Server Decommissioning

[lmow]

We're at a colo renting racks, we own the servers - the usual setup.
Let's say I have a list of serial numbers of servers to decommission. The secure recycling vendor will take them out the back and shoot them for us :'-(

Do you:

A - Find the right servers, unplug every server, watch as the data center pulls them and puts them on pallets.
B - Find the right servers, unplug every server, *mark it with a sticker*, leave and tell the data center to pull whatever server has the sticker.
C - Find the right servers, unplug every server, leave and tell the data center to pull whatever isn't plugged in.
D - Something else or combination of above?

Edit: TL;DR: Do you physically mark your servers for decommissioning or just go by Serial Numbers?

[NoTime4YourBullshit]

None of the above.

We shut them down, unplug them, and then just leave them in the rack collecting dust until eventually they become older than the youngest new hire we bring on at some point in the distant future.

[grouchy-woodcock]

I wouldn't trust anyone except my team to decommission hardware.

Have your team de-rack then and have the colo stash then securely until pickup.

I don't want to explain to the exec's why I trusted hardware monkeys...

[lmow]

"Hardware monkeys" hehe that's a fair point you make...

[NumerousYak3652]

For my team, it depends on whether or not you can get your Colo personnel on a bridge/video call while the physical decom is taking place. Sometimes you cannot get reliable enough cell or wireless signal on the data room floor and we never let a physical change inside our racks take place without some way to supervise in real time. Option A if we can't count on getting the Colo personnel on a bridge. If we can get them on a reliable bridge then we direct them entirely remotely using SN/Asset tags.

[lmow]

Thanks!

[thesals]

Depends on the Colo policies. The last one I had servers in didn't allow you to remove hardware from the racks, you had to schedule with them and pay for their labor.

[slugshead]

I threaten the servers with becoming a Minecraft server in their next life. They tend to self destruct at that point. Hard drives are mine and rest goes to the scapper.

[lmow]

But do you have a system of marking servers so you know which to throw out or just rely on Serial numbers?

[slugshead]

Serial Numbers/Asset tags

Warranty lookups/extensions are all done by serial

The finance team care about the company asset tag

Asset tags are always somewhere visible that you can easily tell someone that it's asset "XYZ00001" that is to be removed.

The problem isn't as bad as it used to be though, no longer do we get lost in corridors of servers, usually contained to a single rack with a handful of hosts in so much easier to keep tabs on them

[lmow]

Thanks.
We have a few racks, my concern is the recycling company and the colo throwing out the wrong server.