interpro server deployment RMA and post-mortem

in 011401db4529$34c89d60$9e59d820$@interpromicro.com, we had a quote for a server with 6 drives, which we are trying to deploy in #41829. the actual order was in #41835 (closed).

when deploying the server, we noticed serious hardware issues that blocked deployment of the server as is. the actual problems were:

1. the physical console (USB keyboard and display) didn't work after booting linux
2. only 4 of 6 drives are detected by Linux. after boot, losing 2x2TB of NVMe storage
3. no OS was shipped with the device, possibly pointing at the lack of burn-in. previous devices shipped with interpro had a working OS, typically Ubuntu.
4. the backplane is not fully functional: only 6/10 slots are usable on the board, we were told we could use an add-on card for this, but only after the server was racked.
5. hotswap U.2 drives were shipped instead of onboard M.2 drives. this and #4 completely block our capacity at expanding the storage on this server.

Those issues confirmed on ubuntu server booted over USB, and grml 2022.11 and 2024.12 bootsed over PXE, although most tests were done on the latter. We tested 4 different versions of the linux kernel: 6.0 (grml 2022.11), 6.1 (Debian 12), 6.8 (Ubuntu server 24.04), 6.11 (grml 2024.12). we were told only Ubuntu server 2022.04 was supported.

this issue was split out to allow tracking the server provisioning separately from the RMA work.

our goal is to re-establish contact with interpro, either get a new server setup, a refund, or at least an explanation of the situation.

we could live with the server as is, and in fact plan on provisioning it as is for now, as we've waited more than 4 months for this machine to land at this point.