on 11-18-2008 1:29 AM Rudi Ahlers spake the following:
On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 10:14 AM, Tru Huynh tru-IFYaIzF+flcdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org wrote:
On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 09:32:05AM +0200, Rudi Ahlers wrote:
This comes down't to the old question of "what is a server"?
<rant deleted, mail trimmed> a server just "works", and provide a usable way to debug the OS whenever it's needed (mostly never). Cheap server have at least a serial port, because that the minimal device to interact with the bios/OS. More expensive server have some out of band management capabilities.
Most of the time, they are not used, but when we **need** them these "plus" save your time which is what we value most (isn't it).
But your server, your problems, and your choices.
Just my .2 cents
Tru
Sure, I understand that. But then again, on my Dell servers, when I have problems, I sit with the same issues. And those expensive motherboards doesn't give me anything more than the cheaper ones. In fact, when the RAM failed on the Dell's, they were unusable untill I could get new RAM from a different supplier. With the cheaper board, I drive down to the first PC shop and get new RAM.
That is one reason I stopped using Dell. The other reason had something to do with our Accounting department and Dell's insistence on using a "Dell Card" instead of a plain "net 30" account.
With my HP servers, if something goes south, HP will send a tech to fix it in 4 hours. The server gets a 48 hour burn in before I even take delivery. Then I burn it in again to make sure something didn't come loose in shipment. Sure servers cost more. If it runs a critical service that can't be down for even a 5 minute reboot, you just need to spend some money. Sure things have failed, One server has had every hard drive replaced over a few years, but all under warranty, and since I have spares, there was no interruption to service. My T1 lines go down more often then the servers do.
My home firewall runs on an old re-used piece of equipment. If it goes down, big deal. The kids just can't play World of Warcraft until I fix it.
If the e-mail server at work goes down, I have the guy that signs my paycheck calling my cellphone at 2 AM to fix it.
Reliability is not cheap. And cheap isn't usually as reliable.