HP ProCurve 4000m & 8000M Fault Indicator

DjScientist

Hi again,troubled guy here again.Just yesterday while i was in the server room,i realised my HP Procurve 4000M in one of the cabinet was blinking indicating that there is a fault in it.I ignored it,hoping its nothing serious.Few hours later,the IT Manager came in and noticed it and thats when i have to invistigate to see what going on.There are two of them in the same cabinet and i realised that the blinking one is warmer and the fan seem not to be working and in the process,i realised that the fan indicator is blinking which confirmed my suspicion.I then took a round around the building to check other cabinet and i realised that in one of the cabinet,2 switches has the same problem,HP ProCurve 4000M and 8000M.That means i have 3 switches with faulty Fan Arrays.
This is why am posting this: Is it advisable to replace these fans(if there are still in the market) or just replace the switches with anything equaivalent?
Mind you,these switches have been in place since 2002.

Thank you in advance for your recommendation and advice.

regards to all

Slowhand

There's usually a way to replace the fans, taking apart a switch (or router) is usually no more complicated than taking apart a server or other computer, (slot-loading devices, like blade servers or switches/routers with similar configurations, are even easier). Give HP a call and find out if you're still covered by your warranty, what the fans cost if you're not, and then determine if it's worth the time and money to order the fans versus getting a new switch in each case. There are some instructions for replacing the fans on the HP Procurve 4000m and 8000m here and installing the actual components here and here. If you're looking at buying new fans, you're looking at about around $70.

DjScientist

Slowhand wrote: »

There's usually a way to replace the fans, taking apart a switch (or router) is usually no more complicated than taking apart a server or other computer, (slot-loading devices, like blade servers or switches/routers with similar configurations, are even easier). Give HP a call and find out if you're still covered by your warranty, what the fans cost if you're not, and then determine if it's worth the time and money to order the fans versus getting a new switch in each case. There are some instructions for replacing the fans on the HP Procurve 4000m and 8000m here and installing the actual components here and here. If you're looking at buying new fans, you're looking at about around $70.

Thanx a lot man.I doubt if these switches are in anyway covererd,it mught have expired.They have been here for 7 years.If i want to buy,what can you recommended to replace the ones i have?

Thank you again

Slowhand

I wouldn't know what the current equivalents of those switches are. If you're going with HP again, you might be best served to talk to one of their sales-critters, or go to a reseller like CDW and do the same. If you're thinking of going with another vendor, then there's no time like the present to shop around and see what's out there.

If nothing else, you can wait and see if any of the routing-and-switching heavies on this forum weigh in on your question. I'm sure Mike and the other Cisco-goons will have plenty of advice, (and not just "buy Catalyst switches" ).

astorrs

HP offered (offers?) lifetime warranties on their switches. Call them up like Slowhand said and chances are they will either send you the part, or just send you a replacement switch chassis for no cost to you.

mbarra

Call up HP just got a set of fans for my procurve last week. Easiest warranty repair.

DjScientist

mbarra wrote: »

Call up HP just got a set of fans for my procurve last week. Easiest warranty repair.

I will give HP a call.But do you guys think these switches will still be covered by now?
They were bought sometimes in 2001.

astorrs

DjScientist wrote: »

I will give HP a call.But do you guys think these switches will still be covered by now?
They were bought sometimes in 2001.

Yes as I said before:

astorrs wrote: »

HP offered (offers?) lifetime warranties on their switches.

You could get a replacement for a ProCurve 1600M if you still had one running.

DjScientist

Thank you all guys.I just talked to HP service centre from here and they asked me send those switches for repair.It only sucks because they can't give me anything to use while these swicthes are being repaired.I have 3 which needs to be sent for repairs and each is 80 ports,my entire Headquarters is connected in those.Should i send them,i will have no network.Anyway,i will figure something out..

Thank you very much once again

cheers

astorrs

DjScientist wrote: »

Thank you all guys.I just talked to HP service centre from here and they asked me send those switches for repair.It only sucks because they can't give me anything to use while these swicthes are being repaired.I have 3 which needs to be sent for repairs and each is 80 ports,my entire Headquarters is connected in those.Should i send them,i will have no network.Anyway,i will figure something out..

Thank you very much once again

cheers

Ask them to advance ship you one of them through FedEx and you'll return them one at a time - they used to do that, maybe they've stopped now.Too bad cause that was a great service, <24hrs later you always had the replacement on-site.

DjScientist

I just have to pay these guys travelling expense to come fix it from my headquaters because i can't afford any downtime even for an hour.I am 2hrs drive from the service centre and too bad its in the main city

Slowhand

DjScientist wrote: »

I just have to pay these guys travelling expense to come fix it from my headquaters because i can't afford any downtime even for an hour.I am 2hrs drive from the service centre and too bad its in the main city

Still not a bad deal. I'm sure that travel-expense is less than what it'd cost to buy new switches or pay the full price for replacing and shipping parts if the devices weren't under warranty. If you're worried about your boss freaking over the travel cost, look up how much new, equivalent switches would be and lay that number down on a piece of paper next to the cost of having the HP technician(s) coming to your office. I'm sure there will be no problem coughing up cash for the on-site visit.

DjScientist

Slowhand wrote: »

Still not a bad deal. I'm sure that travel-expense is less than what it'd cost to buy new switches or pay the full price for replacing and shipping parts if the devices weren't under warranty. If you're worried about your boss freaking over the travel cost, look up how much new, equivalent switches would be and lay that number down on a piece of paper next to the cost of having the HP technician(s) coming to your office. I'm sure there will be no problem coughing up cash for the on-site visit.

I just talked to him and he seems to be OK with the technician coming on-site to have a look.He knows better that we cannot afford any downtime,not even for 30mins.
Thank you all guys for the contribution.

Lizano

I used to work for HP, ProCurve does have a lifetime warranty. And a pretty good support team, I got to work with several of those enginneers, pretty good folks. 866-MY-PROCURVE.

tiersten

DjScientist wrote: »

I just talked to him and he seems to be OK with the technician coming on-site to have a look.He knows better that we cannot afford any downtime,not even for 30mins.

How is the service engineer going to replace the fans if you can't have 30 minutes downtime? The site that Slowhand linked to shows that you need to remove the PSUs and most of the cards to access the fan tray and the fan power connection. It doesn't look a particularly fast operation to change the fans.

If these switches are that mission critical, you need to look into getting some redundancy since it is a single point of failure currently in your network.

Lizano

I'm not sure about this particular model, but I know there are certain Procurve models on which you can do a fan hot swap. Still, tiersten has a big point regarding redundancy that you probaly should get your boss to look at.

tiersten

Also don't ignore fault lights. It is unlikely they'll go away and usually its something important otherwise it wouldn't bother turning on that light.

tiersten

Lizano wrote: »

I'm not sure about this particular model, but I know there are certain Procurve models on which you can do a fan hot swap.

Slowhand linked to a site that showed somebody swapping out the fan in a 4000M and it isn't a quick hotswap. The fan unit is screwed in behind the two PSUs and the power connection is a wire that goes behind the cards.

DjScientist

Lizano wrote: »

I'm not sure about this particular model, but I know there are certain Procurve models on which you can do a fan hot swap. Still, tiersten has a big point regarding redundancy that you probaly should get your boss to look at.

I made an arrangement with the Service Engineers to bring something for replacement while they still working on that one.Alternatively,they suggested they could come after hours and that will cost us extra few bucks.Will keep you updated.

dtran

As of Today 01/04/2013 I order 2 fan trays for two of ProCurve 4000M switches at no cost from HP. Thanks to Slowhand for the link here, just complete the form with serial # of the switch.

Cheers.