For a long time I've had a good history with Dell servers. I currently have a PowerEdge Tower 1xx series at home, a LUV member has my previous PowerEdge Tower 1xx series at his home, and I've got a bunch of clients happily using 1xx series systems and one client with a PowerEdge Tower 630 (18*3.5" SATA disks running nicely on ZFS). Now I've ordered a 1xx series for a client in May and it looks like it won't arrive until July, the client is not happy at all. What's a good affordable low end name brand server system where I can get delivery in a reasonable time period? Just need 2*SATA disks, ECC RAM, and nothing else special (don't need redundant PSUs). IBM had always impressed me with their gear and Lenovo has done well with Thinkpads so I checked out their servers but their web site broke. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
Hi, On 13/6/20 11:15 pm, Russell Coker via luv-main wrote:
For a long time I've had a good history with Dell servers. I currently have a PowerEdge Tower 1xx series at home, a LUV member has my previous PowerEdge Tower 1xx series at his home, and I've got a bunch of clients happily using 1xx series systems and one client with a PowerEdge Tower 630 (18*3.5" SATA disks running nicely on ZFS).
Now I've ordered a 1xx series for a client in May and it looks like it won't arrive until July, the client is not happy at all.
What's a good affordable low end name brand server system where I can get delivery in a reasonable time period? Just need 2*SATA disks, ECC RAM, and nothing else special (don't need redundant PSUs).
IBM had always impressed me with their gear and Lenovo has done well with Thinkpads so I checked out their servers but their web site broke.
Okay, well I think your customer is being unreasonable; it would be difficult to source plenty of hardware that has to come from overseas at this time for obvious reasons.... Having said that, perhaps a second hand unit from eBay might get them out of trouble and perhaps save them some money at the same time. A.
On Saturday, 13 June 2020 11:21:28 PM AEST Andrew McGlashan via luv-main wrote:
Okay, well I think your customer is being unreasonable; it would be difficult to source plenty of hardware that has to come from overseas at this time for obvious reasons....
Yes it's understandable that they have difficulties. If they had said that it would take over a month to deliver when I placed the order the customer would have been a lot happier. They made an appointment to have someone install software on the server the day after it was due to be delivered and are unhappy that they had to cancel the appointment. Given the situation they were either going to be angry at Dell or at me...
Having said that, perhaps a second hand unit from eBay might get them out of trouble and perhaps save them some money at the same time.
The money is already spent. But that's a reasonable point, Grays Online has a lot of server gear and are very good with rapid shipping. Next time a client needs a server I'll check if Grays has any auctions coming up for suitable server gear. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
Hi, On 14/6/20 1:22 pm, Russell Coker via luv-main wrote:
On Saturday, 13 June 2020 11:21:28 PM AEST Andrew McGlashan via luv-main wrote:
Okay, well I think your customer is being unreasonable; it would be difficult to source plenty of hardware that has to come from overseas at this time for obvious reasons....
Yes it's understandable that they have difficulties. If they had said that it would take over a month to deliver when I placed the order the customer would have been a lot happier. They made an appointment to have someone install software on the server the day after it was due to be delivered and are unhappy that they had to cancel the appointment. Given the situation they were either going to be angry at Dell or at me...
Rule number one, don't make plans based on "delivery date projections", at least keep them flexible. I've seen a delivery come quite quickly whilst another being delayed for a long time with the newer order coming before the older one. This is just in AU with no consideration, as I understand, of overseas supply delaying anything. This is a problem of the "Just In Time" economy and expectations that are crazy and only work when everything is 100% normal and fail quickly when there is any problem at any point in the supply chain for whatever reason. There was a small piece on LandLine recently about a farmer whom had to import spare parts to make sure he could have them on hand when the pandemic was in it's early stages. Having not done so could have cost him serious monies as the JIT supply chain is and has been a real problem. That farmer is good for a period of time, but perhaps not long enough.
Having said that, perhaps a second hand unit from eBay might get them out of trouble and perhaps save them some money at the same time.
The money is already spent. But that's a reasonable point, Grays Online has a lot of server gear and are very good with rapid shipping. Next time a client needs a server I'll check if Grays has any auctions coming up for suitable server gear.
When you rely upon third party supply chains, and let's face it, unless you have plenty of spare money to tie up in hardware, that's what you are going to have to do.... I wouldn't be so sure of Grays either, unless you can pickup locally from stock that is immediately available. A.
On Saturday, 13 June 2020 11:15:34 PM AEST Russell Coker via luv-main wrote:
For a long time I've had a good history with Dell servers. I currently have a PowerEdge Tower 1xx series at home, a LUV member has my previous PowerEdge Tower 1xx series at his home, and I've got a bunch of clients happily using 1xx series systems and one client with a PowerEdge Tower 630 (18*3.5" SATA disks running nicely on ZFS).
https://www.digicor.com.au/ Someone suggested off-list SuperMicro systems from Digicor. They look OK but the site is difficult to navigate and still not quite what is ideal. NVMe and SSD are the way to go for the vast majority of servers nowadays, 2TB is the largest SSDs available right now and 2*2TB disks in a RAID-1 will cover most SME server use cases. Is anyone selling white-box SFF cases and PSUs and what's a good place to buy ECC RAM and motherboards? It seems like a SFF system with ECC RAM and 2*SSD is a pretty ideal server for a lot of SME uses. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
Hi Russell, On 16/6/20 10:23 am, Russell Coker via luv-main wrote:
On Saturday, 13 June 2020 11:15:34 PM AEST Russell Coker via luv-main wrote:
For a long time I've had a good history with Dell servers. I currently have a PowerEdge Tower 1xx series at home, a LUV member has my previous PowerEdge Tower 1xx series at his home, and I've got a bunch of clients happily using 1xx series systems and one client with a PowerEdge Tower 630 (18*3.5" SATA disks running nicely on ZFS).
Someone suggested off-list SuperMicro systems from Digicor. They look OK but the site is difficult to navigate and still not quite what is ideal.
NVMe and SSD are the way to go for the vast majority of servers nowadays, 2TB is the largest SSDs available right now and 2*2TB disks in a RAID-1 will cover most SME server use cases.
Is anyone selling white-box SFF cases and PSUs and what's a good place to buy ECC RAM and motherboards? It seems like a SFF system with ECC RAM and 2*SSD is a pretty ideal server for a lot of SME uses.
I think your biggest problem is ECC memory, I've seen EOL equipment that is brand new and still comes with a 3 year warranty that suits most people just fine. Intel NUC6i7KYK4 (4 for AU region fwiw, other numbers afer KYK are just to do with the power block and cord for the region, so if you get a different end number, then it is likely just a power cord difference, that's all, aside from the possibility that it is a Kogan type warranty and not Intel's own manufacturer warranty). The last NUC6i7KYK4 I purchased was recently at $599 plus shipping and insurance, so under $640 -- of course being a NUC, you add RAM and storage. The $599 price seems to come up often enough and will until all stocks have been exhausted, I'm sure. A.
Hi Russell, This new kit might be interesting if you can get one.... a particular version supports ECC. https://www.zdnet.com/product/intel-next-unit-of-computing-kit-9-pro-kit-nuc... https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/intel-nuc/nuc-kits... http://staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=NUC9VXQNX&spos=3 Cheers A
On Wednesday, 17 June 2020 6:48:11 AM AEST Andrew McGlashan via luv-main wrote:
This new kit might be interesting if you can get one.... a particular version supports ECC.
https://www.zdnet.com/product/intel-next-unit-of-computing-kit-9-pro-kit-nu c9vxqnx-mini-pc-xeon-e-2286m-2-4-ghz-0-gb/
https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/intel-nuc/nuc-kit s/NUC9xyQNX_UserGuide.pdf
http://staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=NUC9VXQNX&spos=3
Thanks for that. It looks interesting. I will definitely consider that the next time I need a server! -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
participants (2)
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Andrew McGlashan -
Russell Coker