Hi All,

I've lurked here for quite some time, reading mostly. I actually found Rackshack before I found this place and all the disparaging comments about them. I have three servers - all three cobalt raq 4is, one of them was a special one-day deal for unmetered connection.

So, on one raq I have a vbulletin forum running, on another, I serve ads (to the forum and the main site, which is not with rackshack), and on the one with an unmetered connection I servee videos (60 gb per day, about).

Today, the raq that serves the ads stopped responding to web requests. I was able to ping it, but couldn't login via telnet (it connected, but never did anything after that) or make it respond to anything else. All I've got on there is MySQL, phpadsnew, phpmyadmin, and some graphics files I serve via standard HTTP requests from the main site. As far as I know, I've got all the Cobalt RaQ updates.

So, here's my ticket history:

6/3/02 10:08:57 AM - ticket opened, reboot requested by me

6/3/02 10:23:07 AM - [internal] sever is down. Please reboot

6/3/02 10:24:40 AM - rebooting

6/3/02 10:29:27 AM - rebooted server. will moniter to make sure it comes back up.

6/3/02 11:00:18 AM - server hasnt come back up yet. will have the sys admin take a look at it.



So, now I'm scared. It's now 12:20 as I write this. I've read that recently they're really on top of reboots, as shown by the timely reboot of my server. Now that it's apparently DOA, I wonder what kind of response I'll get.

For you experienced Rackshack customers, how long should I wait before I contact them again?

If they think it's a hardware problem, they'll probably swap the RAM, and if that doesn't work, they'll probably move your hard drive to another RaQ, otherwise, they'll probably recommend a restore.

Give them a few hours.

Ok, here's the latest from whoever does these tickets.

6/3/02 12:34:58 PM
Server was locking on "Decompressing kernel" so I attempted to boot from the rom kernel, after getting to the part where it reads the disk it receives dozens of timeout errors and will not boot further, this appears to be a physical issue with the drive and will require us to swap it at no cost.

I called in to ask about this, they said they were waiting on my response. I didn't know this, so I wasted about 2 hours, but said "yes, switch it." I asked if they can leave the old HD in the rack so I can get the data, they said they'd try.

So far, so good.

Got your data backed up? hope so

Well, sort of. I'm clearly not as up on things as I need to be. I had all the phpadsnew data dumped about a week ago, but since that time I've not backed up any data. Arghh...

Ok, I'm all up and running again. I have to say Rackshack handled my problem very well. I hadn't opened a ticket since "the dark days" of 2001 when they realllllly seemed to not do so well. But now, they've got their act together. Here's how they resolved it:

6/3/02 2:25:09 PM
client is requesting since this is a HW problem not caused by him that the hard drive in the machine be left in the box after relacing with a new hd so he can retrieve data if possible.
6/3/02 3:49:29 PM
due to this being a hardware issue we can leave the old drive in for 48 hrs for data retrieval. Custoemr, please provide authorization for restore
6/3/02 4:16:04 PM
CCI authorizing restore. RS-Bill
6/3/02 4:17:31 PM
We are going to mount the drive for 48 hours for you to recover data, please let us know if you will need it longer.
6/3/02 5:30:06 PM
restore complete.
6/3/02 5:44:03 PM
remove drive in 48 hrs

So, good job Rackshack. Leaving the old drive in for 48 hours was nice.

wow
they didn't do that for other rackshack customers in their channel
(people asked) -- they said no, we can't do that.

interesting

I had requested that they do that for me and they wouldn't. Your very lucky!

I believe they are making real efforts to improve the level of their support - I know they said they were hiring additional people recently. Sounds like things are getting much better at RackShack support-wise. Very good to hear.

Hello
Just to confirm that ther ehave been definite improvements recently.

I saw a server go down at 9am put a reboot ticket in at 9:02
fullyexpecting hours of waiting or arguments over bash history.
Box was rebooted and back online 9:10

Well done Rackshack.

Gordon

Originally posted by Haze
I had requested that they do that for me and they wouldn't. Your very lucky!

Yah, it seems so. The last time I opened a ticket my RAQ was completely dead. It went like 3 days,. 5 phone calls, before I just completely cancelled the account. THen like 4 months later I get a barrage of emails (all dated 4 months after the tickets were opened) saying they rebooted it, working normally, etc. It was pretty bizarro seeing how I cancelled months ago.

Originally posted by Garrett


Yah, it seems so. The last time I opened a ticket my RAQ was completely dead. It went like 3 days,. 5 phone calls, before I just completely cancelled the account. THen like 4 months later I get a barrage of emails (all dated 4 months after the tickets were opened) saying they rebooted it, working normally, etc. It was pretty bizarro seeing how I cancelled months ago.

4 months for a reboot? :eek2: Now that is bad support :D

Good to see that they have vastly improved...