[a-nsp] Question regarding Arista support contracts

[Ivan Beveridge]

Hi Drew,

You may be able to negotiate this with some vendors, but I believe it is
more the case where you make large/regular orders and can negotiate on
the back of those. I've not come across any way of ordering (Arista)
hardware without support and buying support further down the line - IIRC
the expectation (or requirement) is 1 year's worth of support with the
device.

I can understand the frustration of your situation (I'm sure it's
happened to most, if not all, of us). Unless anyone else here has the
answer, the only thing I can suggest is to ask your account manager, or
see if there are alternatives, eg:
* commit to buying (or pay up-front) and then get it delivered when it's
wanted, along with the support agreement starting at that point
* buy it when you are going to use it :)

Whilst we have a few decommissioned Arista devices (which we may use as
temporary spares at a push), I believe they are still under support. I
seem to remember, perhaps a few years ago, that there was a lower level
of support than 24x5xNBD (perhaps 'software-only'), but it's not
something I tried. I am unsure whether it is something they still offer.

Finally, I'm not sure of their policy regarding "adding support to an
out-of-support device"; I know some vendors (eg vendor-C) at least used
to require the device to be "re-qualified". That cost tended to be
around the price of a replacement device - something you may feel was to
stifle the send-hand market. IIRC some used-equipment resellers (eg
hardware.com) would get around this, providing you specified that when
buying the equipment. That may be another path you could follow, but
IIRC such resellers tend not to be too popular with the vendors, and you
may need to check the wording of licences (IIRC the firmware licence for
vendor-C stated it could/can only be used on new or requalified original
vendor-C equipment).

Not much help, I know, but perhaps some useful thoughts?

Cheers

Ivan

On 04/10/2019 19:37, Drew Weaver wrote:
> We purchased some Arista gear for a project awhile back. It wasn’t
> deployed immediately and just sort of sat around in boxes for awhile.
> 
> The service contract came up for renewal recently and the thing that
> stands out to me is it seems like starting the service contract when the
> equipment ships rather than when it’s used leads to a lot of waste of money.
> 
> Is there a way that you can purchase the hardware without a service
> contract and then activate support on it when it’s being used as to just
> not waste a ton of money?
> 
> Also how does this work with spare units?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> -Drew


-- 
Ivan Beveridge <ivan.beveridge at dreamtime.org>