[pageup85]

I've just had a quote to install our new backup system and they have quoted one days labour at £1,000 ($1,600) which seems faintly ridiculous. However, they could need a team of 5 people. IDK.

Can anyone with knowledge on the subject tell me if that's a fair price to install and configure the following please...

DELL R510 SERVER SPEC:
4GB RAM
16x DVD r/w drive
3yr basic NBD warranty
Rack rails
Intel Xeon E5506 4core 2.13GHz CPU
2u Rack Bezel
1 x Additional redundant PSU
8 x 250GB SATA 3.5” HDD (these will not be used, but required for caddies) Dell Delivery

ADDITIONAL HDD’S FOR ABOVE:
8 x 2TB SATA HDD’s

TAPE BACKUP UNIT
Dell Powervault 114X LTO5 rack mountable TBU + 5 tapes (requires SAS Card and cable – see below)


ACCESSORIES
SAS Card
SCSI card (LSI2032)

[Theariwinna]

I think that's too much. I can't see how it takes a team of 5 either, unless they do it the American way and each individual is extremely specialised in one small area. To me it should take one person one day at £50 an hour, so more like £400. But like I've said before I'm a tight fisted ****.

[nretdjuend]

IMO at most that's a 2 man job, and that's only to ensure that the server and tape drive can be physically mounted onto the rails with no discomfort (I've done this on my own in the past, but with health & safety / liability possibilites, an outsourcing co. should use 2 people).

In regards to the cost, I think it's a little steep. I have worked with engineers for day jobs and from memory they have charged approx £5-600. If you can, I would shop around a bit more.

[pageup85]

I think that's too much. I can't see how it takes a team of 5 either, unless they do it the American way and each individual is extremely specialised in one small area. To me it should take one person one day at £50 an hour, so more like £400. But like I've said before I'm a tight fisted ****.

That's nearer the figure I was thinking TBH. I don't want to insult them by offering a much lower figure than the work is worth though.

[casinobonusese]

Are they configuring the rest of your network, or setting up the server and ****ing off 6 hours later?

[pageup85]

Are they configuring the rest of your network, or setting up the server and ****ing off 6 hours later?

They already provide our IT services contract. It's cheaper for us to outsource than keep someone on staff and they do a good job. I'm just not sure on this labour cost.

They could be here a couple of hours or 13 hours. I don't know how long it will take them.

[slimsex]

I set these up for our company all the time...I can set one of those up in a few hours on my own.....price seems fairly ridiculous. 400-500 seems reasonable for a few hours work.

[gghrdfffhfyj]

Assuming all they are doing is building/installing, adding it to the domain and then setting up the backups (maybe set it as a DC as well). You can do all that with one person (we often do these kinds of jobs with one engineer). We would probably charge around half that, but then it depends on what their hourly charge is. I know when we were looking to get an external IT company to visit a remote worker in Ireland recently, you were looking at over 100Euros/hour.

[pageup85]

Assuming all they are doing is building/installing, adding it to the domain and then setting up the backups (maybe set it as a DC as well). You can do all that with one person (we often do these kinds of jobs with one engineer). We would probably charge around half that, but then it depends on what their hourly charge is. I know when we were looking to get an external IT company to visit a remote worker in Ireland recently, you were looking at over 100Euros/hour.

We already have AD and a DC so all they will be doing is installing this hardware. Oh, and configuring it to do offsite backups nightly. But we already have the fibre connection for that so it should just be a case of configuring the software.

[casinobonusese]

We already have AD and a DC so all they will be doing is installing this hardware. Oh, and configuring it to do offsite backups nightly. But we already have the fibre connection for that so it should just be a case of configuring the software.

Yeah.... unless they plan to it there for 8 hours after building running 3D Mark, Sandra, Prime making sure it's rock solid stable, you're getting ripped.

[pageup85]

Yeah.... unless they plan to it there for 8 hours after building running 3D Mark, Sandra, Prime making sure it's rock solid stable, you're getting ripped.

I also don't know how difficult it is to configure a tape backup device? I can't imagine it's that hard though.

[nretdjuend]

I also don't know how difficult it is to configure a tape backup device? I can't imagine it's that hard though.

If you're using something like Backup Exec its a piece of piss. In fact most enterprise backup systems are very straight forwards and I'm not just saying that because I work in the field.

Sorry just re-reading your post and I think I was mistaken and somehow read it as backup software. Haven't installed tape libraries for a while (since moving to disk backup) but its normally just a case of attaching it to server and installing the drivers. Basically if you can follow the supplied instructions you won't have problems.

[EjPWyPm4]

That's gouging. They already hold the contract for your IT services so they feel the job is theirs no matter what they charge. There's no reason for a simple job to cost that much. Like said about, it should be half what they have proposed.

Is that maybe just a high estimate? A "worst case scenario" amount, but they will actually bill you for hours used? I've seen IT firms do that as well with the final cost actually being much lower.

[womberte]

We already have AD and a DC so all they will be doing is installing this hardware. Oh, and configuring it to do offsite backups nightly. But we already have the fibre connection for that so it should just be a case of configuring the software.

So what EXACTLY are they doing? I wouldn't think it's more than:

1. Rack the hardware.
2. Configure the array as necessary.
3. Install the OS using Dell's utility CD.
4. Patch it.
5. Install backup software.
6. Patch it.
7. Configure the backup software, set up schedules, etc.
8. Run a small test backup.
9. Done.

A lot of people will insist that the drive array be initialized before the install proceeds. This is bollocks, as the majority of enterprise adapters perform background initializations that will somewhat impact performance until the initialization completes. Being that this is a backup server, you really won't need to worry about a minor impact on I/O for the first 10-12 hours the server is running!

If they're worth their weight, they'll already have the patches either on disc/disk, available via WSUS or what have you...

MAX for a single person (have one of your staff help them with the racking, since it can sometimes be tedious by yourself; though it's totally do-able! ), would be 4-5 hours. If it takes them longer, they don't know what they're doing and they're charging you for "on the job training/learning." [yes]

[Usendyduexy]

That seems incredibly expensive....

[opelonafqe]

Well we pay contractors a minimum of £400 per day for sitting on their arses, browsing Ebay and checking the soil nutrient grade in Norfolk. So if you're getting 5 people on site then it would be a bargain.

Are they also setting up the backup cycle and installing the exec agent on all the servers?

Personally I think it's easily a 3 man job so they'll probably bring two juniors for experience.

[duribass]

its a bit much as everyone has said.

even if installing a fresh os, etc, it shouldnt cost more than $700 i would think.

[CaseyFan]

Is there an 'hourly rate*' - if so, make a note of how many are there and how long they're on the premises - there may be an extra perid added on both ends for transport, though.

*may be higher for the area you're in, which may affect some of the estimates given by others.

[pageup85]

Having spoken to the guy who hired them in the first place it seems that they gave him this "standard day rate" when they came in the first time to do a lot of work to our neglected systems. They had several people with them though who worked 10am - 10pm on a Sunday then. Fair price for that. Sadly our account manager at the IT outsourcing company obviously believes we will pay this for all IT jobs so I'll dispute it on Monday.

The guy that agreed to the rate initially comes from the corporate world just recently so this probably seemed a perfectly reasonable price to him as he's used to just signing off PO's and not actually considering the cost implications to the business.

[pageup85]

I've had a more broken down price from the supplier. Does this sound a fair rate now?

"I've quoted it as a days work (although in practice it is longer) to build the
new server, set up users and permissions, copy data across, verify data and
configure client PC's. Also be onsite the next working day to ensure a smooth
transition."