How long do vendors support severs for?

Posted by ryaninseattle1@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 20 comments

So I found an old PowerEdge 730 that I might look at using as a Veeam repo. I just looked at I don't know the date this thing shipped but this was launched in 2014 and I can go on the Dell website right now and with no support I can get firmware updates from **this year**. Is it just me or how awesome is that?!

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20 Comments

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breenisgreen@reddit

| and I can go on the Dell website right now and with no paid support I can get firmware updates released **this year**. Generally that's how it should be. Sounds like you've been burned by HP before

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vertexsys@reddit

Yeah and Dell allows resources like updateyodell.net to exist to update 12G and older servers that rely on the old Dell ftp site and don't support the https site. It's a nice change from some vendors who actively prevent access. An R730 is more than powerful enough for a NAS or backup with 12G SAS and some NVMe support.

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manvscar@reddit

Hell, I still run 720xd's loaded out with SSDs for some backup and hypervisor scenarios. Still very capable platforms.

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rfc2549-withQOS@reddit

Hpe

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superwizdude@reddit

It’s 7 years from date of purchase. But sometimes you get lucky with firmware updates. They often go beyond the 7 years especially if it’s a security related update.

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ZAFJB@reddit

Not necessarily true for Dell. 13th gen are still supported.

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superwizdude@reddit

That’s dells official statement. If you take out an extended warranty on dell equipment, you can renew it for up to 7 years. After that it’s best effort and good luck.

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abstractraj@reddit

Every hardware vendor must announce the end of sale and legally they have to support that hardware for 5 more years. It may be longer, but you can count on the 5 as a minimum

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michaelpaoli@reddit

It varies, but 3 to 7 years is fairly typical. "Of course" support isn't free - whether charged separately, or built into the hardware costs or whatever, one way or another one is paying for it (or someone has). Also, if your unit is no longer supported, but the model still is, may still find (some) support available, e.g. documentation, firmware updates, etc. Some vendors do also keep the support documentation available quite a long time - even "indefinitely" - even after the hardware is no longer supported. That's both a cost ... and can also quite be a benefit (reputation, etc.) to them ... so practices vary a lot among vendors/manufacturers. Can also radically change if a company is bought out or sold off (e.g. Sun Microsystems had great documentation ... can basically kiss that pretty much all bye-bye with Oracle).

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ZaetaThe_@reddit

Lmgtfy: dell 730 lol eos Dell will have docs; chatpgt could tell you, Google could tell you.

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roboto404@reddit

Dell has some great support for our poweredges from my experience

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MalletNGrease@reddit

How much money do you have?

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mr_data_lore@reddit

Even without knowing the service tag to look up the date I can promise you it's not supported anymore. 5-7 years is the max that Dell will support a server for in my experience and that server has to be older than that.

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ErikTheEngineer@reddit

Is it possible the firmware has some 0-day easily exploitable bug they absolutely had to patch? The older servers get, the more the firmware updates become solely about patching holes. During the normal service life period they're fixing non-security issues. But just like Windows 10 going EOL next October, those ESUs you're paying for are solely going to be for vulns.

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ProfessorWorried626@reddit

Dell average customer can get a contract for 7 years from the purchase date. Enterprise can get 10 years from the release date in the US at a higher cost if they keep doing yearly renewals after the 7 years. Firmware/driver updates are public, but the scope is limited to whatever the latest supported OS/Hypervisor was when it's mainstream support ended. Using a 730 for a new Veeam repo today is silly. We have a repurposed 730xd acting as an immutable for some desktops but that was retired from its primary role 3 years ago and has been doing this since. We also keep a spare of everything except the backplane for the thing from other retired servers. I am going to move it to a r740 whenever I get time.

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ryaninseattle1@reddit (OP)

Should have said secondary copy repo :) I think it's fine for that and better than not having one I think.

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How long do vendors support severs for?

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20 Comments

breenisgreen@reddit

vertexsys@reddit

manvscar@reddit

rfc2549-withQOS@reddit

superwizdude@reddit

ZAFJB@reddit

superwizdude@reddit

abstractraj@reddit

michaelpaoli@reddit

ZaetaThe_@reddit

roboto404@reddit

MalletNGrease@reddit

mr_data_lore@reddit

ErikTheEngineer@reddit

ProfessorWorried626@reddit

ryaninseattle1@reddit (OP)

Vivid_Mongoose_8964@reddit

mr_ballchin@reddit

zakabog@reddit

alpha417@reddit