These fits into the "so frustrating, it's funny" territory.
HP have proven to be no end of hassle when it comes to replacement parts
(bearing in mind I'm talking some 5 years ago, things might have changed
since). Two specific areas proved to be a problem with them.
The first case relates to product coding. HP sets a product code for
memory based on type of chip (DDR2, DDR3), memory capacity (1,2,4GB
etc.) and ECC/Non-ECC. That means you can end up with memory chips by
two different manufacturers under the same product code. You could even
end up with two memory chips by the same manufacturer, but from two
different product lines, provided those 3 were the same.
Motherboards are unfortunately extremely sensitive when it comes to such
things, and they'll either point blank fail to POST reporting no memory,
or they'd report the extra capacity but you'd lose Dual-Channel
capabilities. We used to hold a bet in the office whether or not an RMA
replacement for faulty memory, or an upgrade for a server, would work
first time. Eventually we stopped bothering given 95% of the time it
wouldn't work.
Despite valiant attempts by almost everyone in a department of some 20+
employees over a few years we could never manage to explain to HP just
why their product coding system was flawed. Towards the end of my time
working with that team the local on-site service rep had learnt to turn
up with a good selection of memory chips from the stock he was supplied
with.
The second relates to a dying CPU fan. With Dell servers when a
component has been dying I've been able to phone up, give the express
tag and get a replacement part within the SLA time-frame that has
matched. HP doesn't seem to keep the same level of information about
their servers.
We had a customer, a major retailer in a particular field, who'd had a
few problems due to bad software & architecture choices. Typical
over-engineered shopping cart system that used a staggering amount of
CPU power for fairly straightforward tasks (makes Magento look
lightweight). As winter arrived their servers would melt under the load
and even out of the winter season it would be a rare week when we didn't
have to deal with one problem or another. After a lot of work with them
and their software guys we'd got the solution transitioned to a much
more efficient and scalable solution (but one that wasn't scaled
just-yet, the plan was for 6 months down the road to add additional DB
and Web servers as appropriate), and all was looking great. A whole
month went past without having to log in and deal with their servers in
any way and we were all rather happy. Then on one of our routine
datacentre walkabouts an alarm light was noticed and we discovered that
a CPU fan was going on their main powerful dual-CPU database server.
We phoned HP, gave them the serial number and asked for a replacement part.
"What's the product code for the CPU Fan?" came the response.
"Sorry?"
"What's the product code for the CPU Fan? I can't order a replacement
if I don't know that"
"Don't you have records of such details?"
"No."
A little peeved we arranged for down time with the customer, got the
product code from the CPU Fan, told HP and they arranged for a server
technician to come out with the part, and we arranged the second down
time for the replacement part.
The part didn't fit.
A replacement part was sent again, and again we arranged down time with
a slightly frustrated customer.
That part didn't fit.
An engineer was dispatched with several parts that were supposed to
match all the possible ones for the product range. More down time
arranged with a slightly more peeved customer.
Neither of those parts fit either. He came back within an hour with one
of every CPU Fan from their entire set of supplies, and eventually found
one that fit.
In all the process took 2-3 weeks, and 5 lots of downtime, from
reporting the problem to finally having a replacement part in the
server. Part of the delay was down to arranging downtime with the
customer rather than HP. IIRC not long after that we were racking and
configuring a hot-spare database server for the customer, who
incidentally got through the next Christmas rush without even batting an
eyelid. :)
Paul
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