====== Hardware Replacement (RMA) ======

  - **Spot it:** a monitoring alert or diagnostic failure flags a bad card.
  - **Isolate it:** pull the node out of the job queue.
  - **Confirm it:** run ''habana-validate'' to make sure it's really broken.
  - **File the claim:** through Intel's Partner Support portal. Note — this can take longer than it would for an actively-promoted product, so we set expectations with the customer up front rather than promising standard turnaround.
  - **Swap in a spare:** from our on-site cold spare pool.
  - **Bring it back online:** validate the replacement, confirm the driver loads cleanly.

Every card that leaves the building — whether for RMA, retirement, or end of contract — gets wiped first (per NIST data-sanitization standards) and logged with serial number, timestamp, and who did it.

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