[rescue] advice on rescuing an e10k

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Ahmed Ewing <aewing at gmail.com>
>Date: 2006/10/19 Thu PM 06:44:07 CDT
>To: rescue at sunhelp.org
>Subject: Re: [rescue] advice on rescuing an e10k

>A slightly different aspect of E10K rescue advice:
>
>Whatever you do, for the sake of the non-profit effort, *MAKE ABSOLUTELY
>CERTAIN* that the donor is also agreeing to transfer the E10K license keys
>with the physical hardware. Without the keys you will be unable to create
>the virtual NVRAM files and thus be unable to create any domains.
>
>In other words, you'll be spending thousands to transport a large, loud,
>power-hungry boat anchor/paperweight. :)
>
>All domain configuration including NVRAM information is stored on the SSP
>workstation(s) if a domain is already configured on the frame... but even if
>they are donating you the SSP(s) too, there's never a guarantee that the
>disks will survive the transport trip. Get the license keys (a very long
>hexadecimal string) in writing from the donor, or be prepared to go back to
>Sun, to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars the first time you need to
>create/recreate a domain.

Off the top of my head, I have a few things to share/reinforce what others said:

 - loading dock to loading dock is great, but make sure you can smoothly roll the system from the loading dock to the truck

 - I'd remove as much out of the system as possible, if only to make the transport more manageable

 - I'm very concerned about how to keep the system in the middle of an otherwise empty truck

 - how are you going to sustain the E10K once it arrives? I assume there are very particular infrastructure requirements (A/C, power, etc)...

 - what are the locations (from/to) we are talking about? What is the distance? To rent a truck is typically a $1/mile, give or take - not too bad for a local move, but over 500 miles it gets pricey (IMHO) and the original quote may be reasonable (when you add shipping materials, insurance, and other expenses)...

 - Is the system palletized, or is the shipper you quoted including packing up the machine in the price quoted?

I hope it does work out, I'd love to help, but I am in NJ, and suspect this is too far away...

Lionel