Buying 2nd hand Cisco servers for production usage

[Dieselboy]

I need some server hardware to deploy Openshift 4.x. I have 4x free slots in the Cisco UCS 5108 chassis. Existing 4 blades are B200 M3 which went EOL 01/01/17 (3 years ago). The next gen B200 M4 went EOL February 14 2019. So currently, through distributors we have the "B200 M5".

Currently we have B200 M3 with spec;

2 x Xeon 2620 cpus (2.0GHz, 6 core == 24 vCPU @ 2GHz)
128GB memory
2 x 10k 300GB SAS
VIC 1240 MLOM mezzanine card (gives virtual 10GB NICs and iscsi boot via IBFT)

I cant see any other relevant parts in the UCS manager when looking at a single blade.

Distributor quotation for a 2x CPU blade (Xeon 4110 'silver') with 64GB memory (32 per cpu), VIC 1340 (UCSB-MLOM-40G-03) is coming in around $9k AUD each.


When looking at ebay specials at first glance, $3k could get me 3x UCS B200 M3 servers with similar spec. I have contacted a few of the sellers and asked if they are willing to contact Cisco to transfer the 'ownership' of the devices so that I can then purchase support from Cisco for the hardware - they said no problem.
So now looking at this in detail, I may as well go for the M4 and M3 at a push. For an example, I am looking at a M4:

B200 M4 ebay special $650 AUD;

2 x 2530 Xeon cpus
128GB memory
VIC 1240

The above is missing 2 x HDD which are looking to be around $40 each again from ebay which totals $80 for the two.

So with this example, the total will be about $730 AUD plus some postage fees. I'll buy two of these, which makes it around $1460 AUD for 2 x B200 M4 servers


So I wanted to reach out to you guys,
- Has anyone had any experience or issues, with transferring hardware ownership?

To mitigate risk of hardware failure I want to get smartnet support. The other hardware I have is already under smartnet (except the non-Cisco memory). Previously I had purchased a Cisco video phone from ebay for my working study lab. I wanted to get smartnet on this when I bought it because the Cisco CUCME I also purchased was supported under smartnet - the idea was that if I got stuck during studies I could call on Cisco for some support. Cisco refused to sell me smartnet for the phone because it was still registered to the original purchaser. I wasnt able to contact the seller for some reason and couldnt request transfer of ownership). So I want to avoid this - but at the same time, it said to me that I could buy smartnet for 2nd hand hardware providing the hardware owner transfers ownership to the new owner - ie me.

[deanwebb]

I've always been at places where the hardware was either bought new or gotten used and utilized only in "best effort" non-critical deployments... or by a small business trying to get by on the cheap...

[Otanx]

So the main problem you will have is the M3 support can be put under support anymore unless it already is on a contract. See the "End of New Service Attachment Date" on the EOL notice below. The M4 you can get a new SmartNet contract, but only for another few weeks (14Feb2020). I know in my organization I couldn't get the PO cut that fast.

M3 EOL - https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-b-series-blade-servers/eos-eol-notice-c51-737399.html
M4 EOL - https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-b-series-blade-servers/eos-eol-notice-c51-741236.html

Also here is the official Cisco answer about secondary market support "For Secondary Market Products to become eligible for Cisco warranty or support services, Cisco requires that an inspection of such Secondary Market Products (per Cisco's inspection program) is carried out, that the equipment passes said inspection, and that appropriate proof is provided to Cisco showing that the appropriate software license fees have been paid for the said Secondary Market Products (or that payment is made for such licenses if no prior payment has been made) by or on behalf of the end user who will be using the Secondary Market Products in question. Other fees, such as those for reinstatement of services, may also apply."

That is from here - https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/warranties/warranty-doc-c99-740959.html#_Toc22263306

-Otanx

[Dieselboy]

Thanks guys

Otanx thanks for the tip on the EOL, I had missed that part. I doubt that I'll be able to purchase, have delivered and then order the smartnet in time for feb 14th.

Regarding the Cisco official "secondary market" statement, I take that with a pinch of salt as local law overrides any company statements. You just need to be prepared to engage the legal team 

I tried to find the correct route/process to have hardware ownership transferred to another person or company and I was unable to find it yesterday. I expect that it is not in Cisco's best interest to support this in any way; they'd rather you purchase new of course.