Message-ID: <5065C8DC.5020305@boreham.org>
Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2012 09:57:16 -0600
From: David Boreham <david_list@boreham.org>
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To: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: hardware advice
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On 9/28/2012 9:46 AM, Craig James wrote:
> Your best warranty would be to have the confidence to do your own
> repairs, and to have the parts on hand.  I'd seriously consider
> putting your own system together.  Maybe go to a few sites with
> pre-configured machines and see what parts they use.  Order those,
> screw the thing together yourself, and put a spare of each critical
> part on your shelf.
>
This is what I did for years, but after taking my old parts collection 
to the landfill a few times, realized I may as well just buy N+1 
machines and keep zero spares on the shelf. That way I get a spare 
machine available for use immediately, and I know the parts are working 
(parts on the shelf may be defective). If something breaks, I use the 
spare machine until the replacement parts arrive.

Note in addition that a warranty can be extremely useful in certain 
organizations as a vehicle of blame avoidance (this may be its primary 
purpose in fact). If I buy a bunch of machines that turn out to have 
buggy NICs, well that's my fault and I can kick myself since I own the 
company, stay up late into the night reading kernel code, and buy new 
NICs. If I have an evil Dilbertian boss, then well...I'd be seriously 
thinking about buying Dell boxes in order to blame Dell rather than 
myself, and be able to say "everything is warrantied" if badness goes 
down. Just saying...