On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 2:01 PM, Peter Kjellstrom <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tuesday 09 February 2010, William Warren wrote: >> On 2/9/2010 5:17 PM, [email protected] wrote: >> > Thank you very much for your comments and feedback regarding exclusive >> > use of Dell drives. It is common practice in enterprise storage solutions >> > to limit drive support to only those drives which have been qualified by >> > the vendor. In the case of Dell's PERC RAID controllers, we began >> > informing customers when a non-Dell drive was detected with the >> > introduction of PERC5 RAID controllers in early 2006. With the >> > introduction of the PERC H700/H800 controllers, we began enabling only >> > the use of Dell qualified drives. >> > >> > There are a number of benefits for using Dell qualified drives in >> > particular ensuring a positive experience and protecting our data. > ... >> This is common reasoning given for any vendor that starts practicing >> lock-in. Dell has just gone down that road. I'll either not buy Dell >> servers OR order them without your controllers and use some of my own. > > If they'll allow you to use non-Dell controllers... > > /Peter >
As an anecdote, the company I worked for ordered a MD1000. We are a fairly small company with 6 servers (some Dell, some not) in production. Like some of the other people who have posted to this list, we have to keep using our servers as long as they are working and can perfom the required tasks. We don't get to buy new ones just because our warranty ends or there is something new and shiny out. At the time we ordered our MD1000, we had two, new 1U HP servers that were not in use and were more than adequte for our needs. Before ordering the MD1000, we had Dell staff confirm to use that it had "standard SAS connections". We bought a couple of LSI SAS cards (knowing that the PERCs were basically rebranded LSI cards with Dell "mojo" installed on them) and ordered the MD1000. Since the MD1000 would be responsible for our most important data and databases, we got the highest level of support offered (24x7 4 hour on-site response) on it. We used it for a while with no issues and even used our own drives in addition to the 2 we originally ordered from Dell with it. All was well until it stopped seeing any new drives we put into it. We called Dell support. We were first told that since were running a non-Dell supported Linux (ubuntu) that we would have to boot to their Live CD to do testing, which we did. We did a little testing with no immediate clues as to the issue and were then told that since we were using a non-Dell server, it wouldn't be supported. We got a Dell server and hooked it up with one of our LSI cards. We were then told that since we didn't have a Dell PERC card in it, it wasn't supported, so we switched in a PERC card. Then we were told it wouldn't be supported because we didn't have drives from Dell with Dell firmware in it. Luckally after all this time, we figured out the issue (you can't combine SAS and SATA drives on the same enclosure side without the Dell firmware and their special interposer boards), so we just told Dell to forget it and split the enclosure and used SAS in half and SATA in the other half. What this taught us is that unless we were 100% "Dell solutions" all the way thorugh, we could expect no help from them, so we just didn't renew our MD1000 service contract and never buy any upgraded service plans anymore. As many have said, if they want to not support third party drives or even have a warning that goes by at boot or something, that is fine, but they should still allow the drives. It is my opinion (and maybe I am wrong) that a large majority of Dell's server business is small to medium businesses. Basically the people who can't afford IBM, Sun, high-end HP, etc. but need a few, good reliable servers. If they decide to commit to this route where they are the sole provider for drives, then I know my company will have to look elsewhere. The crazy markup plus the fact that I can't be guarenteed that I will still be able to get a drive at a reasonable price in a few years makes it where I couldn't commit. I know my company probably doesn't matter a lot to Dell, we probably only buy 1-2 servers a year at most and maybe 2-3 desktops, but if every small business similar to mine starts switching, I would bet that would start to add up. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Preston _______________________________________________ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list [email protected] https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
