Talking to one of my local PC suppliers, well, more like mutual moaning - there are a lot of DOAs coming round just now. We surmise that they are "marginals" coming out from the supply chain after the floods in Thailand upset production so badly.
(I helped repack a box of about 50 "new" drives, the first ten of which all failed, so the whole case load was being rejected...)

It is done because shipping broken parts and having to replace them costs less than not meeting shipping orders on the right date.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
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The bad:

5 of the JBOD drives were dead on arrival. Whether this was caused by poor quality control due to the Thailand flooding, or transport we don't know. What we do know is A) 5 drives are dead and will need replacement and B) we will have to keep an eye on the remaining drives.

The good news about the above is we have a full replacement warranty on the drives which we will be utilizing so we can replace them soon(ish).

Due to the dead drives, I'm considering doing a fundraiser for at least 5 additional drives for backups. Feel free to leave me your thoughts on this in a reply.

How much are those drives? I looked through this thread but didn't find it.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Talking to one of my local PC suppliers, well, more like mutual moaning - there are a lot of DOAs coming round just now. We surmise that they are "marginals" coming out from the supply chain after the floods in Thailand upset production so badly.
(I helped repack a box of about 50 "new" drives, the first ten of which all failed, so the whole case load was being rejected...)

It is done because shipping broken parts and having to replace them costs less than not meeting shipping orders on the right date.

I would suggest that the business model needs to be adjusted a bit so this is not quite the case.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

http://www.buy.com/prod/seagate-barracuda-st2000dm001-2-tb-3-5-internal-hard-drive-sata-600/224767667.html

These are the drives we purchased. I'm thinking we should pick up another 10 drives for backups/spares. Thoughts?

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

http://www.buy.com/prod/seagate-barracuda-st2000dm001-2-tb-3-5-internal-hard-drive-sata-600/224767667.html

These are the drives we purchased. I'm thinking we should pick up another 10 drives for backups/spares. Thoughts?

It can't hurt to set up one of those donation pool thingers. Maybe every x months, depending on how the drives wear, queue up 5-10 more in the donation hat.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
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Just FYI guys the Directors are chewing over what we need to do. In the near future we'll likely be rolling out with:

1. JBOD spares fundraiser.
2. Shuttle PC fundraiser.
3. 2-3 Smaller fundraisers for needed components.
4. Recurring donation for GBT transport drives.

When I roll out with this, likely early next week, I'll be starting a new thread similar to this one and letting everyone know the nuts and bolts.

Thanks sincerely for everyone's input above.

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

...
4. Recurring donation for GBT transport drives.
...

Arecibo maybe?

                                                                   Joe

Howdy Brad,
Just let us know so I can scrape out My change jar.

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I Desire Peace and Justice, Jim Scott (Mod-Ret.)

Howdy Brad,
Just let us know so I can scrape out My change jar.

Hmmm... I do have 2 paint cans full of pennies. I'm sure that is like maybe $5.00 right there.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
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We've ordered a RAID backup battery for GeorgeM's 3ware 9750-4i4e per request of the SAH guys using leftover funds from the 2 server fundraisers.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118118

With Tax+Shipping we paid $175.88. I'll be posting tracking information for this item at http://www.gpuug.org/purchases.

Thanks guys. Stay tuned for future projects :)

---

Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

http://www.buy.com/prod/seagate-barracuda-st2000dm001-2-tb-3-5-internal-hard-drive-sata-600/224767667.html

These are the drives we purchased. I'm thinking we should pick up another 10 drives for backups/spares. Thoughts?

I have a thought. Is it a practical thought? You tell me.

When I do what I do for a living I'm doing almost nothing that a person can't do for themselves. (that isn't the way it started-out 28 years ago; oh well)

People pay me to do things so they don't have-to worry about it, develop the expertise, or spend the time.

In other words, the convenience and counsel are worth a few dollars to them. I have to make sure that I provide a few dollars-worth of service.

So, when you told us HDDs failed out of the box I thought of the lengths I would go-to in order to keep a customer of mine happy, especially if they just bought 24 of the same item from me.

I'm thinking that I would *immediately* ship five new drives with an RMA tag for the five dead drives and I would "eat" the "cost of capital" during the shipping period and I would probably eat the shipping. Then, as the reseller, I'd have me a little talk with my vendor about their faulty product.


My over-arching thought is: With the use and abuse that SETI@Home puts things like RAM and fans and CPUs and HDDs and power supplies through, it might be worth establishing a relationship with a supplier, even if it cost 10% more, so that a telephone call is all it takes to get whatever I've got that "died under warranty" cross-shipped to me -- immediately, no questions asked.

Things like that Kingston ValueRAM have a lifetime warranty. Do we even know how to get it replaced? Can anyone find the receipt for "that" stick? Was the bad RAM they found in the past few months sent for warranty replacement, and what of the server CPU that lost cores?

It really might be worth establishing a "trusted and valued" relationship with a vendor.

You asked for thoughts; those are mine.

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade here, but you might want to consider solid state drives, as an alternative to hard drives. They come in a variety of flavors, from straight SATA replacement drives to the newer PCIe boards. With as much data as SAH moves, the increased speed and lower latency would be a big help, I would think.

BTW ... I'm a small stockholder of Fusion IO (who makes one of the better PCIe varieties), and I sent a quick email to their Investor Relations folks, telling them what a GREAT marketing idea it would be, to send you some as a corporate donation. Getting their name favorably in front of a million computer users could be a very good investment on their part. No response yet, but I'll keep my fingers crossed. Have you looked into any other corporate grants of hardware?

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I don't want to rain on anyone's parade here, but you might want to consider solid state drives, as an alternative to hard drives. They come in a variety of flavors, from straight SATA replacement drives to the newer PCIe boards. With as much data as SAH moves, the increased speed and lower latency would be a big help, I would think.

BTW ... I'm a small stockholder of Fusion IO (who makes one of the better PCIe varieties), and I sent a quick email to their Investor Relations folks, telling them what a GREAT marketing idea it would be, to send you some as a corporate donation. Getting their name favorably in front of a million computer users could be a very good investment on their part. No response yet, but I'll keep my fingers crossed. Have you looked into any other corporate grants of hardware?

For a start they wouldn't have the capacity required for this project (I won't even comment on the cost difference). ;)

Cheers.

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Getting their name favorably in front of a million computer users could be a very good investment

Although 1.26 million have opened accounts over the years, only 154k are active (activity in the last 30 days), per BOINC Combined Stats. Have seen similar numbers from other sources, so I think it's about right. Hope you can clarify that if they show any interest.

http://boinc.netsoft-online.com/e107_plugins/boinc/bp.php?project=19

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Another Fred
Support SETI@home when you search the Web with GoodSearch or shop online with GoodShop.

I'm thinking we should pick up another 10 drives for backups/spares. Thoughts?

I accidentally had another thought.

For the SuperMicro JBOD array you (they) wanted a lot of matching drives, so either it makes a lot of sense to provide that many (10) spares so that hopefully that RAID will operate just exactly as it does now for many years, or it makes no sense to buy that many because when five have failed after years of service you'd want 24 of something else / there won't be a flood issue in Thailand / they will be cheaper / they will be bigger, better, and faster in the future.

I'm wondering (and there is no way to know) if three years from now you won't be able to replace 24 drives for the current price of 10 and get all new, bigger, faster, under-warranty drives in the process.

Did that make sense? I know what I mean so it makes sense to me, but...

[edit] I just looked it up. Unless you bought extended warranties on these it looks like the warranty is one year. That changes my thoughts. Since I would hope we don't have to buy 45 of those drives every year, maybe it does make sense to have ten sitting around to stretch the "array" for a couple years more (hopefully). We'll be rebuying them in three years, anyway. [edit/]

http://www.buy.com/prod/seagate-barracuda-st2000dm001-2-tb-3-5-internal-hard-drive-sata-600/224767667.html

These are the drives we purchased. I'm thinking we should pick up another 10 drives for backups/spares. Thoughts?

I hope you get brand new drives from them and not "refurbs" for the DOA's..

I hope you get brand new drives from them and not "refurbs" for the DOA's..

New drives may have the same issues as the new ones.
The advantage of any refubished unit is that it will have been repaired with modified hardware &/or firmware.

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Grant
Darwin NT

I hope you get brand new drives from them and not "refurbs" for the DOA's..

New drives may have the same issues as the new ones.
The advantage of any refubished unit is that it will have been repaired with modified hardware &/or firmware.

And there's even the possibility that it may have been tested afterwards!

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade here, but you might want to consider solid state drives, as an alternative to hard drives. They come in a variety of flavors, from straight SATA replacement drives to the newer PCIe boards. With as much data as SAH moves, the increased speed and lower latency would be a big help, I would think.

BTW ... I'm a small stockholder of Fusion IO (who makes one of the better PCIe varieties), and I sent a quick email to their Investor Relations folks, telling them what a GREAT marketing idea it would be, to send you some as a corporate donation. Getting their name favorably in front of a million computer users could be a very good investment on their part. No response yet, but I'll keep my fingers crossed. Have you looked into any other corporate grants of hardware?

I spend most of my free time writing grants for the .org.

A few notes on the above:

1. SSD's are impractical. For 45x2TB we'd need about $125,000.
2. I think we're going to scrap the 20 spare drives idea and instead look toward 5-10.

---

Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade here, but you might want to consider solid state drives, as an alternative to hard drives. They come in a variety of flavors, from straight SATA replacement drives to the newer PCIe boards. With as much data as SAH moves, the increased speed and lower latency would be a big help, I would think.

BTW ... I'm a small stockholder of Fusion IO (who makes one of the better PCIe varieties), and I sent a quick email to their Investor Relations folks, telling them what a GREAT marketing idea it would be, to send you some as a corporate donation. Getting their name favorably in front of a million computer users could be a very good investment on their part. No response yet, but I'll keep my fingers crossed. Have you looked into any other corporate grants of hardware?

I spend most of my free time writing grants for the .org.

A few notes on the above:

1. SSD's are impractical. For 45x2TB we'd need about $125,000.
2. I think we're going to scrap the 20 spare drives idea and instead look toward 5-10.

It is about that the guys in the lab want/need. Not what we think they need. So even if they were like "we need a coffee pot" I honestly wouldn't mind.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[