Greetings I've been stewing on this topic for a while; and waiting/hoping that someone from Dell would chime in with their perspective. Now that Howard has stepped in to present the company position, it is time for me to give some feedback so that the Dell representatives following the thread see the diversity of their customers who do not like this HDD compatibility policy.
I manage all the computer systems for a small consulting firm. As our firm grew during the early years we realized that we needed a server to make is most efficient for the staff to work together as a team, be able to backup all of our data, and for reliability. We purchased our first Dell server (PE2600) in early 2004 and installed RHEL3. I had never run Linux before and have learned everything from the ground up, hands-on, with a lot of help from this and the RedHat discussion lists. I bought Dell because their server systems had a reputation for being reliable, and there was some support structure with Linux. I have always bought Dell desktops and have rarely had a problem with them. As our work grew, we added more drives to that PE2600 to expand our storage; most recently last year. At the time I purchased the additional drives (Dec. 2008), Dell no longer offered the same drive sizes and speeds that I had in this server and I had to go to a different distributer to get them. I went to Dell first to get the drives, and was willing to pay what I knew to be a slight/moderate premium for the drives, but was turned away. Apparently our server was already too old for Dell to provide the drive support. This same server is still running rock solid and is providing more services to our staff (remote VPN access) and clients (FTP) than its original purpose as a file server. I expect that this server will still continue to run and be functional to our company for more years to come; however, I recognize that it is near time to relegate it to backup and secondary duties, and upgrade my hardware and OS. I have been planning on purchasing a new Dell Server (looking at the T610/T710) and have been trying to estimate our needs in terms of storage space and services for the next 5+ years. I expect that our next server purchase will be used for probably a minimum of 5-7 years before it is replaced. That is also why I am waiting to make my hardware purchase after RHEL6 is released. If my next Dell server includes a H700 controller I am very concerned that if I need additional, or replacement, drives 4+ years down the line, will Dell still be supplying them or will they have been dropped from the parts inventory because the server is too old. If Dell is going to lock us in to their drives, then can they guarantee us that those drives will be available 4, 5, or even 7 years later. I don't want to have to over-buy storage now, when it isn't needed, just because it may not be available from Dell later. And if it isn't available from Dell when I need it later, I don't want to be telling my partners that we need to replace our server because we can't get a couple of spare drives for our perfectly good working server. I read the white paper referenced in Howard's post. It presents a very good case for why Dell might charge a slight/moderate premium for purchasing drives from them versus another distributer, and I am glad to know that this level of testing and documentation is done. However, as I believe someone has already pointed out, if these drives are so superior to a non-Dell commodity drive, then Dell should be providing warranties lengths that are commensurate with this superior quality. A 1-year warranty on a Dell drive versus a 3-5 year warranty on a similar model commodity drive doesn't seem to match the implied quality differences. I want to make note that I see many good benefits to running a Dell server for my situation. I like the OMSA product; it has made it very easy for me to monitor my server and perform drive upgrades and change hot-spares. I like where Dell is going with the firmware updates repository. It is these types of things that make it efficient and easy for me (a novice and part-time system administrator) to manage the system, and has made me consider staying with a Dell product for my next server purchase. However, because our servers live a long life I am having to reconsider the server options that are available to me in the coming months. I implore Dell to reconsider this hardware policy of requiring the use of Dell-only drives. I think it is reasonable for a company to restrict support on non-Dell drives, but please give us users the option of being able to use an equivalent model commodity drive. If I have to explain to my partners in 4 or 5 years that we have to replace our server in order to expand our storage because the Dell is no longer supplying replacement drives and a commodity drive won't work, I can already guess that my partners will tell me not to even consider buying a Dell server as the replacement. Jeff Boyce Forest Ecologist Seattle www.meridianenv.com _______________________________________________ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
