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How do we conduct iron test drives with a cast iron bridge


Test and repair area

Quite often there are stories that we are on a test drive to arrange a real show - tearing the drives and controllers “on the fly” from a running storage system, cutting down power racks and generally scoffing at devices in every way. Until they say "hrrr", like that chainsaw from a joke.

In fact, of course, test drives are calmer, quieter, and needed for another. But no, we do not hold back and do something like that, of course.
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Below I will tell you that this is just behind the scenes, who needs it and why.

What is a test drive for a piece of iron?


Here it is necessary to delve a little bit into how they buy expensive solutions for IT infrastructure. The first thing that is required for the acquisition is the experience of working with this manufacturer. If it is, in general, it is more or less clear what the new device represents. As a rule, about half a year or a year he is allowed to “settle” on the American market, and then read the forums on the subject of pitfalls.

It’s clear that cosmically expensive hardware doesn’t have so many fans who know all of its features in detail, so where the situation arises more often that you need to buy storage systems or servers, but you don’t understand how it works. More precisely, dozens of reviews have been read, the sites of the alleged enemy have been studied from cover to cover, ways to the Allied forums have been explored, a short course from the vendor’s young client has been heard, but I really want to see and touch.

The next stage is testing on customer data. There are two options here:
- Either the customer comes to the decision center (server with the necessary hardware) and rolls in there some of its own test base for verification;
- Or the customer orders a “pilot”, that is, testing on one of its facilities, in case of success, launch production on the same hardware. Well, or just then buy this equipment.

For example, with DSS, we regularly receive bases and tasks to drive tests in the centers of EMC, Hitachi, HP solutions. There is a lab for networkers, there live Cisco, Riverbed and other network hardware.

In general, I think it is clear. But there is another case, probably the most interesting. This is when right now the piece of iron is not needed, but I want to be aware of. Sometimes with a view to updating the IT park in a year or two, sometimes - just because you need to know what is on the market, sometimes - because we, knowing the customer, we advise you to take a closer look. In the same retail, it often happens that the sore problem of backup and disaster recovery is solved by purchasing one PACK that rises in a couple of hours and does everything right away. Yes, it is expensive, but after the demonstration, many decide that a year to implement and process a file with a cheap or even free solution is not worth it. And they are already beginning to calculate operating costs and lower costs within the company.

So basically, our test drives are a kind of advanced training and tips on where it might be worth watching. And what generally is on the market.

Who leads


Test drives are conducted directly by engineers and PMs who work with a specific iron and sphere. As a rule, these are people with a minimum of five years of experience in a particular area, 10–20 federal-level projects and a clear understanding of how it all happens in reality.

Some, by the way, come to our test drives for the lively expert opinion, asking questions. Or, more importantly, we sometimes make comparisons of glands that solve the same problem. Put the units of different manufacturers on the table, load to failure, and derive performance statistics, consoles, and interfaces from them. After testing, you can play the game - "how much performance will drop if you pull out the controller" at the request of the audience. Very convenient and practical.

Anything happens. Recently, an hour before the test drive began to check the stands. Suddenly we see the servers one by one start to fall off. We go to the lab. Well, for sure, we find there engineers packing our iron for dough at the customer. Seeing our reddening faces, the engineers silently begin to pull out the servers and mount them back. And their iron was in the next rack.

Who walks


They come mainly from CIOs of companies and a financial director with main admins. They are interested in practice and maximum specifics. IT people are looking for pitfalls and are keenly interested in the nuances of exploitation, but the financial director is often considered on-site cases and is consulted on how best to go. Admin sometimes instead of a translator in such dialogues.

People are serious, so we do not play with them in advertising. The usual program is 15 minutes of the presentation “in general”, then we load the piece of iron, or first we work with software on the test case. Performance monitor - on the screen, you can stick your finger in the fan (I'm kidding, you feel sorry for your finger, you can at least change the fan). We quickly show the main features, sometimes very spectacular - for example, somehow, right before the eyes of the audience, we deployed and set up the entire VDI infrastructure of the enterprise in 20 minutes (this was an event about the software defined data center).

After and along the way there are questions and answers, they are often asked to conduct special tests, sometimes they even send their test bases before a test drive. Vividly adopt the experience or, if the engineer has just received a new piece of metal, look at the tests and listen to live impressions.

Then comes the most interesting part for some of our regular guests - something like a small buffet with a minimum of snacks. The most important thing is happening there - the exchange of practical experience and the removal of marketing noodles from the ears. First, of course, the engineer tells “as is”, because to exaggerate is more expensive for him, because then he will implement it. Secondly, and more importantly, IT professionals share their lively stories with each other. Some go largely for this, - get a live stream of data from colleagues and ask their questions.

Examples with materials




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Come, here are the announcements . You can sign up for them, a reminder will come. Even if the topic is damn familiar to you, it will still be interesting, at least in the part where conversations for life begin.

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/265139/

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