Question about server extended warranty.

[GreyHippo]

I have an HP server which is almost 3 years old and the warranty will be up very soon, to extend the warranty by two more years it will cost me $800. The server acts as our main file server and serves about 30 users. The reason I am contemplating not extending the warranty because in a year or so I will be purchasing a new server to replace an older server acting as a domain controller.

What are your thoughts?

Bite the bullet or throw the dice?

[cadtag]

how much $ damage would be done to the firm is the server bites the dust the day after the warranty expires? Figure 30 people not doing billable work for a day or three while you wranlge up a quick fix would be quite a bit more than the $800. Over the two year life of the extension, that extended warranty is under $1.10 a day...

On the flip side, if the server was originally specced with sufficient redundancy, eg raid, multiple power supplies, backup, and is on a gangbuster UPS, it's no more likely to fail after than it is before the warranty expires. I've never seen a server fail in total, usually replacing the bad drive in the raid or going to the redundant power supply is all that's been needed to keep on keeping on.

[GreyHippo]

Cadtag,

The day after you posted, I started hearing a beeping noise from the server in question. After running a few diagnostics, I discovered a failed hard drive. It is configured in a RAID 5, so one failing is not a big deal. The same day the HP tech comes out, pulls the failed drive out and puts in a new one. He proceeds to tell my that the drive will rebuild all the data on the drive and my users shouldn't be interrupted. After he leaves the server for some reason goes offline and is not responding to anything, I can't even get to the desktop. I decided to let the server sit there and do what ever it was doing, I didn't want to disturb it if it was rebuilding data. I came back to the office later in the evening and server was still not responding, so I decided to restart the system. As i restart I get an error indicating another failed hard drive. OOOH NOOO, ^&$&$&^%&%$ !!!! It turned out the server had a malfunctioning hard drive back plane (where all the HDs plug into). My hard drives were still screwed and I had to completely restore it from backup.

I am definitely extending the warranty and seeing how to improve my disaster recovery.