Where to start...

Rackshack was contacted about 2 days ago about why our server was down, they did not do anything to fix it... 2 days now, I contact them and get them in a discussion.

It just happens that the httpd.conf file was corrupted instantly after a website on the server was put in suspension.

The RAQ went awall, and now all the websites need to be readded and pretty much rebuilt... and rackshack is telling me this DOES NOT fall under there range of support...

I have a server that went awall, and a company who hosts my server telling me they are not going to fix the problem...

The only solution they gave me was to readd all the sites in the order they were added before (30-40 websites readded and everything, all that manual work) and then all the server to be reconfigured etc............................................

Does anyone find this a load of crap? - What should I do????

Welcome to the Cobalt Realm. Load the manual labor kernel.

Not sure what you think RS should do, but for $99/mo you can't expect them to re-add the sites for you.

PS - its "AWOL" ;)

Well I expect if a server goes down to that extent that the host should fix the problem... - It is out of our hands on how it's gonna be fixed... and adding 40 sites because of one of there servers I rent off them goes AWOL seems to be out of the question...

If you are going to host on Cobalt RAQ's, this is something you should get use to. 40 sites is nothing. We had a 24 hour day with three techs restoring a 175 site server.

You lease a managed server for $99.00/mo (maybe a little more). I am not sure why you think they would restore a server to it's personal changes you made. They gave you a Cobalt RAQ. It broke down. They will do a OS restore and return it to you like they gave it to you. They didn't add 40 sites. You did. You need to restore them. If you say that there are no good back up/restore options with RAQs, then you should have done more research.

I feel bad for you man. Everytime a RAQ dies I get a hollow feeling. "Here comes another late night". It got so bad we started developing a propriatary back up and *restore* program. If you think a provider should do this for you, then you will have to fork over a heck of a lot more money per month then what RS charges.

Rackshack should only assist you if you can't reach your server or if the hardware fail.

Originally posted by UmBillyCord
It got so bad we started developing a propriatary back up and *restore* program. If you think a provider should do this for you, then you will have to fork over a heck of a lot more money per month then what RS charges.
UmBillyCord,

I'm still trying to find a "perfect" backup solution for the Raq. I was just wondering how that backup solution of yours is coming along and if you would be willing to sell the solution. Initially, I'm planning on just backing everything up on a weekly basis to my home computer to cut down on initial costs. However, it seems that one of the better solutions would be to maintain two Raqs and backup to these. The key, is to have the two Raqs located with different hosting companies to cover all your bases.

Does this sound about right? And does any solution restore user settings as well?

Thanks

I personally don't think you can go wrong with this one:

http://www.dnid.de/cobalt/raqbackup/

It uses the proven Cobalt Migration Utility...

just .02

I was going to PM you, but I thought I would post this for others. The development started slowing what other projects we are working on at the office. So I told the programmer (his username is 'jucebro') to work on it at home. And in doing so I let him decide what he will do with it. (As long as we always have the most recent copy ;) ) I would PM him, he can answer all your questions.

Moving somewhat back on topic, host who buy Cobalt's realize that a back up solution is easy. Kiddy scripts will work. The key is the restore. How do you take the back up and restore the box to pre-crash order. With most solutions this is not an issue. However with Cobalt and their secret sauce it is very difficult. Until something like what happened to noxraq happens, host really do not understand this. We have been using RAQs since 7/99. We have had complete loss of at least 5 boxes. 1) We tried the backup/restore feature. It is crap. We actually had a top level tech at Cobalt tell us it doesn't work! 2) Migration utility. Has anyone moved 150 sites with this? We had trouble with 1. It is crap. 3) Arkeia. Their US office is two blocks from us. We thought this would be the answer. It doesn't work. Ask RS and Host2own. They both tried.

The point is that manual restore seems to be the only option right now. I understand that Chris is pi**ed. However RS knows restore is a hard, laborious job. If it were not, they would offer this as a option or a la cart.

It uses the proven Cobalt Migration Utility

"Proven"? Have you used it? Tell me one host who has *restored* a RAQ with this. I am actually very curious about this. I have talked to a lot of other people who have used it to do backups to other RAQ's, but the restore never works. Do you know someone who actually restored a downed box? Help us out, please send me their e-mail address. :)

I have heard the horror stories about CMU 1.x but there was a new release a couple of weeks ago. I have not heard any problems with the 2.x version. Have you tried 2.x?

Fortunately, I have not had to do a full restore <knocking on wood> so I don't have any first hand experience...

I am interested to hear if anyone has had issues with the 2.x version.

Again, just my .02

part of the problem with the newer cobalts is that they all make use of pgsql databases to construct the gui and the configuration files. It is a balancing act at best. I love databases and make quite a bit of use about them, but their implementation lends to zero flexibility in a restore.

I have been there restoring raqs. I wish there were a better way, but doing it by hand is still the only way you can guarrantee a working raq after recovery, unless you have a full backup of the server. We have been successful with clients that do a configuration backup then individual backups to our service and it works. But I still think there is some black magic involved. :)

I have heard the horror stories about CMU 1.x but there was a new release a couple of weeks ago. I have not heard any problems with the 2.x version. Have you tried 2.x?

We have not. Didn't even know they had 2.x. We are looking at it now.

Hey Chris, why don't you just let all the sites lay there dead for a week, and then tell your customers it wasn't your fault so there can't be any compensation or refunds.

99.9% uptime, heh heh heh:angry:

Hi,

I thought my experience could contribute, so here it goes.

I've been using dedicated RaQs for a couple of years. My first experience has been with Datapipe (www.datapipe.net). I had a dedicated RaQ3 with them for more than a year. I truly recommend this company, as their support is really good and experienced. In that period my RaQ3 have been hacked twice, and down for about 4 or 5 times. Just a phone call to tech support, and they restored the backup in less than 15 minutes. They also reply to your emails very quick. I used to use the original Cobalt "Scheduled Backup" through a FTP account Datapipe gave me (without additional charges). When they moved their datacenter to a new building, I didn't even realize. I knew after it has been done. But my backup started to fail, and even they were working on that, I used to receive the "scheduled backup failed" message very often.
So, as backup was not being as secure as before with DP, I decided to move my RaQ3 to Rackshack's RaQ4. I used the CMU for migrating. It's not been as easy as Cobalt says. During migration I had too many problems (disk quota full, process stopped during migration, etc.), that fortunatelly I could handle. Then, after the sites were completely moved, I had to to change the owner of the web folder of each virtual site (chown user.sitex -R web). Also had to create the DNS records pointing to the new IP.

My experience with RS is not too much, as I'm with them for a few months, but I noticed that tech support is not as experienced as I was used to, and they are much slower. Also the speed is lower than DP, but I have a newer machine with more bandwidth at almost half the price.
I'm using FTPBackup at this moment, pointing to an FTP virtual account on another server. I did not have to restore it yet, so I don't know if it'll work fine.

Regards,

Adrián Boismoreau

skymedia, what FTP server are you using to back-up your RaQ?

avara, you won't believe this, buy I'm using a free account from a free hosting provider :)
Send me an email if you want more information.

Adrián