[CentOS] DL380g8 - smart array B320i - CentOS 6.4

[Nathan Duehr]

On Jul 1, 2013, at 12:43 PM, Reindl Harald <h.reindl at thelounge.net> wrote:

> 
> 
> Am 01.07.2013 20:30, schrieb Nathan Duehr:
>> The significant problem we ran into was someone at an upstream vendor orders HP stuff via 
>> individual part numbers in a specific configuration for us, so we get a server, some disks,
>> whatever... and assemble them on-site.  They didn't know (bad vendor, no donut) about the
>> change or spaced it... and didn't send licenses... so you're sitting there with disks in a
>> new server, all ready to load the OS as usual... and the OS can't find any disks
> 
> *you* are resposible to hire a *qualified* and *certified* HP partner and not the
> cheapest idiot company you are able to find

I'd love to tell you who it is, but I'm not at liberty to say.  Suffice it to say, everyone on this list knows their name, and they're not exactly a small VAR.  Your assumptions are unfounded.

Like at most companies, the purchasing folks are as far removed from the actual server operations/build folks that there's a complete disconnect anyway... I could talk to the wall as well as I could specify a vendor.  They're pizza boxes.  

> our HP partner does *any* communication with HP for us as well as watching
> that all neded licenses are re-newed before they are running out
> 
> that is why they are certified gold partner and if your's is and does
> not work like one it is *up to you* to intervene at HP so your vendor
> is losing his gold-partner status

They are, and I disagree.  HP plays games with vendors and customers, they just deserve to lose them.  I have better things to do with my time than tattle-tale on a VAR who's not keeping up on the metric ton of horsepucky coming from HP on what aren't really even high-end servers.  

Hey, if they want to play hardware licensing games on a giant blade server, okay... no biggie.  These are pizza boxes that are literally less than $1000/ea in quantity.  Over-engineering them to garner an extra couple hundred bucks to turn on hard disks, is a game... a game by a company not interested or not paying attention to what customers actually use these for... commodity hardware built by a large brand name with the ability to show up the SAME DAY with replacement parts.  

Otherwise, we'd all just buy the stuff at MicroCenter and let stuff fall out of the cluster as it croaked... the DL360/DL380 series, ain't high-end stuff by a large stretch.

> if he does not have you are the fool responsible to hire the wrong one
> 
> hint: no they are not expensive if you have a serious business and
> work with the principle "live and let live", ours and his techs
> after a few years became *real* friends with a lot of specific
> knowledge and if you give them the feeling you would like to
> have all for no money it's your fault and you are not a serious
> business


We get along fine with our VAR, and they've changed how they order those machines now... but HP's silly hardware licensing games are HP's self-created problem, which trickles down to the VARs. That can't be blamed on the VAR.  They have hundreds of other vendor's products to keep up with, too.  These are the types of cheap servers that the admin has always just TURNED ON THE SERVER AND USED IT.  It's a pizza box.  It isn't a mid-range HP-UX machine.  It definitely isn't a Sun box.

The rest of your snotty response and assumptions about the business, have been summarily ignored.  Mostly because...

a) Hey, it's a sysadmin job and the company is what it is.  I've now been through something like 15 companies in my fairly long career (if you want to call it that), since before any company on the planet was using Linux... and some are good, some are bad.  It has nothing to do with my opinion of a dumb feature added to cheap pizza box servers.

b) Attacking people by claiming their company is somehow bad on a public mailing list is a great way to have your resume' find the round file immediately as soon as anyone recognizes your name on it from the tech lists.  Sheesh.

c) You're boring me to death.  Feel free to say you like the new HP licensing features of their commodity cheap hardware, or you don't.  I don't care what you think of any particular company practice here, or our choice of VAR.  

I *suspect* the person who posted just got the same surprise we did the first time it happened.  Here's the kind of stuff people do with pizza boxes... 

1. Open box, throw away (oh, I forgot... need to be PC... "recycle") cardboard. 
2. Install drives and check nothing got unseated in shipping.
3. Boot and install OS from server or media with automated scripts/etc.
4. Shove in rack at datacenter and let it soak for a couple of days for infant mortality.
5. Send traffic to it and make money with it.

HP added: 

2a. Go find paperwork from purchasing department or stuffed in one of the many boxes with a pile of new servers to find some stupid license key and type it into BIOS.  

It's a complete waste of time for such low-end hardware and how most people use it.

You ... may enjoy the additional silly step designed to annoy and garner a couple hundred more bucks from you, at your pleasure. The rest of your misguided opinions, as I said, will be summarily ignored.  My initial response to the thread was curt and to the point and covered why HP servers now do this, succinctly.  And IMHO, accurately.  

I wish you good tidings, and may you always be the smartest person with the "Best l33t GOLD level VAR EVAR !!1!"

LOL... (just a note: I remember when there were no such things as "service levels"... you bought a server, the company would send you caviar and roses and wipe your butt just because you called, because servers were EXPENSIVE... the world got rid of/over that, a LONG time ago... just repeat after me... commodity hardware... commodity hardware... commodity hardware... I'm not saying I LIKE it, but hey... virtual farms and what-not... no one needs a pizza box acting all uppity like it's important in the grand scheme of the data center these days... servers that need things typed into the BIOS to find their hard drives... are dumb.  Period.)

Nate