Dell 's support team can remotely troubleshoot the server through Resolution Assistant if the administrator grants Dell the permission. While it is easy to add and remove PCI cards, power supplies, fans and hard drives, servicing this machine beyond these tasks is difficult. The CPUs and RAM modules are hard to service because the access cover is difficult to manipulate. The motherboard is also hard to access. The problem is removing the power and data cables to free the cage.
Some cables are also hard to reach.
Adding and removing expansion components other than RAM is easy, but fixing this server under the pressures of a catastrophic failure would be frustrating. The Dell PowerEdge 6400 is a solid performer with good expansion capability and management features. But serviceability could use some attention from Dell, as this server is based on the same chassis design we reviewed a few years ago. It 's time for a rework of the chassis design to provide serviceability the market has come to expect. Bass, a senior technical staff member at CNL and co-author of McGraw Hill's Building Cisco Multilayer Switched Networks, designs and leads the execution of the test suites.