Supermicro Servers

[SAFCasper]

Just wondering what the general feel is for Supermicro servers?

Getting tired of Dell - hardware is great but their sales & accounts teams are a nightmare to deal with. It's like we are inconveniencing them by having the nerve to place an order. I'm also certain our account manager is fictional. Never available and never returns calls. Will only email you (2 days later).

Came across broadberry.co.uk who supply SuperMicro hardware.
- UK based.
- Website provides a ton of customisation.
- Reasonable pricing. Consistently lower than Dell for equivalent spec hardware.
- Offer a 4-hour on-site warranty, which is what we usually push clients to order.

Everything seems great apart from... nobody in our IT team has any hands-on experience with Supermicro.

Really just looking for some reassurance this isn't a crazy idea.

 

[Larry Sabo]

You may get dragged into the controversy over alleged security issues with Supermicro servers attributed to China, as reported by Bloomberg and denied by many others. No idea of its veracity but almost all western country governments aren't taking a chance, if I understand things correctly.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I've not used Supermicro, but we just order directly through the Dell site. We're really low volume. Probably $10-20K a year on average. We don't talk to anybody so it's relatively painless for us.

 

[SAFCasper]

I've not used Supermicro, but we just order directly through the Dell site. We're really low volume. Probably $10-20K a year on average. We don't talk to anybody so it's relatively painless for us.

We also place most orders directly through their site as a Dell Premier Partner but they can't get that right either.

Orders just get cancelled for no reason or mysteriously vanish with no trace. Even though we have an email confirmation with an order number - nope, that order doesn't exist.

They stopped our net-30 payment terms for no apparent reason in November then refused to acknowledge we ever had it. We've been paying net-30 for years with statements and invoices to prove it. But no... they made us submit a new application with full credit checks. That took over a week to process and be approved.

Or another example I ordered a few Latitude's back around January 24th/25th. Expected delivery was 4-5 business days. Checked the status a few days later and expected delivery is now 28th Feb. They wont let me cancel the order as it's already shipped (from China I'm guessing?). Can only wait until it arrives then process a return. So in the meantime I've had to order a second batch of laptops from another supplier as my client wont wait an entire month on delivery.

Just seems like issue after issue and if we call up customer service we get transferred between 7 different departments then told we should speak to our account manager... "Oh, sorry, he isn't available right now but I will make sure he calls you back" -- doesn't call back.

Getting into a rant here I'm sorry.

 

[SAFCasper]

You may get dragged into the controversy over alleged security issues with Supermicro servers attributed to China, as reported by Bloomberg and denied by many others. No idea of its veracity but almost all western country governments aren't taking a chance, if I understand things correctly.

Doesn't concern me too much. This was back in 2015 and through a subcontractor they no longer use. It's also happened to other large vendors in the past. It's something you can't really avoid. Wouldn't be surprised if Dell, HP, Lenovo etc have all been compromised in a similar way at some point in time. It just hasn't been discovered (yet).

I can't imagine the Chinese government are much interested in my small business clients anyway.

 

[Sky-Knight]

SuperMicro is garbage, stay away if for no other reason than the fragile IPMI and the way they do BIOS updates.

Dell is a nightmare to work with, but the platforms are well supported and easy to work on for decades, that's worth the pain.

HP can't get its head out of its arse after the whole HP/HPe split...

The only vendor I'd consider other than Dell at this point is IBM. Even the Intel servers are nightmares, though they do have a wonderful warranty.

 

[nerd2u]

Super micro does a lot of OEM I believe I've worked with a few of their OEM servers never had an issue with them.

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

For almost 30 years we've been "mostly" HP for servers. Of course going back 15+ years it was under the "Compaq" name for Proliants.
About 15 years ago we started also doing Dell...tended to use them for lower budget clients, sticking to HP for higher budget clients and larger setups. We just like the way the HP Smart Array controllers do their job, and the features they have.

As for SuperMicro, we've used them over time for *nix firewall hardware...going way back, clients with multiple locations (WANs) using PFSense. Some Untangle setups. Haven't had problems with them. But we have not used them in a Windows/File Server environment. I know they have a HUGE market share. I guess it's out of lack of familiarity with their support...because since we're a huge HP house and moderate Dell house...we like having that "pro" level support, 4x hours onsite support options, standard overnight hardware warranty, etc. I am not sure if SuperMicro has equivalent options.

Not even sure if SuperMicro has good "pre sales" support. With HP and Dell, we have good pre-sales support to utilize when spec'ing out servers and preparing quotes. Most of it through Ingram Micro. And some Dell pre-sales through our Premier Partnership. But since we mostly just use Dell for small to medium server setups it's easy enough to do quotes direct. For mid to high end setups..it's nice to have the pre-sales expertise of HP's team via Ingram Micro.

Although we're a long time Lenovo partner for ThinkCentre workstations and ThinkPad laptops...we have not utilized Lenovo for servers. I suppose we just don't want to have a 3rd server product to have to learn. I'm sure they're good servers....I've run across a few in my career and they seem solid. We've even used some ourselves in the past...picked up some used ones when we were starting up, needed servers on a budget and have some of the X300 or something like that 1U rack mounts. Ran like champs until we retired them at a very old age.

I suppose if you're considering aligning yourself with a new server brand and considering SuperMicro..just check out what pre-sales support you have, and of course...post sales support. For many of our clients, it's VERY important for us to have at least a "pro" level support if not 4x hour onsite support.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I can't imagine the Chinese government are much interested in my small business clients anyway.

On quite the contrary. They're looking for back doors to locations ANYwhere. If your clients data is not interesting...perhaps other businesses your clients do business with are. And it spreads from there. Not only the data itself...but the fact that they have a "location" in your region to launch cyber-recon and cyber-attacks from. (think of IP ranges in your region as the source, instead of traffic coming from China).

 

[Moltuae]

I'm mainly HP (for rack servers at least). Although I have dabbled with Dell from time to time and I do have an old used SuperMicro rack server in the workshop that I played around with at one time, mainly just for academic/curiosity's sake.

There is another option worth considering, Fujitsu: http://www.fujitsu.com/fts/products/computing/servers/primergy/rack/index.html

I've never used Fujitsu rack servers personally but I have used a number of their tower servers over the years, which have been extremely reliable.

 

[SAFCasper]

For almost 30 years we've been "mostly" HP for servers. Of course going back 15+ years it was under the "Compaq" name for Proliants.
About 15 years ago we started also doing Dell...tended to use them for lower budget clients, sticking to HP for higher budget clients and larger setups. We just like the way the HP Smart Array controllers do their job, and the features they have.

As for SuperMicro, we've used them over time for *nix firewall hardware...going way back, clients with multiple locations (WANs) using PFSense. Some Untangle setups. Haven't had problems with them. But we have not used them in a Windows/File Server environment. I know they have a HUGE market share. I guess it's out of lack of familiarity with their support...because since we're a huge HP house and moderate Dell house...we like having that "pro" level support, 4x hours onsite support options, standard overnight hardware warranty, etc. I am not sure if SuperMicro has equivalent options.

Not even sure if SuperMicro has good "pre sales" support. With HP and Dell, we have good pre-sales support to utilize when spec'ing out servers and preparing quotes. Most of it through Ingram Micro. And some Dell pre-sales through our Premier Partnership. But since we mostly just use Dell for small to medium server setups it's easy enough to do quotes direct. For mid to high end setups..it's nice to have the pre-sales expertise of HP's team via Ingram Micro.

Although we're a long time Lenovo partner for ThinkCentre workstations and ThinkPad laptops...we have not utilized Lenovo for servers. I suppose we just don't want to have a 3rd server product to have to learn. I'm sure they're good servers....I've run across a few in my career and they seem solid. We've even used some ourselves in the past...picked up some used ones when we were starting up, needed servers on a budget and have some of the X300 or something like that 1U rack mounts. Ran like champs until we retired them at a very old age.

I suppose if you're considering aligning yourself with a new server brand and considering SuperMicro..just check out what pre-sales support you have, and of course...post sales support. For many of our clients, it's VERY important for us to have at least a "pro" level support if not 4x hour onsite support.

We can get 5-years extended warranty with 4 hour on-site response so the warranty matches up with what Dell offer.

Hard to judge from just a few phone calls but I spoke with their pre-sales earlier in the week to price up a few servers we need in the next few months. The guy came across as quite knowledgeable and wasn't trying to force unnecessary sales down my throat which is always a bonus.

SuperMicro is garbage, stay away if for no other reason than the fragile IPMI and the way they do BIOS updates.

Can you elaborate on the way they do BIOS updates?

 

[Sky-Knight]

Can you elaborate on the way they do BIOS updates?

Just like a whitebox desktop mobo, oftentimes requires a specially created USB key in a specific USB port with the flash starting in the BIOS itself.

In this age of microcode problems, we need something faster. Dell has an EXE you run it, and it does it, it can even be done remotely. HP... same... Intel and SuperMicro... not so much. And don't get me started on the other nightmares I've had just keeping the sensors in their IPMI platforms working properly.

 

[Markverhyden]

I've had limited exposure to SuperMicro. But no problems. They do put together some pretty impressive stuff. Most of what I've seen has been high end workstations/servers used in sophisticated numerical modeling.

 

[SAFCasper]

Just like a whitebox desktop mobo, oftentimes requires a specially created USB key in a specific USB port with the flash starting in the BIOS itself.

In this age of microcode problems, we need something faster. Dell has an EXE you run it, and it does it, it can even be done remotely. HP... same... Intel and SuperMicro... not so much. And don't get me started on the other nightmares I've had just keeping the sensors in their IPMI platforms working properly.

Manual BIOS updates via USB would be a major problem as we usually do them after-hours and remotely.

Some quick Google-fu and it looks like you can use Supermicro Update Manager for remote BIOS updates and configuration changes. It's an add-on which requires additional licencing but only costs $30.

https://www.supermicro.com/en/solutions/management-software/supermicro-update-manager


From what I've seen they do have most of the same tools available as HP/Dell... just maybe a little less polished or a CLI tool instead of a nice easy GUI etc

 

[computertechguy]

I have purchased My Dell's AND HP servers through PC Connection (or Connections now) for years. YES they are not a distributor but a reseller, however with their buying power I always get great pricing, and included the 24x7 gold support I have been happy. Oh and my rep is VERY happy to return my calls.

 

[SAFCasper]

I have purchased My Dell's AND HP servers through PC Connection (or Connections now) for years. YES they are not a distributor but a reseller, however with their buying power I always get great pricing, and included the 24x7 gold support I have been happy. Oh and my rep is VERY happy to return my calls.

I don't think they trade in the UK

At the moment we have decided to give Ingram Micro a try. We already have an account with them just never ordered servers/desktops as it was easier to use Dell Premier.

I miss being able to get instant pricing and configuring the specs myself... but at least they answer my calls and respond in a reasonable time-frame.