[dba-Tech] Petulant PC

JimL,

» the client was rightfully very upset and I, as a temporary Dell rep
looked like an idiot... (I do not need any extra help thank-you.) «

I was much affected by your tale of woe, but doubly amused by this.  I
really shouldn't read these messages while drinking anything...

» Dell stopped replying to his calls and he had to find a solution on
his own. 2 days later, he had found and installed an open-source
solution as his client's were threatening to sue him and Dell. He was
a 'Basket Case' when the job was finally completed after having not
slept for 3 days and he swears he never trust Dell again. </End of
vent> «

I don't mean to re-open any wounds, here, but this sounds like maybe
the equipment being installed was not all purchased from Dell -or- the
Dell on-site installation option wasn't purchased.  Was Dell being
balky and uncooperative because, perhaps, of "non-standard" equipment
or do-it-yourself installation?

I used to work for a Digital Equipment supplier/custom software house.
 The guys that ran it had had a very close relationship with DEC for a
long time (the VP was given the contract to upgrade the PDP-8
operating system -- yes, this was some time ago; 1983-4 or so).  They
also had an excellent relationship with the DEC Field Service office
people.  So if they decided to install a new 10 MB 14" removable disk
drive pack (big stuff at the time!) at a client site they could rely
on getting good help from the Field Service office even though DEC
itself wasn't doing the install.  Things have changed since then.

Steve Erbach
Neenah, WI


On 6/4/07, Jim Lawrence <accessd at shaw.ca> wrote:
> John:
>
> Well that makes good sense. I will give any future client the option and
> they may not 'cheap-out'.
>
> While we are on the subject of Raids, I would like to pass along a warning
> to all the techs:
>
> <start of vent?
> A few weeks ago had a contract from Dell to install their new 'inexpensive'
> drive raids (Dell PowerVault 726N) and found them terrible. So be warned.
>
> First they are supposed to be a complete unit without the capability of
> accepting more drives, especially when they only house 4 drives (and dare to
> call it a raid 5), second the OS and data drives are folded and striped
> together and last it was not until I was onsite that it became apparent the
> larger (750GB) drives, sold to the client, were not capable of being
> installed in the units. Dell sales staff knowledge of their own high end
> products is very much lacking.
>
> Dell, ended up paying for the service call, which they were not happy with
> as it took 2 days to re-build/recover the Raid, (fortunately it was a
> weekend), the client was rightfully very upset and I, as a temporary Dell
> rep looked like an idiot... (I do not need any extra help thank-you.)
>
> A month before a friend had arranged for a number of huge Dells that were
> supposed to be used in a 'clustered' site. He had spoken at some length to
> senior Dell techs and reps as to whether there would be any issues to be
> concern with and was told, repeatedly, No. After 8 hours into the install it
> became apparent there were problems. Dell stopped replying to his calls and
> he had to find a solution on his own. 2 days later, he had found and
> installed an open-source solution as his client's were threatening to sue
> him and Dell. He was a 'Basket Case' when the job was finally completed
> after having not slept for 3 days and he swears he never trust Dell again.
> </End of vent>
>
> I will tag your post and maybe use a similar configuration for a client in
> the future.
>
> Jim