On 03/26/98 10:52:18 you wrote:
In message Chameleon.980326065754.dpower@blue.insync.net, David Power writ es:
Have you priced 630 memory lately? I was quoted $12,000 for a 32 meg nvram, 256 meg system ram upgrade. Thats not dropping to me.
We just paid NetApp $4000 to up the NVRAM on our F330 from 2MB to 8MB. That's over $650 for each 1MB SIMM! When I asked our Sales Rep about the cost, I was quoted the "We do in house testing" line. Anyway, two of the SIMMs we were sent were bad... Very disappointing.
Exactly how were they "bad"? Did they not work when you added them, or did they work but you had to troubleshoot crashes that caused you to swap them out, etc.? Netapp does indeed do testing that catches bad SIMMs from the vendor, but it can't catch problems where the SIMM is damaged after testing in handling, or in shipping, or improperly inserted into the board. Sometimes the time at which a SIMM will fail in the future is beyond their horizon of testing. It seems to me getting it straight from the vendor is only going to increase your chances of failure, unless maybe there is a particular vendor with which Netapp has rarely encountered failures.
Does it justify increased price? Hard to say. Depends upon the atmosphere of the company/environment your in. If it's like many bosses I know, the increased price isn't worth it until a component fails, and then they get upset that you didn't get better quality. :)
Bruce
In message 19983269523541@ix.netcom.com, sirbruce@ix.netcom.com writes:
On 03/26/98 10:52:18 you wrote:
In message Chameleon.980326065754.dpower@blue.insync.net, David Power wr
it
es:
Have you priced 630 memory lately? I was quoted $12,000 for a 32 meg nvram, 256 meg system ram upgrade. Thats not dropping to me.
We just paid NetApp $4000 to up the NVRAM on our F330 from 2MB to 8MB. That's over $650 for each 1MB SIMM! When I asked our Sales Rep about the cost, I was quoted the "We do in house testing" line. Anyway, two of the SIMMs we were sent were bad... Very disappointing.
Exactly how were they "bad"? Did they not work when you added them, or did they work but you had to troubleshoot crashes that caused you to swap them out, etc.? Netapp does indeed do testing that catches bad SIMMs from the vendor, but it can't catch problems where the SIMM is damaged after testing in handling, or in shipping, or improperly inserted into the board.
Failed to boot w/ the error, "Unsupported NVRAM size 5MB", after placing the six new SIMMs in the NVRAM card. Did the memory shuffle (got very annoyed because it doesn't report this error until close to the end of the boot process) and narrowed the problem down to 2 SIMMs. Then I proceeded to get really pissed (only allowed to do non-emergency hardware maintenance on the filer Friday's after 19:30) because I spent over an hour and ruined a Friday night to add 2MB of NVRAM. (F330's support 2, 4, or 8 MB - not 6.)
Sometimes the time at which a SIMM will fail in the future is beyond their horizon of testing. It seems to me getting it straight from the vendor is
How were these tested? My filer didn't even acknowledge their exictence. Granted, they could have been damaged during shipping... Or, I could have zapped them when I opened the packaging while grounded to our ESD bench... Maybe I don't know how to install SIMMs and just always got lucky before... (Please excuse the sarcasm.)
only going to increase your chances of failure, unless maybe there is a particular vendor with which Netapp has rarely encountered failures.
I disagree. I'd prefer to go to a vendor with which _I_ have rarely encountered failures.
Does it justify increased price? Hard to say. Depends upon the atmosphere of the company/environment your in. If it's like many bosses I know, the increased price isn't worth it until a component fails, and then they get upset that you didn't get better quality. :)
Increased price isn't a problem if you _do_ get better quality. We paid a 600% mark up on parts that had to be shipped back and replaced as soon as we tried to use them.
I'm not saying NetApp is low quality. We've seen great uptime w/ our F330 and keep asking for details on their HA system because we think NetApp is a good bet. I just don't like the way they handle memory and disk sales.
jason
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Jason D. Kelleher -
sirbruce＠ix.netcom.com