dell web site for Duplexing, you have two basic choices, you go with SCSI disks where they stick you with a single backplane hot-swap drive cage that precludes the implementation of duplexing, or you can go with SATA (essentially higher performance IDE) disks. With the SATA models you get a different drive cage that accepts standard non-hot-swap 3.5" hard drives and no backplane. Giving up on the web site I picked up the phone and tried to talk to a person (this is something I've never been forced to do before), oops it's after house call back when you have better things to do. Call back during working hours and get routed to a Technical Sales Representative, now a TSR is supposed to be at least familiar with the technology they help sell and have a basic understanding of what their customers might do with that technology. This TSR was different, apparently he was new and not particularly well trained. Once I managed to explain to him the concept of duplexing he told me "I can't configure that", I then went and tracked down the support documents (on the Dell web site) and found the parts I needed (they were available with other servers) and sent him a web site shopping cart that was close (a SATA model) and told him exactly what he needed to do to change it to make it what I wanted. I even gave him the Dell SKU numbers to make his job easier. A couple days go by and he gets back to me, not only did he repeat the ever so helpful I can't configure that line but he had the gall to send me a quote for a server that was about as far off from what I had originally asked for as possible. At this point I was pretty annoyed and I fired off a somewhat (but not undeservedly) harsh reply:
His response:
Which reinforced my belief that he wasn't listening (or understanding) what I was saying because I didn't want the 1420 at all as I couldn't get redundant power supplies with it. Now I knew at this point I could just order a PE 1800 SATA model and then get the controllers and drives from other places but I was pretty annoyed at this point. Out of frustration I went to the HP web site and saw what they had. I found the Proliant ML350 which met all of my requirements, I could do duplexing with an optional duplex back plane, it had optional redundant power supplies and was 64-bit. When I priced it out on a resellers web site it was however pretty expensive, almost the price of the higher end Dell servers that had what I wanted. Luckily (for once) the company I work for buys a TON (several tons actually) of HP servers every year so I knew I could get a pretty hefty discount. As it turns out I was right and the final HP price is a decent amount less than the PE 1800 that I tried, and failed to buy. Admittedly, the HP servers of today aren't nearly as bad as the Compaq servers of the past, they are using industry standard parts now and we haven't had any problems with support (then again we are a large customer) but I still have some major reservations about going the HP route. If you don't know me you can't comprehend what it means that I'm poised to buy an HP (Compaq) server, imagine Senator McCarthy? joining the Communist Party or maybe Bill Gates running Linux it just doesn't make any sense at all. But here I am and here it is. |
