[bayindirh]

Dell has this problem sometimes. I remember getting the first batch one of their older servers when they were new. We had to replace motherboards' I/O (rear) section because the servers lost some devices on that part (e.g.: Ethernet controllers, iDRAC, sometimes BIOS) for some time. After shaking out these problems, they ran for almost a decade.

We recently retired them because we worn down everything on these servers. From RAID cards to power regulators. Rebooting a perfectly running server due to a configuration change and losing the RAID card forever because electron migration erode a trace inside the RAID processor is a sobering experience.

[merb]

Dell has tons of issues. A faulty mini board of the front led can actually stop the server from booting/running at all (even drac will be dead)

[bayindirh]

Interesting. From my experience, Dell is generally one of the least problematic brands when compared in large numbers.

Another surprising name is Huawei. Their servers just don't die.

[merb]

well tbf their server pro support is actually good, but we still had a lot of minor issues, we barely had a dead one in Production. Most problems arises after unpacking. Like the one I told. Of course we had dead transrecievers and dead hard drives, but the pro support guys only want the support zip that you can create from the drac and they ask for some details and than they order replacements parts for you.

[bayindirh]

Ah, I understand what you go through now. In our case, they came with the parts that we said we gonna need, see that whatever device is dead with their eyes, and just replaced the problematic part.

When the BIOS or the iDRAC is shot, there's no way they gonna get their support ZIP file. If they want they can connect that dead I/O board to a spare part and try. :)