Do you replace your servers when their warranty expires?

[Amida]

What is the process you usually follow?

 

[eddief1]

We try for every 3 Years, but then again we don't have hundreds of servers so a bit easier.

 

[Conradl]

Most companies where I have worked, or done work for, follow a financial server refresh schedule of three years, i.e. they buy a new server to "replace" an old server. This new server however, does not necessarily replace the old one and may be provisioned for a totally different function; or the old server will be reprovisioned in a new role. It is rare that servers are simple dumped - unless you work for a bank....

It does make sense though to provision critical services on new and reliable servers, with a maintenance contract. Thanks to virtualisation it is now even easier to migrate to a new hardware platform; it can be done with zero downtime.

 

[morkhans]

It really depends on your budget and your risk factor. Some clients will cycle out their old servers when they reach 3 years. Often the "old" machines can be re-allocated to DR or development tasks, so they are not completely useless. Others might only elect to do that with the most critical servers.

Also once a server reaches a certain age it becomes difficult to get replacement parts either when there is a failure or if you want to upgrade something. So really there are a number of factors to consider, but I would go with 3 years as a good rule of thumb.

 

[Amida]

I also have this idea like our Mail server and file servers are reaching the 3 years and 4 years mark. We would also like to install a BES server.

So the best would be to replace say the mail server which is the oldest and very mission critical and then use the old server as a Blackberry server which is not as mission critical.

 

[ToxicBunny]

I work on a 3 year refresh cycle.

After 3 years a server is replaced and the old one either reprovisioned for a non-mission critical role, or into a testing/staging environment, or its sold off.