I've got a UK reseller account with ResellerZoom at the moment, and a VPS account. Yesterday the VPS account was down for around 7-10 hours, and one of my clients lost £3000.

I basically have no choice but to move my clients to hosting where there is some sort of failover(that works) in order to prevent issues like this again.

Between both the VPS and the Reseller account I'm paying around £40 a month, so that's around my budget.

Can anyone recommend someone.

It needs to be linux hosting with Cpanel and in the UK

I believe Kualo, Clook and United Hosting are some of the well known companies providing UK based hosting.

For VPS, I believe you can have a look at a2b2. They offer UK based VPS.

I would suggest dropping presales emails to the folks and searching for reviews on the WHT. I have no experience with either of these hosting companies.

Also, if the content on most of your client site does not change that often, I would suggest using a 3rd party DNS and keeping accounts on 2 servers of different providers. You could just change the DNS records to prevent any extended downtime from affecting your client's business.

I believe Kualo, Clook and United Hosting are some of the well known companies providing UK based hosting.

For VPS, I believe you can have a look at a2b2. They offer UK based VPS.

I would suggest dropping presales emails to the folks and searching for reviews on the WHT. I have no experience with either of these hosting companies.

Also, if the content on most of your client site does not change that often, I would suggest using a 3rd party DNS and keeping accounts on 2 servers of different providers. You could just change the DNS records to prevent any extended downtime from affecting your client's business.

Thanks for that.

Having read a few threads on this forum, I'm going to change my needs to say that it no longer needs to have cpanel. Plesk would be fine as I've read its a solution which is built for clustering, where cpanel needs to be modified ( I may have read wrong though ).

If you are looking for clustering, then the best panel would be Hsphere. I am not sure if you can achive clustering on Plesk, but Helm clusters are also in place.

I'm putting reliability over usability so whichever the best control panel is for reliability I'm happy to go with that.

Hey,

Did ResellerZoom explain what caused the downtime?

Am asking coz I'm thinking of signing up with them.

Even I would recommend H-Sphere for that clustering thingy.

Let me know.

Regards.

from RZ

"On Thursday April 26 we had a scheduled move for our VPS servers to another rack within the datacenter. The scheduled move was due to heat issues within our current rack. Once the VPS servers were moved to our new rack and powered up we had a power outage due to the servers overloading the power unit causing the breaker to trip. This was resolved by moving some of the servers to another power unit within our rack and the servers powered back online."

the problem was, the power cut caused disk problems on the server I was on, they ran a disk check but it was taking hours. So eventually they swapped the disk into another server.

Now my problem is I have a client going balistik because he lost £3000 yesterday, and he wants me to do something about it. Not sure what he wants but I really need to ensure this doesn't happen again.

Thanks for the info so quickly.

You can check up JodoHost. They offer H-Sphere based accounts.

Also, you mentioned that you have a Reseller Account with them.

Anything you'd like to warn me about it?

Thanks for the info so quickly.

You can check up JodoHost. They offer H-Sphere based accounts.

Also, you mentioned that you have a Reseller Account with them.

Anything you'd like to warn me about it?

My UK reseller account has generally been great, a few little problems which were resolved quickly. I've had a UK reseller account which was also great.

I speak highly of RZ, it's just the problem that happened yesterday has been a warning to me that neither I or my clients can afford to have downtime which can be very costly.

If the client really lost £3000 because of 7-10 hours downtime then even normal amounts of downtime on a good hosting account (99.9% uptime) will be costing him around £300 per month. Time to discuss an increase in the budget?

Hey!

Thanks for sharing your info with us.

Regards.

If the client really lost £3000 because of 7-10 hours downtime then even normal amounts of downtime on a good hosting account (99.9% uptime) will be costing him around £300 per month. Time to discuss an increase in the budget?

the clients reason for losing the money was because he needed to send a quote via email, email was down so he couldnt send the quote. Client went elsewhere.

The client is possibly over reacting to be honest, but I just need hosting that I know is going to be as reliable as I'm going to get for my budget.

This client relys on e-mail, so I have to be able to provide that service 99.9% of the time.

Well to be frank, if the Quote was so imp to the client, he would have tried sending it by other means. He would not be just sitting till his email is up. What had he done if his ISP was down?

I feel he's just putting pressure on you.

Also, i think such things (I mean the down time cause) can happen once in a while. But, I understand your concern also.

In that case wouldn't it be a good idea to use a third part DNS server and keep the email server on a different account than on the hosting one?

In that case wouldn't it be a good idea to use a third part DNS server and keep the email server on a different account than on the hosting one?

I really want an all in one solution.

I just need something where the host either provides a backup when the server goes down so that e-mail and websites are still accessible, or I need a reseller account where the hosting company have alot of control over the datacentre, so when problems occur they have easy/quick access to get things up and running as quick as possible.

Hey littlened,

I suggest you try JodoHost.com

They are H-Sphere based and they have separate servers for each function:

1. DNS Server
2. Web Server
3. Email Server
4. Database Server

That way, if the webserver is down, your email will still be functioning.

And it's all integrated into an All in One Solution with H-Sphere.

They have a money back offer also. I feel it's worth the try.

Just my two pence.

Hey littlened,

I suggest you try JodoHost.com

They are H-Sphere based and they have separate servers for each function:

1. DNS Server
2. Web Server
3. Email Server
4. Database Server

That way, if the webserver is down, your email will still be functioning.

And it's all integrated into an All in One Solution with H-Sphere.

They have a money back offer also. I feel it's worth the try.

Just my two pence.


what happens if the email server was to go down?

what happens if the email server was to go down?

then you have to wait ... for email server to come online .. did you try RZ failover plan .. i never had any problem with that .. and the technology which they mentioned on the website .. if its really works (which i think it does work) then there will be no down time ..

I am not defending ModVps or some thing .. but i think they are offering refund and 99.9% uptime cost you 7-8 per year down time ...

About the client its just a pressure towards you .. if he really wanted to send email .. he can send it via some other email address or he wants his company email to be show .. then he can use his ISP outgoing SMTP server (can be configure in any email manager i.e outlook, thunderbird) which is i think free of cost in every country.

Still not satisfied .. then i will suggest you to buy managed load balancing solution (dedicated servers) from any reputable provider

I've just stumbled across mosso.com, any thoughts? I've had a look at it and after reading the site I'm well impressed. Especially the fact it's on rackspace network, which is the sort of company I want looking after my clients. Not UK hosting though!

I'd like to stay with RZ and their failover is tempting, but I've read about numerous problems.

using RZ failover from several months .. never had any down time problem in any services ..

Mosso.com .. i really like the website the information they have provided .. there support is great .. but they are still having problems with there network

you can check this thread 22 page http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=492340&highlight=mosso.com

I was also thinking to move to mosso.com but after reading above mentioned thread and even i had a chat with mosso support staff and they agreed with the problems .. i postponed my plan.

My suggestion is that you signup with RZ failover and check the services .. if you don;t like it then get a refund.

I've signed up to RZ failover plan.

So now I have 3 accounts with them;

UK Reseller Plan - For clients which need UK hosting
VPS Plan - For clients where I need to run scripts or do things not possible on a shared hosting plan
Failover Plan - For those clients that require redundancy.

I must stress that apart from the problem yesterday the VPS has been great, although its only had one client on it. As for the UK account, it's been absolutely spot on.

Hopefully now I'll be able to make my own website available all of the time by putting it on the failover plan.

I'll let everyone know how it goes.

I've just stumbled across mosso.com, any thoughts? I've had a look at it and after reading the site I'm well impressed. Especially the fact it's on rackspace network, which is the sort of company I want looking after my clients. Not UK hosting though!

I'd like to stay with RZ and their failover is tempting, but I've read about numerous problems.

Who is "RZ" and what is this plan, can someone send me a link to have a look at.

Who is "RZ" and what is this plan, can someone send me a link to have a look at.

RZ = resellerzoom.com

RZ = resellerzoom.com

Thanks, I went to their site, interesting but I immediately lost interest to the painfully slow site. Clicked on Fail oVer plan only plan 2 and 3 loaded. I clicked more information and I got a page time out after 30 seconds. Hit the back button and the 1st plan is showing. Plus it uses cpanel. I think I will stay away from them.

Again i am not a RZ representative .. but the problem you just mentioned .. i think no one here faced such type of problem ..

Any ways its your choice .. here we just discuss and get feedback about the hosts

Again i am not a RZ representative .. but the problem you just mentioned .. i think no one here faced such type of problem ..

Any ways its your choice .. here we just discuss and get feedback about the hosts

Ok, I guess I imagined it.

Can't say I've had any problems with RZ's website either, and I've been on there alot this afternoon.

Yeah me too. No probs opening the site. I've been there a lot for these past 2 days.

However apparently one of RZ's failover servers were down earlier I believe :o

littlened ..

I also recommend you to register with hyperspin.com so you will get the real time server up time information

i'm hosted in resellerzoom and i have not any problem with them. Maybe the problem is in vps accounts only bcz they r new in this business ;)

I am on a RZ failover plan for more than 3 months uptime is 99.9% or 100%.

It is always sad to here that some host have been down and someone have lost money of that stop. And it will always happen.

And a stopp will always happen on all computer system. Even with cluster systems.

The sad thing in this story is that this customer was not able to SEND and e-mail. To solve that problem I can se many ways to acct. Use a hotmail, gmail account! Use another SMTP server !

So the main way to prevent this things in the future is "communication".

Hans

I am on a RZ failover plan for more than 3 months uptime is 99.9% or 100%.

99.9% or 100% is a big difference.

what happens if the email server was to go down?

Same thing as with every other provider - if a server goes down, then all services on that server are down.

However, in a cluster formation:

1) you have less chance of a server going down as its specifically configured/secured for that service
2) identifying any problems is ALOT easier since that server is only running 1 service so time to restore is much faster
3) recovering in case of total disaster is much much quicker - so, again, extent of outage is reduced.

All of these factors above are some of the reasons why a cluster will provide better overall uptime and reliability vs a single server install or even vs these "fail over" plans.

Having said this, you can also Load Balance services like web and email with hsphere - not sure how many providers are doing this yet - but, it is available and quite easy to setup.

How does HSphere compare to Plesk in terms of functionality?

How does HSphere compare to Plesk in terms of functionality?

I do not really think you can really compare these. Plesk has been moving towards h-sphere, but, it isnt really there yet. I do not mean to take anything away from plesk, as it is certainly further along then most. However, h-sphere is just at that next level. It is truely fully automated at every level, very very stable, supports windows, linux and freebsd, supports clustering and high availability clustering, allows you to seamlessly move accounts around, create server groups for specific plans, create dedicated containers for specific customers, integrates VPS solutions, MS Exchange, Sharepoint, etc, etc, etc.....

How does it handle high availability and clustering?
Does it cluster mySQL or just the web servers?

How does it handle high availability and clustering?

Again, its all seamless and integrated

Does it cluster mySQL or just the web servers?

Handles web, email, etc - mysql is easier then the rest, but, its handled outside of hsphere - though, no one really handles true mysql load balancing - not MT, not Mosso, not anyone -

mysql load balancing is usually done to increase capacity vs increasing reliability - though, what most do with mysql - and what is easy to do - is simply data replication on mysql coupled with high end, redundant everything hardware...

I use cPanel, Plesk and H-Sphere.

Though H-Sphere is complex it's the most seamlessly integrated and automated Control Panel I've come accross.

I use cPanel, Plesk and H-Sphere.

Though H-Sphere is complex it's the most seamlessly integrated and automated Control Panel I've come accross.

What does HSphere do that is so different?

And what makes it more complicated than say Plesk/CPanel?

What does HSphere do that is so different?

Based on this question, it is obvious you have never tried it - and that is fine - though, I do suggest you play with a few demos from the psoft site.

H-Sphere completely automates everyting - in real time and with no intervention needed. Billing, overages, invoicing, charging credit cards, issuing paypal payment links, etc, etc, etc - all charges are in real time, with every resource having customized pricing schemes and automatically accounted for.

And what makes it more complicated than say Plesk/CPanel?

I would not say it is more complicated - however, it certainly has a different logic to it - which is to be expected - as complete automation and integration will obviously function differently then a solution where things are manual. I would say that only those customers coming from cpanel would find hsphere complicated. Whereas those going from hsphere to cpanel would find cpanel "backwards" and limiting...

Does HSphere actually cluster the mySQL servers or does it load balance the WWW servers?

Hi cpsence, I think this was answered. hsphere load balances the web and email servers - mysql lb, if you want to do it, is handled outside of hsphere. But, can you name a provider that is actually load balacing mysql? (I think you believe some providers are doing this, but, more then likely not very many (if any) are)

Well the scenario of load balancing www but not mySQL is very common and in my opinion not a good solution.

Sure it is great that the www is balanced but you mySQL is still a single point of failure and is your most critical non-replaceable resource.

We provide clustered mySQL but it is on a client by client configuration.

We provide clustered mySQL but it is on a client by client configuration.

Exactly - no real scalable solution exists for shared hosting

but you mySQL is still a single point of failure

hogwash !

high availability strategy as very little to do with load balancing services - this is just part of a high availability strategy.

I would take a single server with redundant everything operating at 50% capacity over 2 load balanced servers operating at a 100% total capacity with non redudant componants any day - and I would get higher availability out of that single server.

Every environment has single points of failure - and I mean every environment - even the big boys (google, ibm, microsoft) do not have 100% uptime.

High availability is a process of identifying any potential single points of failure - removing as many of them as possible (within a given budget) and having a contingency plan to resolve in as quickly as possible any failure in any of those single points of failure.

You can have high availability mysql service without load balancing the service - and even if you do load balance the service, you are not going to achieve 100% uptime.

Exactly - no real scalable solution exists for shared hosting



hogwash !

high availability strategy as very little to do with load balancing services - this is just part of a high availability strategy.

I would take a single server with redundant everything operating at 50% capacity over 2 load balanced servers operating at a 100% total capacity with non redudant componants any day - and I would get higher availability out of that single server.

Every environment has single points of failure - and I mean every environment - even the big boys (google, ibm, microsoft) do not have 100% uptime.

High availability is a process of identifying any potential single points of failure - removing as many of them as possible (within a given budget) and having a contingency plan to resolve in as quickly as possible any failure in any of those single points of failure.

You can have high availability mysql service without load balancing the service - and even if you do load balance the service, you are not going to achieve 100% uptime.

Why would using clustering and dedundancy mean you will have 100% total capacity? You can still scale out to multiple databases.

I agree on your comments on HA planning, but without clustering the database you are leaving the most critical system in a major single point of failure.

You build your HSphere cluster with hardware like this, you will see near 100% uptime. http://www.stratus.com/download?file=/resources/pdf/6200.pdf

Between all Stratus customers, they average 99.9997 uptime. Sure you have network and other components to replicate as well but it is certainly doable. Fortunately luck plays a big part as I have seen 400Mhz celerons with 100% uptime for 4 years.

Why would using clustering and dedundancy mean you will have 100% total capacity? You can still scale out to multiple databases.

it was just a example to illustrate that load balancing alone does not determine a HA solution

I agree on your comments on HA planning, but without clustering the database you are leaving the most critical system in a major single point of failure.

not really - with data replication and hot spares, you can be up, in case of failure in minutes and still easily attain a 99.9+% or 99.99% SLA

Fortunately luck plays a big part as I have seen 400Mhz celerons with 100% uptime for 4 years.

lol - fair enough - but, cant count on luck - nothing wrong with selling a high availability solution offering 99.95% uptime - and you could easily deliver on that wiht load balanced nodes and a solid HA strategy for mysql


You build your HSphere cluster with hardware like this, you will see near 100% uptime. http://www.stratus.com/download?file...s/pdf/6200.pdf

Sure, but what would we need to charge for that ? and how many people would be willing to pay 10x what we are currently charging simply to get an extra "9" (we are pretty close to 99.99% now over a prolonged period of time and utilizing nothing more then a services cluster - ie no load balancing - though we will be adding this soon - but, not with the intent of increasing reliability - rather with the intent of increasing scalability and bursting capabilities (ie allowing for scalable excess capacity greater then a single server can offer) )

cspence,

Amidst all of the misinformation you seem to have in your mind [unfortunately], I noticed there is an ambiguity with the function of 3Tera's AppLogic. To clarify, AppLogic is certainly data replication, but NOT load balancing. It does not do much to assist in facilitating load balancing either...

With that said, its not a bad product if data replication is what you're after.

cspence,

Amidst all of the misinformation you seem to have in your mind [unfortunately], I noticed there is an ambiguity with the function of 3Tera's AppLogic. To clarify, AppLogic is certainly data replication, but NOT load balancing. It does not do much to assist in facilitating load balancing either...

With that said, its not a bad product if data replication is what you're after.

Misinformation in my mind, please explain this. I didn't even mention 3Tera's, so I don't know where you get this claim that I am misinformed.

Sure, but what would we need to charge for that ? and how many people would be willing to pay 10x what we are currently charging simply to get an extra "9" (we are pretty close to 99.99% now over a prolonged period of time and utilizing nothing more then a services cluster - ie no load balancing - though we will be adding this soon - but, not with the intent of increasing reliability - rather with the intent of increasing scalability and bursting capabilities (ie allowing for scalable excess capacity greater then a single server can offer) )

LOTS considering most base plans are only $5-20.

not really - with data replication and hot spares, you can be up, in case of failure in minutes and still easily attain a 99.9+% or 99.99% SLA


There are other solutions as well in terms of clustering mySQL at a very reasonable cost. It highly depends on what resolution you refer to when saying 99.99%. For monthly, it is impossible with anything but clustered because you cannot simply resolve a hardware issue in 4.3 minutes even with data replication and the best techs in the world.

Without the database, all your web servers are insignificant.

I am not referring to shared hosting though, it is very difficult if not impossible to provide that level of service to that client base, but in terms of reliability, I wouldn't consider anything without clustered or some form of active/active - active/passive database high availability, from a logisitical point of view.

Getting back on topic, does anyone know of a UK host offering any sort of clustering or failover plan similar to that offered by ResellerZoom?

Misinformation in my mind, please explain this. I didn't even mention 3Tera's, so I don't know where you get this claim that I am misinformed.

See one of your other thread's where you reference their technology. Anyway, when you find your host that offers everything you state, please let the community know. I wish you luck, and I think you're going to need it.

cspence,

Amidst all of the misinformation you seem to have in your mind [unfortunately], I noticed there is an ambiguity with the function of 3Tera's AppLogic. To clarify, AppLogic is certainly data replication, but NOT load balancing. It does not do much to assist in facilitating load balancing either...

With that said, its not a bad product if data replication is what you're after.

All traffic on an AppLogic grid environment is load balanced by default.

You can certainly create load balanced environments (scalable ones) very easily.

I'm sorry for hijacking my own thread here, but would someone care to answer the orinigal question?

Hi there,
We have an 'AdvancedOne' account with RZ for around a year now and haven't had much difficulty with them, in saying that we discovered early on that it's not worth using the mail server for SMTP, we advise our clients to use their ISP for outgoing mail. When our newbie clients don't know what that is we find it for them as a value added service. Incoming mail seems to be stable with little problems - all the problems have been with using Spam Assassins Spam Box function so we have it 'invisible' to our clients through cPanel RVskin settings.
We have looked at getting a 3rd party for email as we do feel that would be a better way to do it but the providers that we have looked at have been far to expensive for our taste with minimal service levels, the full featured providers asked for my right arm and left leg for what they were providing!!!

We have been thinking about moving to their FailOver hosting however why fix something that's not broke?
We have looked at a number of alternatives to RZ at the same time and decided that FailOver isn't required by us at the moment.

However during my research the company that lead the pack was JodoHost with the second being DonHost (donhost.co.uk).

JodoHost
The reason we felt that they were the leaders was mainly due to their sales and support. Not to mention...

Their plans are competitive
Using H-Sphere that I have been a fan of for years
Good ping times (I don't know what they were - it's worth checking now)
There was no problem speaking to their sales department in the middle of their night on live chat
They answered all questions promptly and found the information I was after immediately if the rep didn't know
When I contacted support a number of times for information I had a great repsonse each and every time (I contacted them asking for settings and general information like I have a specific error on mySQL that I created on an existing site and emailed it to them, they gave the correct answer on my question each time)DonHost
DonHost marketed their services well on their website but there are limitations in their control panel that we just couldn't get ourselves around.
Plus it's not actually FailOver - more of a load balanced solution.
The cost isn't too bad however I do feel that for DonHost to be affordable for us we would have needed to have a few more accounts then our costs were pretty much capped.
It would be worth asking them about their abuse limits because they market 'unlimited' disk space and traffic. Also check on their port speeds.


So why have I stayed with RZ if JodoHost is so good? Because the best type of support is the support you don't need and honestly I don't need support with RZ - my customers (absolute newbies right through to advanced designers and programmers) don't need support.

We're always looking for integrated solutions so we can offer FailOver but also combined packages with Windows and Linux (e.g. 10 sites, select platform when you set up the site) as we feel that in our markets we will pick up more business by offering this.

If we had a pressing need to move then I would do probably around 1 day of research then likely move to JodoHost.

The only problem I have at the moment is rebranding our services and there's nothing that they can help with that!

The last time I contacted RZ tech support was around 6 months ago to ask what the port speed was and I had no problems with their support then, then again being in another time zone means that usually we're contacting them 'off peak'

We check their 3rd party reporting on a weekly basis and have never noted anything in our logs of being less than 100% uptime on the server for the month (hence the weekly checking).

I hope that answers your question and gives some light to others looking at RZ as a solution.

Cheers,
Ryan
Central Pulse Limited

I've got a UK reseller account with ResellerZoom at the moment, and a VPS account. Yesterday the VPS account was down for around 7-10 hours, and one of my clients lost £3000.



How did they loose 3000? I love all these people who claim there loosing hundreds if not thousands when their site is down.

the best type of support is the support you don't needI couldn't have said it any better myself! :)

Just in case someone wants a validation of your review, I confirm that the domain name of the email address we have on file is hosted by Resellerzoom.

Just in case someone wants a validation of your review, I confirm that the domain name of the email address we have on file is hosted by Resellerzoom.

Yes it is with RZ... even though there isn't a website associated with it at the moment due to re-branding (I'm developing a nice shiny new site as we speak) as mentioned in my previous post - it's our new brand

Cheers,
Ryan

Interesting that you're already with ResellerZoom. We have used them in the past for various reasons and where we have had issues with their support team's competency at times, they run a pretty good failover service themselves.

I've hosted some high-end clients short term on their failover platform and never had a hickup in service once.

Good luck!