Slightly off-topic: HBA Breakdown rates

Hi All,

Slightly off-topic, but I figure everyone here must use them in one way or another: Host Bus Adapters (HBA's)

We are using Emulex HBA's exclusively in our company, and now and then one breaks down and fails (No light).

With the older Emulex cards this is a major pain, as they come with an SFF (Small Form Factor) transceiver soldered on the PCB. The entire HBA needs to be replaced then.

Newer Emulex cards use SFP (Small Form Plugable) transceivers (Like in a fiberswitch) that can be replaced on the fly (Assuming it was the transceiver that failed ofcourse)

I requested the MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) for the Finisar transceiver, which is a whopping 6,264,000 hours!

My experience however is that HBA's (and switch SFP for that matter) fail quite regularly, and I am interested in your experiences are in this area.

My questions to you all:

- What lifetime do you expect from your HBA's?

- What lifetime do you actualy get from your HBA's?

- What brand(s) Optical HBA's do you use?

- Do you claim guarantee?

Hope you can offer me some insight!

Thanks!

Fred