In order to not go crazy I go on vacation twice a year. My first vacation since becoming an "army of one" is coming up. I have first level support outsourced but I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations for a person/company to handle level two support for short term.

I'll be gone for a week with no phone coverage and limited email access. Any suggestions?

What do you mean by level 2 support?

For example.. apache is failing to start, level 2 support would find the problem and fix it. Server not responding, level 2 support works with datacenter to get it resolved.

Gosh these are quite major problems.... do you expect them to happen often?
And how would the person or company handle or monitor these?

I don't expect them to happen often.. but you can never tell when something might happen.

First level support would contact them to inform them of the issue. Then, using their skills as an administrator, would debug and fix the issue the same as any web hosting admin would.

Any server administrator can handle that sort of task. ;)

Ah :) so you need a Server System Administrator that is proficient in Linux and also know how to do and work out Network problems in your absence?
What is the duration of your vacation? and how much are you looking into for this form of outsourced support solution?

I'm aware.. I'm looking for a top-notch candidate that doesn't need someone looking over their shoulder. I don't want to spend a week on vacation stressing about if my customers are being taken care of.

Any recommendations? Who do you use when you're away?

Duration of this vacation: 1 week.

I'm not going to let money be a limiting factor in this.. but the chosen one will need stellar references.

Personally I have GPRS "strapped" onto me where ever I go and a beeper on my servers just in case of a failure my main control server will SMS me to my cellphone to notify me of things going wrong. ( eg. Power Failure, server not responding etc etc )

Because if you get another person to do this technical stuff you would have to give him the ROOT or ADMIN passwords... I suggest that you have a binding contract with him or her.

How would you define a "Top-Notch" support?

Sadly GPRS does not work in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico :-P

Of course a binding contract would be involved. Top-notch... overwhelming skills in server and network administration. Years of experience and many happy customers.

I would try contacting some of the better known server management companys or server admins and seeing if they will do their services for only a week.

When I went to the Urbana Missions conference at the beginning of the year last December/January, I had a friend cover for me. He is now my system administrator, but at the time, he was just a friend who know *nix, and did customer support for a local ISP. I just gave him my root passwords, and said, "If you can't handle the issue, call me, and I'll do my best to get internet access."

Its always best to give your confidential information to someone you trust and can handle the situation other than sending it half way round the globe.

Give Steve from Rack911 a shout, and ask him to monitor your servers. He's probably one of the (if not THE) best guy for the job. Also, do a search for him on WHT, you'll find hundreds of satisfied customers (including me).

Regards,

Joe