Extended Warranty FAQ
What is the optional Extended Warranty?
The optional extended warranty simply extends the standard 3-year warranty with an additional 2 years warranty.
What is the standard warranty terms?
The standard 3-year RTB (Return-to-Base) warranty is provided from Infortrend to its direct customers.
How do I purchase the extended warranty?
Please contact your preferred Infortrend partner to purchase the optional extended warranty for your Infortrend product. The chassis serial number is required in order to purchase and register the optional extended warranty. The chassis serial number barcode label can be found on the rear side of the product, either on the top or on the right hand side of the chassis.
When can I purchase the extended warranty?
You can purchase the extended warranty together when you purchase the Infortrend product, or when the Infortrend product is still within its standard 3-year warranty period. If the Infortrend product is already out of the standard 3-year warranty period, it is no longer possible to extend the warranty.
Which models are included on the optional extended warranty program?
There is a list of included models that can be found on the web site, please visit: http://www.infortrend.com/doc/warranty/ExtWarrantyModel103108.pdf
Only models listed on this web site link are eligible. Please check for updates.
Can I purchase the extended warranty again on the same unit, to extend the warranty beyond 5 years?
No. The extended warranty will extend the standard 3-year warranty with an additional 2 years (5 years altogether). It is not possible to extend the warranty beyond that.
What will I receive when I purchase the extended warranty?
Infortrend will issue a document which includes the chassis serial number, product model number and the new warranty expiry date. This document is to confirm that this unit has been registered with Infortrend for extended warranty.
Can I purchase extended warranty on spare parts like PSU, FAN or Controller module (FRUs)?
No. Spare parts purchased separately all include the standard 3-year warranty, the extended warranty cannot be added on to spare parts purchased separately.
The standard and extended warranty applies to the complete subsystem, including its FRUs (e.g. PSU, FAN, controller modules…etc).
When a parts has failed in my subsystem, after replacing with a spare parts, what are the warranty periods on them?
The spare parts purchased separately has standard 3-year warranty. If a spare parts has been used to replace a faulty parts in a subsystem, you will need to register this exchange with Infortrend by e-mail.
Once this exchange has been registered, the spare parts used in the chassis will become a part of the subsystem, benefiting the same warranty period of the subsystem. The faulty parts will then become the spare parts, updated with the warranty period which the replacement spare parts used to have left.
To register this spare parts exchange, please include the following information on an e-mail:
- Subsystem chassis serial number
- Faulty parts serial number
- Replacement parts serial number
- Your contact e-mail address
Send this e-mail to extended.warranty@infortrend.com, with e-mail subject “Warranty Register”. Please use “e-mail receipt” function when sending this e-mail, to make sure that we have received your e-mail.
When we receive this e-mail from you, we will update our database, and exchange the warranty period between the faulty and replacement parts, based on the warranty from the subsystem chassis serial number. We will e-mail you to confirm this update has been completed.
If we didn’t receive an e-mail from you to register this spare parts exchange, the original spare parts will still have its own standard 3-year warranty. A parts from the subsystem will have the warranty period of the original subsystem chassis, when it was ship out from Infortrend factory.
Whom should I contact when my Infortrend product needs a repair service?
Use the same procedure as the standard warranty. Please contact your preferred Infortrend partner where the unit was purchased from, they will help you to request and will help to send the product to Infortrend for repair.
With the optional extended warranty, the difference to the standard 3-year warranty is the warranty period. All other details and procedures are the same.
When I request a repair, how does Infortrend know if this product is within its warranty period?
All product warranty is based upon the subsystem chassis serial number. The optional extended warranty is registered to the subsystem chassis serial number in our database. The chassis serial number and all its components and field replaceable units (FRUs)’s serial number are registered in the database too. When you request a product repair, by providing the serial number of the chassis and the component serial number, we will be able to validate and confirm if this is an in-warranty or out-of-warranty repair.
What about the disk drives?
The disk drives integrated and supplied by the Infortrend partner when you purchase an Infortrend RAID subsystem, are not included in the standard or extended warranty. Please contact your preferred Infortrend partner where you purchased them together, for the warranty repair to the disk drives.
If the disk drives were purchased separately from the Infortrend RAID subsystem, please contact your supplier of the disk drives, for the warranty repair to those disk drives.
The optional extended warranty from Infortrend does not include warranty to the disk drives.
What about the BBU (Battery Back Unit)?
The standard warranty of the BBU is one year, cannot be extended. To ensure the BBU can always provide the maximum period of time supporting the cache memory module, we recommend replacing the BBU with a new one once every year.
Why has the BBU got one year warranty and why is it recommended to replace the BBU with new once a year?
In the event of a power failure, the BBU provides the power to the cache memory module, so the unwritten cached data in the memory can be kept, until the power resumes. The period of time that the BBU can provide power to the cache memory is important. When the battery is new and in its good condition, it should be able to provide the power to the memory module for around 72 hours, e.g. enough for a power failure that took place over a weekend.
The life span of the battery is related to numbers of charging / discharging cycles have been done to the battery. In the normal operation, the energy stored in the battery will drop down by time, and the RAID controller will charge up the battery, to ensure the maximum time the BBU can support the memory module in the event of a power failure.
After one year of operation, the power stored in the BBU may no longer be able to support the memory module for 72 hours. To ensure the maximum protection upon a power failure, therefore it is recommended to replace the BBU with a new one every year.