server hardware

[robjduk]

Hi all,

Looks like I have the cash for a full server hardware refresh in the next year and am looking for opinions / experiences with hardware vendors but especially HP and Stone. We currently have Dell hardware and find their pro support very good indeed and seem to come good on the price in the past. Saying that I need the standard 3+ quotes and was going to include a local company who do most the network things I cant do who favour HP and was thinking Stone as well.

Im quite a hardware snob on the whole and feel conflicted about Stone servers. I use their desktops and love them but servers? To me its a bit like shopping in asda where I know deep down its the same thing im buying at a little less, but would hide the carrier bags from the neighbours (couldn't put the phone down quick enough when some vendor offered me zoostorm once).

 

Anyone happy with stone servers?

 

Thanks in advance for any opinions (except anyone who says RM. Those who would willingly give them cash need their fingers amputated)

[Snuffkins]

I've had a bit of everything in the past including building my own. It's up to your budget really.

 

Most vendors will be very aggressive, so make them quote against stone kit. It's surprising how much they'll come down.

 

Dell have previously been my preferred, but only on price. HP tend to come in a bit more expensive. Years ago i'd have recommend Sun, but not anymore.

 

If money was no object perhaps Cisco UCS.

 

I'm guessing if you're looking at Stone you're looking at rack mount? If the budget stretches it might be worth a look at a blade chassis depending on what you want to do. Dells current offers makes it work out ok.

 

My personal preference though with tight budgets aside is Cisco, then Dell, HP, IBM, 3rd Party Tin (Stone).

 

What is it you're replacing?

[synaesthesia]

Some of the Cisco kit is really well priced; if we hadn't gotten a pair of servers for silly money as refurbs, a Cisco UCS would have been next choice I think. (Misco priced well on those, a little better than eBuyer although I didn't get as far as asking for quotes from our preferred suppliers).

I wouldn't knock RM entirely - their servers are entirely Intel which makes both of the selfbuild main servers we did last year are no different to what RM flog. It's just the badge. I suspect the same may go for Stone - reading their sales blurb, I can't imagine it would be any different from Intel kit, or maybe the likes of Tyan or Supermicro. Again, that's no bad thing.

 

** Slightly off topic **

I notice how Stone say even primary schools "need" a SAN these days. Personally, I think we're at the top of the "storage mountain" where requirement of a SAN is roughly equal to the requirement for "cloud" storage and balance will be shifting towards the cloud, making the idea of large storage systems fairly redundant (especially considering the size of local storage these days). I could of course be very wrong on that, but just an idle thought

Edited July 9, 2013 by synaesthesia

[zag]

I love the new Dell R320s, they are so silent and just run forever.

 

VeryPC do servers as well I think.

[XiJ]

We've used HP tower server hardware in our primaries and I've got to say its been faultless*

 

 

*i've done it now!

[witch]

I have HP ProLiant towers in both my schools and they have been pretty good too

[supawat1]

On well, may be I am the unlucky one. I have got a HP ProLiant ML350p with RAID5.

 

The original 3 SAS HDDs were replaced within a year.

 

On top of this, I had to replace the whole motherboard due to one of the Power Redundancy sensor has got a faulty.

[TronXP]

IBM all the way for me, used them for the last 8 years, we dabbled with 1 HP server but went straight back to IBM. I've had the HP engineer out more times for our HP server than the rest of our IBM ones put together.

[hallb15]

I've worked with HP, Dell, Fujitsu and selfbuilt servers. I would choose HP everytime. HP's reliability and support are worthwhile paying that little bit extra for.

[Norphy]

When it comes to servers, we're a Dell shop except for those which have been brought in by a third party. Can't fault them at all; after sales service is excellent and the hardware is top notch.

[VeryPC_Tom_M]

Dropped you a quick PM through Rob.

[SHimmer45]

Stone have built a few of the server here for us (intel based) and they have been really good.

Aftersale's and tech support has been good for the couple of queries (not had to use them in anger yet) and the servers are a few years old

The other servers are Dell and are a mix of 1950's R410/420/520 and have been good some of the older ones are getting a little loud but the management tools are excellent

and the support is fantastic, some of the pricing has done up recently but alot of suppliers can get good deals which are alot cheaper than advertised.

 

Only used one HP server a DL360 G7 and i like it nice and quiet some of the pricing can be a bit £££ depending on options fitted but has been rock solid

[Stone_Liz]

Hi all,

Looks like I have the cash for a full server hardware refresh in the next year and am looking for opinions / experiences with hardware vendors but especially HP and Stone. We currently have Dell hardware and find their pro support very good indeed and seem to come good on the price in the past. Saying that I need the standard 3+ quotes and was going to include a local company who do most the network things I cant do who favour HP and was thinking Stone as well.

Im quite a hardware snob on the whole and feel conflicted about Stone servers. I use their desktops and love them but servers? To me its a bit like shopping in asda where I know deep down its the same thing im buying at a little less, but would hide the carrier bags from the neighbours (couldn't put the phone down quick enough when some vendor offered me zoostorm once).

 

Anyone happy with stone servers?

 

Thanks in advance for any opinions (except anyone who says RM. Those who would willingly give them cash need their fingers amputated)

Hi @robjduk

 

Thanks for considering Stone. I'm sure everyone will be able to offer their own thoughts on the servers they're using or have used in the past, but in regards to Stone, I thought it may help to reassure you on the Stone Intel Server systems we use.

 

We've got our own Professional Service Team who listen to the exact requirements and create bespoke server solutions. Because everyone's needs are so diferent, there isn't one server that suits everyone, so if you do have a specification in mind then PM me your details so we can arrange a chat; we'd be more than happy to discuss the options with you and send a quote.

 

Whenever I've spoken to customers they seem to be most happy with the customisation aspect and support (upto 5 Years Onsite Next Business Day Warranty).

 

I hope this helps, let me know if you need anything else

[twin--turbo]

I would buy Dell

 

We have mainly HP at teh moment as that was what our procurement offeerd but I would go back to dell.

 

We have a DEV system comprising of some older HP ML350 G5's , I was fairly shocked to find out that there is only 2 system fans on the back of the machine, no drive bay cooling or other ventilation. I found out after leaving the side pannel of for a couple of days and cookign 4 SAS drives!

 

We still run 4 Del 2950III machines along side our HP Blade enclosure.

 

I would avoid anything other than the big manufacturers.

 

Rob

[plexer]

You compromised the cooling by leaving the side panel off then?

 

Ben

[mimic]

@robjduk the DELL PowerEdge VRTX is great for hardware refresh as it converges servers, networking and software into a single optimised chassis and can have virtualisation embedded. It takes up little space and so frees up server room space as well as cutting energy costs.

[crc-ict]

The other servers are Dell and are a mix of 1950's R410/420/520

 

My goodness Dell build that kit to last :-p

[3s-gtech]

Credit to Dell - the file servers which host our student and staff home areas, and our old email system, are 2650s. Just about to hit ten years old this month! Still working nicely on 2k8 with fresh HDDs, more RAM etc. Well built machines.

[glennda]

You compromised the cooling by leaving the side panel off then?

 

Ben

 

Most Probably - they are designed to be fullly enclosed. And depending on your upgrade of the machines you are also supposed to buy extra fans for them....

 

With regards to servers I have just been putting in a stack of HP DL380's and DL360's and they are solid robost and cost effective machines plus the support is excellent.

 

For Servers I wouldn't look away from HP unless i got prodded largely.

 

The Cisco UCS is actually supermicro and along with most of the other cisco kit.

[Hefferzzzz]

Taking everything into account - Cost, ease of use, support, spare parts....my three quotes would go to;

 

HP

IBM

VeryPC

 

Get a quote for all of them, get bid pricing from all of them.

 

 

Dell can jump off a cliff as far as I am concerned. Terrible service, unreliable products and just a general all round crud attitude.

[teejay]

Most of the smaller server builders either rebadge Intel server systems - Intel® Server Systems or Supermicro server systems - Super Micro Computer, Inc. Home Page - Blades, Servers, Motherboards, Chassis and more

If they are doing that, then they are good servers, especially the Intel server solution ones, if they are building their own out of random bits of hardware I would avoid, so you need to ask some in depth questions. We are Dell by preference, IBM are good if you can get a good price on them and Oracle Sun kit is good but I personally wouldn't buy them as I'm not convinced they'll be doing them much longer as it's not their core market. HP are on my naughty list.

[twin--turbo]

You compromised the cooling by leaving the side panel off then?

 

Ben

 

Well yes I got distracted in the middle of checking something, but all the Dells we have had in the last 10 years have had dedicated fans for the drives. You could run them forever with the side off.

 

We also notice that you have to open the front door of the machine to check for drive failuers as the system status LED does not report drive failures (unlike the dels that flash the LCD and tell you what's up.)

 

Rob

[jamin]

HP servers from OCSL ave been very good for us, we have had problems OOTB (MS related) but OCSL have been great at sorting them and very proactive. I am also a big fan of Stones desktop services but not had much dealings with the servers

[cpjitservices]

All IBM here for everything, except our "Lab"servers. We have an IBM Flex System Blade Server, and 2 x3650 M3's. We actually got quite a good deal with IBM and Spares / Upgrades arnt that badly priced actually, I've just priced up 2 2TB drives to add to the main server and its come out at less than a grand, fr both drives and delivery.

 

In the Lab we have Dell 2950, can't fault it. Brilliant server! Just need the rack rails for it!