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I have a fileserver that will need to be shipped internationally soon. I'm looking on advice for packing and recommendations on methods/companies.

  • Should it be shipped whole, or in parts?
  • How to pack it, precautions to take.
  • Any way you slice it, it's going to be very heavy. Will this cause problems?
  • Whats the best way to protect it from shock? It would be pointless for it to arrive with broken hdd's.

If you've done this before, your hindsight would be invaluable.

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i'll not write anything extraordinary. my experience is based on shippings servers/computers few times across Europe and once from Europe to Asia. every time it went without problems. [after all this hardware was brought to me in the first place from dell and alike via regular carriers without much problems].

i've used UPS and DHL. wherever i could i have used original boxes + foam. when shipping larger number of servers i've packed them up on wooden palettes and wrapped in plastic foil. i've shipped up to ~300kg pallets with ~10 servers and carriers did not have any complains. actually it was cheaper to ship a palette than few separate boxes.

hard drives are parked so they are sort-of resistant to shock, put enough foam between the server and cardboard box to amortize them and always insure to the full value of products you ship.

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    +1 for the insurance. I've had an unnamed carrier drop a loaner SGI workstation down a flight of concrete stairs, then open the box and try to parcel-tape the server back together. Had it not been insured for the six-figure sum SGI told me it was worth, I'd've been deeply stuffed.
    – MadHatter
    Jan 6, 2011 at 11:25
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Depending on whether or not there is data on the servers and whether or not you work in an environment where you have to meet any audit/regulatory requirements, you might want to consider some kind of tamper evident seal for the packaging/equipment and agree in advance a protocol for it's acceptance at the other end. Just so you can show that there is a good probability that it hasn't been interfered with in anyway in transit whilst in the hands of unknown third parties.

Pelican rugged cases are really good for packing things in. Turtle cases are really good for packing media. Though these might not be worth it if it's a one off job.

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For how to package the stuff, contact your transport company. They usually have guidelines for how they want the goods to be protected before they can accept it.

Depending on where you are shipping you really have to doublecheck with customs. Transport itself is rarely a problem, but getting the HW into some countries can be painful.

We regularly run into customs problems, such as having to pay extra fees or getting shipments delayed (primarily because we don't pay the bribes expected in some countries). Classical problems is that some countries does not let you import "used" computer equipment and that the equipment is not certified to be used in the country where you are trying to send it.

Our experience is that for short term projects it can be worth the cost and effort to ship the servers to the location, but for anything long term (>6 months) we buy or lease the hardware in the country where it will be used, using a major supplier such as IBM, DELL or HP. We then typically deploy a virtualization platform such as ESXi and deliver the systems virtualized. Getting a HD with the systems through customs when it is in the laptop bag of an employee is typically not a problem.

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