[123262] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Cisco hardware question
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Brian Feeny)
Thu Mar 4 16:05:41 2010
From: Brian Feeny <bfeeny@mac.com>
In-reply-to: <SNT140-w1579B13E65F64CD3A8CE19B0390@phx.gbl>
Date: Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:05:09 -0500
To: "Kaveh ." <afx66@hotmail.com>
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
If you are getting Cisco hardware with configs on it or crashfiles, etc. =
Then no it is NOT new equipment. Who are you buying from? Are they a =
Gold partner on Cisco's partner locator? If not, then I have seen some =
seedy things, and of course i have seen seedy things with Gold partners =
too, I am just pointing out that the ability to compete and make margin =
get more and more difficult the lower the partner is on the totem pole =
and so desperation can drive certain behavior.
In general from a cisco Gold partner you can expect as good as 35-40% or =
so on new equipment for a discount for regular deals. Special pricing =
for special projects you may be able to get a bit better, and maybe 1% =
or so better for general products from CDW or a big box company like =
them. If you are paying 50-60% off list for just individual items you =
order, then its likely not new and there is likely something shady going =
on, as no partner is going to get you some special discount pricing on a =
single 3845 for example.
All of your good gold partners are going to charge around the same give =
or take a few percent on material. So find someone you can trust and =
just build a relationship. If your paying new prices for used gear then =
yes you are getting ripped off.
I would be glad to recommend to you a reputable gold partner if you =
email me off list.
Brian
On Mar 4, 2010, at 3:48 PM, Kaveh . wrote:
>=20
> Hello,
>=20
> I apologize if this is an unusual topic but I would like to know what =
this expert community thinks about this issue:
>=20
> We have noticed that a number of Cisco appliances we have recently =
purchased and paid (AS NEW), are being shipped as if they have been =
already used/refurbished. In other words, several times we have seen =
brand new Cisco hardware, out of the box, that has pre-existing =
configuration (Interfaces with Private IP addresses, static routes, etc =
=85) and in some cases even non-system files, like =91crashdump.txt=92 =
or additional IOS images. Most importantly our latest purchase; 2 'new' =
ASAs, contain a series of files named: FSCK0000.REC, FSCK0001.REC, =
FSCK0002.REC, etc ... . Based on some research it seems like that these =
files are 'recovery files' signaling bad/failing hard disks in these =
appliances.=20
> Anyone on thhis group has seen this before and if yes, are we supposed =
to blindly trust the vendor saying the hardware is new, safe and secure?
>=20
> The only way I can explain this is that the hardware has been =
refurbished or previously configured for reasons unknown to me. I think =
if customers pays for new hardware, they should get new hardware, even =
if refurbished hardware may be covered by Smartnet.
>=20
> Any thoughts or recommendations anyone? The last thing we want to do =
is to deploy faulty (or non secure) security appliances in production. =
:)
>=20
> Thank you
>=20
> Best regards
> =20
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