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

[Kilian CAVALOTTI]

Hi Rahul,

On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 6:03 PM, Rahul Nabar<rpnabar at gmail.com> wrote:
> In the past we've stuck to standard vendor contracts; something like:
> "1 year warranty; 2 year extended warranty. Next Business Day on
> site."

You could also consider H+4 on-site intervention for critical parts,
like switches, master nodes, or whatever piece of hardware your whole
cluster operation depends on.

> In the past I've heard rumors of other arrangements: e.g. having the
> vendor stock some spares on-site,

This one is pretty common, I think. And a very good idea generally
speaking. You can ask for a quote including a couple hard drives of
each type, a few NICs/HBAs and memory DIMMs. You'll probably pay for
those spares anyway, but having them handy will be a nice time saver
in case of an emergency, rather than having to wait for the delivery
of a replacement part. As long as you make sure to resplenish your
spares stock as it is being used: you call support to have them ship a
replacement, as you would normally do, although you already have the
part.

Cheers,
-- 
Kilian