[Beowulf] Vendor terms and conditions for a typical Beouwulf expansion contract

[Rahul Nabar]

We are planning a cluster expansion that is quite larger than the
one's I've handled previously. I was wondering about the vendor-terms
and if there was anything that was good to be specifically requesting
them for.

In the past we've stuck to standard vendor contracts; something like:
"1 year warranty; 2 year extended warranty. Next Business Day on
site."

But, in view of the larger size of the current order I wanted to be
sure I covered all my bases. Are there any other terms that people try
to add or negotiate into the contract? We assemble our own cluster
in-house so there is no "performance guarantee" etc. from the vendor
side in the OS, packages etc.

In the past I've heard rumors of other arrangements: e.g. having the
vendor stock some spares on-site, delayed incremental payment terms
subject to conditions on performance, pre-certifying a person on our
side to bypass the routine helpdesk procedures for warranties. Are
such, non-standard modifications common? Anybody want to jog my memory
about items that I might want to add?

Of course, the vendor may not actually agree to them all but I'm just
looking for items to put on the discussion table.

-- 
Rahul