Warranty and Support

Cluster Warranty, Management, and Support Options

 

The hardware and software options you select for your cluster should support the cluster management model you intend to use. If you have administrators on-site with the cluster, some of the hardware or software outlined  in the last section  may be redundant. However, if your administrators sometimes work from home or other locations and have remote access to your cluster, the remote control and access capabilities may be very useful.

 

Aspen Systems provides warranty and technical hardware and software support for any software or systems you purchase from Aspen. Support can be obtained by calling Aspen at (800)992-9242 Monday through Thursday, 8:30 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, or 8:30 A.M. To 5:00 P.M. Mountain Standard Time Friday. You can also get support by e-mailing support@aspsys.com. When you e-mail, a support ticket is automatically opened, and a return email is sent back to you with an automatically assigned ticket number from the Aspen trouble ticketing system. All engineers at Aspen see all support tickets, so there is no need to mail to any particular engineer. In fact, Aspen recommends that you always use the support@aspsys.com email address even if you have any engineers specific e-mail address. Your particular engineer may not be available or may be working another case, and we want to help you as quickly as possible.

 

Hardware Support

Aspen provides Bronze (1 year), Silver (2 years), Gold (3 year), Platinum (4 year), and Diamond (5 year)  hardware warranties  on systems purchased from Aspen.

 

We also offer advance replacement parts for customers with good credit standing. You must obtain a Return Material Authorization (RMA) number from Aspen to get an advance replacement. Aspen pays for standard ground shipping both ways when an RMA is processed, shipping the new part to your organization with an RMA and return shipping label already included.

 

Aspen can also process an RMA for you to return an entire node or peripheral to Aspen for repair or replacement should that be needed. Aspen pays for standard ground shipping both ways in this case as well, and this service is available for the term of your hardware warranty.

 

Aspen also offers on-site hardware support through select hardware maintenance partners. We can tailor your on-site hardware maintenance coverage days, hours, and response times to fit your budget and needs. Aspen recommends the use of on-site spares kits for all organizations who opt for on-site support. Talk to your sales engineer for more information.

 

 

Technical Support

 

When you purchase a cluster or system from Aspen, you get software and hardware technical support as well. Aspen supports the hardware, operating system (O.S.), and applications that were installed on your system(s) or cluster(s) at time of delivery. Aspen software support covers fault correction and minor revision O.S. and application upgrades to the delivered configuration. Support for software installation and O.S. upgrades that were not originally contracted for is available, but will result in additional charges.

 

As an example, let's say you purchased a cluster from Aspen that has RHEL 5.0, InfiniBand, and runs the NAMD and Charm applications. A year after the cluster is installed, you wish to upgrade to RHEL 5.2. That will involve upgrading the operating systems on all nodes, rebuilding or upgrading the InfiniBand drivers, rebuilding any associated MPI implementations and perhaps some other basic utilities, rebuilding NAMD and Charm, and performing regression testing to ensure functionality. This upgrade would be covered in your Aspen software support warranty, and we would help you perform this upgrade in one of several ways.

 

If Aspen has remote access to the cluster, we can log in and perform the upgrades on specific nodes, test the upgrade, then re-image the rest of the cluster based on those upgraded nodes. If no remote access is allowed, it becomes much more difficult. We would have you take an image of the current cluster or use the image we took of your system prior to shipping, emulate your hardware environment at an Aspen facility, perform the upgrades, then transfer the modified images so that you could re-image the cluster with the new software. This approach is more more time consuming, as we might encounter delays allocating hardware resources, or have to assemble matching systems to perform your upgrades.

 

Now, let's say that 2 years have passed, and you wish to upgrade your cluster from your installed RHEL 5.0 to the now current RHEL release, say, RHEL 6.3. Many things such as hardware driver implementations, base system development libraries, or even basic utility functionality can change between distribution major revisions. This upgrade (from RHEL 5.0 to RHEL 6.3) would not be covered by the base Aspens software support warranty, and would result in additional charges. Aspen supports upgrades within the major revision level of the distribution you have selected free of charge, but will charge you for distribution upgrades that cross a major revision level.

 

Many customers use Aspen technical support as their technical backup, contacting Aspen when problems occur that they do not know how to solve. Routine administration, such as adding users or performing system backups, are not included in the standard Aspen software support offering. However, Aspen can provide additional support above and beyond the standard support options you get with the cluster purchase. Some of the options Aspen offers are;

 

 

 

In all cases, Aspen recommends that you allow remote access to your cluster from Aspen support engineers if possible or allowed. While this is not possible in all situations due to security or organizational requirements, remote access will make your life easier in the event of a problem occurring, and allow your Aspen support engineers to work directly with you on problems to quickly solve them.

 

Aspen can provide a VPN (Virtual Private Network) client on your cluster that connects back to dedicated Aspen support systems after the cluster is installed and operational. This VPN client can be turned on or off at will by you to permit Aspen access only when you wish, or can be left on and connected to Aspen at all times. Many customers have found this “call home” solution more flexible and easier to implement than making the local security configuration changes necessary to allow incoming connections. Consult your organizational networking personnel to determine what configuration is acceptable and most effective at your site.

 

The Aspen VPN client connects your cluster master or administrative node back to a secure network at Aspen, and allows 4 dedicated support systems there to access your cluster. Aspen delivers your cluster with an “aspensys” account, which is used by Aspen support engineers to log in to your cluster. All logins are done via secure shell and authenticated via keys, resulting in a doubly encrypted path between your cluster and your Aspen support engineer.

 

If you select the Aspen VPN option and your system is equipped with ABC, Aspen will add your system to our central monitoring system so that we may monitor your cluster in real time. This will allow your Aspen support engineers to help you even more quickly should a problem occur.

 

If an outbound connection is not allowed, Aspen can work with your networking personnel to coordinate an inbound connection from Aspen through your organizations firewall(s). Aspen will connect to your cluster from a single dedicated IP address which your network personnel may use to control access to the port, and requires only port 22 access (secure shell) to your internal master or administrative node. This port can be different on your external firewall, and simply mapped to port 22 on your cluster end point. Alternatively, Aspen maintains multiple customer specific VPN and remote access solutions that enable us to meet specific customer access requirements and allows us to provide you with the best possible service.

 

Speak to your sales engineer about what hardware and software support options will best fit your needs.

 

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