My recently asked [question][1] has been put on-hold minutes after being published. However not being new to ServerFault and quite a few other SE websites this surprised me. For me as asker the question is rather on-topic since this is about `managing the hardware or software of servers, workstations, storage or networks` and at the same time `tools used for administering, monitoring, or automating these`.

I can understand when the questions asking for too narrow functionality can easily become target of commercial recommendations etc.

However, it seriously confuses me when the question specifically asking for free OSS tool with rather wide functionality (so it can be entire list that can be extended even years after) is being treated as the named `product recommendation`.

So where border lies between `product` and `tool`?

EDIT:

So to explain this a little more - this question is not about re-opening that question. But the purpose is to question how similar questions are judged. And as in referenced similar meta-question I will [quote][2]: 

> There IS a gray area... I do think SF needs to slightly reconsider the
> stance because product recommendations are sometimes unavoidable

Moreover I've read relevant [blog post][3] quite a long time ago and it says that the reason those question are considered for closing is because:

> These questions may seem tolerable at first glance. Isn’t it our
> mandate to help our fellow ewoksusers? But consider the voluminous
> amount of information you need to even begin properly answering a
> shopping question

Which highlights the core issue that should be looked at (IMO) - Is the question asking for something too broad that the answer will be too complicated?

To elaborate my point, the questions such as "what backup tool should I use?" are way too broad and have many different good answers depending on many conditions. However, questions "what of AAA, BBB, CCC that can do XXX?" is much more narrow and more clearly defined and thus the clear answer can be provided such as "None" or "Try DDD" instead, which are commonly appear to be good and highly upvoted answers on both SF and SO.

  [1]: https://serverfault.com/questions/859715/automated-cloud-management-tools
  [2]: https://meta.serverfault.com/questions/6139/when-is-a-request-for-product-recommendations-not-a-request-for-product-recommen#comment12517_6166
  [3]: https://stackoverflow.blog/2010/11/23/qa-is-hard-lets-go-shopping/