I had a hard drive fail in an HP server this week. Normally, this is a pretty routine event and the process for replacement goes something like this:
- Receive notification that a drive failed
- Contact HP, requesting replacement under warranty
- Explain that it’s VMWare, so I can’t send the Array Diagnostics Report easily and my information came from the HP provided CIM providers and was verified in iLO
- New drive shipped out
However, this time the process went differently:
- Receive notification that a drive failed
- Contact HP, requesting replacement under warranty
- Asked to send screenshot evidence of drive failure
I don’t mind that, really. I’m sure people try to trick HP into sending them new hardware for no reason, so I sent that in.
But then, HP asked me for the part number. I was a little confused as they had the drive’s model number from my iLO screenshot. I asked the CSR about this and he told me that different drives have the same model. I wasn’t on-site at the moment, so was getting pretty annoyed here. I eventually just got them to send me a drive with equivalent specs, even if not the same exact model.
Shouldn’t HP know their own part numbers? If a drive has different characteristics, would that not warrant a different model number – avoiding all of this confusion?
Wuthering Nights 