How does adding Hard Drives and RAM to HP ProLiant ML350 affect the warranty

Major_Disaster · 31 Mar 2009 at 17:30

Hey,

Id appreciate some advice from you experts.

We are a small business and have traditionally used Dell hardware (currently using PowerEdge 840), but as ive been browsing these forums and online ive become more and more impressed by HP - even to the point where im thinking of going for a ML350 to replace our current Dell. But buying HP doesnt seem as easy as buying a Dell.

Im interested in the 470064-610 model, but notice i need to add hard drives and RAM. I was thinking 4 x 160GB SATA drives (RAID10) and 8GB RAM - but i dont know how to buy them. Do i just buy them third party (say from OCUK) or is there some official way through HP? If i do buy third party, how does that affect my warranty with HP?

And on the subject of warranty, what is the standard one like? Is it worth upgrading (can i upgrade?)

Sorry for all the questions... once i get going its hard to shut me up! (Why cant HP have a configuration page with their servers like Dell...?)

Regards

Nikumba · 31 Mar 2009 at 20:15

As you say HP is a bit different. You tend to buy HP from a reseller, they will in turn have the extra parts for the servers. I cant mention them as they would break the rules.

But you will find a list of resellers on the HP site somewhere

Kimbie

Curiosityx · 31 Mar 2009 at 21:37

You can buy direct from HP or from a prefered partner/reseller.

http://h20465.www2.hp.com/GPL/search.aspx?language_code=en&country_code=UK

There are rather a few, most of the larger resellers require credit accounts before purchasing though. I would personally stick with a prefered partner so that you avoid buying grey imports.

Sin_Chase · 1 Apr 2009 at 10:19

Highly suggest sticking with branded HP gear, the warranty on it alone is worth it.

I do not know the letter of the law for HP warranty in this regard but I would almost entirely bet any faults that could be attributed to a 3rd party hardware product would invalidate the warranty.

iaind · 1 Apr 2009 at 10:31

Adding third party parts wont affect your warranty, but obviously they wont warrant those parts and you could get into a situation of both parties blaming eachother.

With things like hard disks and an HP support contract you get a guaranteed response time to replace the part, which you wont get buying from elsewhere.

Remember also that the disks need the caddies, which are difficult and expensive to buy on thier own, so they've got you over a barrel there. Cant see as much of a problem with memory, but the cost difference isnt as much as there is with HDDs, so its worth buying it all together

There are many competing companies that should be able to give you an insight into the cost of these parts.

neil_g · 2 Apr 2009 at 13:55

if you sneeze on HP kit it invalidates your warrenty.

Major_Disaster · 2 Apr 2009 at 21:33

Thanks for the replies.

So, would you recommended buying from HP direct, or use a preferred partner? Who gives better service / value?

Also, a general question on the ML350's themselves... what do you think of them hands on? Would you consider that a good move, instead of say, a PowerEdge 1900?

I see the G6 is coming out... interesting!

iaind · 2 Apr 2009 at 21:43

If you buy direct from HP you'll pay RRP, whereas with a reseller there are some pretty good discounts.

Cant comment on the server itself as I havent used one but you cant really go wrong with HP kit

brainchylde · 2 Apr 2009 at 21:44

Not sure about the ML350 but we have DL380's and they actually arrive in bits - so I can't imagine we invalidate any warranty by adding RAM to them. HDD's are not a problem for us as they are hot plugs.

Origin · 2 Apr 2009 at 23:02

Sin_Chase said:
Highly suggest sticking with branded HP gear, the warranty on it alone is worth it.

I do not know the letter of the law for HP warranty in this regard but I would almost entirely bet any faults that could be attributed to a 3rd party hardware product would invalidate the warranty.

See below.

iaind said:
Adding third party parts wont affect your warranty, but obviously they wont warrant those parts and you could get into a situation of both parties blaming eachother.

With things like hard disks and an HP support contract you get a guaranteed response time to replace the part, which you wont get buying from elsewhere.

Remember also that the disks need the caddies, which are difficult and expensive to buy on thier own, so they've got you over a barrel there. Cant see as much of a problem with memory, but the cost difference isnt as much as there is with HDDs, so its worth buying it all together

There are many competing companies that should be able to give you an insight into the cost of these parts.

This is absolutely true, it doesn't invalidate the warranty, but can cause issues if the 3rd party product is found to be the faulty part.

The other thing to add, is that if you set up the server correctly and use Systems Insight Manager and /or the other management software then you get pre-failure warning and warranty coverage too. So if for example you get an alert from SIM that a drive is starting to fail, you can log a call with HP and get the replacement before the drive actually fails.

Major_Disaster said:
Thanks for the replies.

So, would you recommended buying from HP direct, or use a preferred partner? Who gives better service / value?

As said, if you buy from HP you will pay a higher price, as they tend to charge pretty close to RRP for buying direct, better finding a reseller (either a PP or even just a registered partner)

Major_Disaster said:
Also, a general question on the ML350's themselves... what do you think of them hands on? Would you consider that a good move, instead of say, a PowerEdge 1900?

99% certain a PE 1900 is more equivalent to an ML370 so not really a comparison.
One thing to note, I see you want to put SATA drives in the server, ALL SATA drives have only 1 year warranty, no matter the level of warranty on the server (3 yr NBD On Site with the model you are looking at)

Major_Disaster said:
I see the G6 is coming out... interesting!

Not all models will be G6 immediately, there will be a bit of a transition across the ranges, but it should be pretty quick.

neil_g said:
if you sneeze on HP kit it invalidates your warrenty.

What a useful and well constructed post. Care to back that up with some form of evidence to substantiate that statement?

neil_g · 3 Apr 2009 at 09:00

Origin said:
What a useful and well constructed post. Care to back that up with some form of evidence to substantiate that statement?

humor transplant fail.

i might change my statement to "sneezing on IBM kit invalidates your warrenty", they really are a nightmare.

Origin · 3 Apr 2009 at 10:54

Maybe adding a smiley to indicate humour would be better..

But both can be as bad as eachother some times.

neil_g · 3 Apr 2009 at 11:56

Origin said:
Maybe adding a smiley to indicate humour would be better..
But both can be as bad as eachother some times.

my bad, sorry

BoomAM · 6 Apr 2009 at 12:09

Upgrades dont invalidate the warrenty.
Although, as said by another poster, if the fault is down to 3rd party upgrade kit, then they'll probably ignore you until thats replaced with proper 'HP' stuff.

Major_Disaster · 6 Apr 2009 at 12:25

Thanks for all the responses (especially Origin).

Theres just two questions i have remaining:

1st: Im assuming that OS wise, i should be buying OEM with the machine?

2nd: What is the deal with iLO? I know its a remote management card. But whats the difference between "HP ProLiant Onboard Administrator" and "Integrated Lights-Out 2 Advanced". Which come standard? Do need a licence / hardware upgrade?

Thanks again.

BoomAM · 6 Apr 2009 at 12:52

Major_Disaster said:
2nd: What is the deal with iLO? I know its a remote management card. But whats the difference between "HP ProLiant Onboard Administrator" and "Integrated Lights-Out 2 Advanced". Which come standard? Do need a licence / hardware upgrade?

Thanks again.

Fundimentally the same thing.
Dependant on the server though., you may or may not get the remote admin console function which basically allows KVM access.

Stolly · 6 Apr 2009 at 12:54

One thing that caught me out last year is that even though a server may have 3 years warranty, if it has SATA disks even proper HP ones the disks themselves will only have 12 months.

You needed to buy SAS disks to get the 3 years.

Dunno if thats changed now or not.

Stolly · 6 Apr 2009 at 12:55

BoomAM said:
Fundimentally the same thing.
Dependant on the server though., you may or may not get the remote admin console function which basically allows KVM access.

Think you get the power monitor with the advanced licence too. Not that its terribly important though.

Having the remote console however is more than a "nice to have" in my opinion, at least if you are remote from the server.

Origin · 6 Apr 2009 at 19:21

Stolly said:
One thing that caught me out last year is that even though a server may have 3 years warranty, if it has SATA disks even proper HP ones the disks themselves will only have 12 months.

You needed to buy SAS disks to get the 3 years.

Dunno if thats changed now or not.

Still only one year for SATA (see my post number 10)

JonnyT · 7 Apr 2009 at 01:06

Speaking as the techie for a HP VAR (Value Added Reseller), it's really not worth the savings of going for your own drives or RAM comparded to the HP options. As other posters have stated, fitting 3rd party options won't invalidate your warranty on the server BUT HP technical support will, upon discovering that 3rd party bits have been used, be very quick to point the finger at those in the event of any faults.

Also, the hard disks are all hot-plug on the ML350, and would therefore need to be fitted to HP's own (proprietry) caddies before they could be installed. The only alternative as far as the RAM is concerned is to use Kingston-branded, as they have a special agreement with HP with regard to the warranty, and their matched memory for the ML350 is not only guaranteed to work but also has a lifetime warranty.