So, some lessons learned... 1. lights out management matters 2. ensure your OS is happy on the hardware ahead of time 3. if you are expecting to make regular

So, some lessons learned... 1. lights out management matters 2. ensure your OS is happy on the hardware ahead of time 3. if you are expecting to make regular purchases, with growth for example, tell the vendor that 4. always negotiate 5. dell actually makes good servers now 6. look hard at the power density you get wherever your servers will live and factor cost of rack space into server cost numbers -- if you have low power density, slightly pricier servers with lower power reqs may win out