I hate to rag on a company, but I am extremely frustrated with HostGator and how they handled my major server outage. I decided to take my sites to HostGator about 3 months ago when looking for a high bandwidth dedicated server for the right specs and price. I found out about them through the many recommendations on WebHostingTalk and rarely see anything negative posted about them other than they oversell.

The first little bit was absolutely perfect service, but the last 2 Fridays were a nightmare. 2 weeks ago on Friday, August 24th, my entire server went down. I immediately issued a reboot request and it took roughly 1-2 hours to sort itself out and come back up. I was fine with that, but the issues I experienced on Friday, September 7th taught me a valuable lesson.

Lesson being: Don't host websites/forums that are somewhat popular on dedicated server plans that are sold through resellers unless you want to deal with extreme delays and poor technical support quality when there are serious issues. Dealing with the middleman when your business is offline is a very frustrating and stressful experience.

HostGator has a really active support staff, the problem lies in the fact that most of their ticket updates lack substance and they keep you totally out of the loop unless you nag them for progress reports. Below is a timeline of the course of events, a few times not recorded by the trouble ticket system are `best guess`.

04:19 PM - Server becomes inaccessible / crashes

04:29 PM - I request a reboot from hostgator.com/reboot.php

04:34 PM - Reboot request acknowledged by HostGator

04:45 PM - Server comes back online

04:49 PM - Server becomes inaccessible / crashes for the 2nd time

04:55 PM - Reboot requested from hostgator.com/reboot.php for the 2nd time

04:56 PM - [Billy Harrison] replies to the original reboot request saying my site is online (it's not).

05:10 PM - Server still offline, Live Support contacted to assist with the matter, they tell me to open a trouble ticket.

05:15 PM - Trouble ticket opened detailing the above events, and requesting an investigation / resolution.

06:29 PM - [Matthew Feinberg] replies to the ticket saying he's issued a reboot request.

07:05 PM - Server is still offline. I reply to the ticket requesting an update.

07:14 PM - [David Ibarra] replies saying he rebooted again, and my server's load was high on reboot.

07:25 PM - [David Ibarra] replies saying that the server was undergoing a small DDOS attack and that it was routed and the server's back online.

07:54 PM - Server becomes inaccessible / crashes for the 3rd time.

08:00 PM - I reply to the ticket saying it's down again, and since it was a "ddos" not much could be done to prevent it but I would appreciate their assistance in bringing it back up.

09:32 PM - [David Ibarra] replies the DDOS might have been a coincidence (aka: he was wrong and we just lost 2 hours), and that he now suspects hard disk failure, he wants to schedule a hard disk scan at "midnight".


- At this point it's been over 5 hours of running in circles trying to reboot the server over and over, and he now finally suspects a hardware issue and wants to wait 3 hours to do a scan. -


10:03 PM - I acknowledge the scan and request to be updated when it starts.

10:45 PM - [David Ibarra] informs me he's scheduled the scan and that I'll be kept up to date.

01:01 AM - It's been over an hour since the scan was supposed to start and there wasn't an update, so I replied requesting one.

01:35 AM - [Nate Custer] replies saying that their timezone is CST (so the scan actually took 4 hours to start). Since there were no time zones listed by David, I assumed he meant EST, the timezone followed by the ticket system. Fair enough though.

04:04 AM - I reply requesting an update as it's been 2 hours 30 minutes since the last one.

04:34 AM - [Shashank Wagh] replies saying that it should be done any time now.

05:31 AM - "any time now" has come and passed, I reply requesting an update again.

06:39 AM - [Shashank Wagh] replies a couple minutes after I go back into Live Chat to ask what's going on. He says my diagnostics scan is now testing the hard drives.

08:11 AM - There are no updates to the ticket. I reply requesting an update yet again.

08:30 AM - I decide to take a 3 hour nap here because ive been awake ever since the issue started, trying to get this server back up

08:50 AM - My server is online

08:56 AM - [Matthew Lee] reports to the ticket that it's online.

12:14 PM - I respond to the ticket acknowledging that the server is online. I ask for specifics on the issue, and what HostGator plans to do to keep my business after the 16 hour outage (many companies offer a monthly credit or a prorated discount on next month's fee to compensate for extended outages).

12:28 PM - [David Ibarra] responds with the following:
"There were some hardware issues that were corrected on your server. However even though the server is a managed server, it's your responsibility to keep it running; we don't monitor dedicated servers since the server belongs to you. We will fix the server if you need help or if there's a hardware problem but hardware issues happen in any hosting environment."

12:44 PM - At this point I'm absolutely livid. Not only did he dance around the extremely important question of what exactly went wrong - he had the audacity to try and put the responsibility of this outage on my shoulders. I responded in kind,
"David,

Don't give me that. It's your responsibility to identify the problem as a hardware issue after it's reported to you, and take prompt action to resolve it as my dedicated hosting provider that lives hundreds of miles away. Since I can't physically walk to the server and run tests it's obviously impossible for me to say "Oh yes, this is a hard disk failure".

I came here with the problem, and it was after about 5 hours of tail chasing doing "reboot, reboot, reboot" that you realized it might be hardware. A downtime of 15+ hours for a hardware issue is a really poor level of service, telling me "it happens", is highly unprofessional and ignorant. Your team acted uninterested in my concerns and kept me so far out of the loop that I had to nag all afternoon, evening and night long to get updates. At the end of the day all I get is "Oh there were some hardware issues that were corrected". Throw me a bone man, I wanted to know exactly what was wrong with the server and what was done to remedy it so I have confidence that something was actually done and not a hardware diagnostics that came back clean, and the guy just plugged my server back in."


His initial reply was 14 minutes after mine, and it's now been around 4 hours since my last reply and they haven't touched on it yet so I'm done with it, and I'm guessing they are too. I know things like this are common in the hosting industry. I'm just 1 man in with a couple big websites that were down for almost an entire day and didn't even get an acceptable reason why. I hope this log helps you, reader.

There were some hardware issues that were corrected on your server.

That is a very vague answer. Normally when asked directly what the hardware problem was, you get a specific answer. The amount of downtime you provided makes me think a hard drive died and needed to be replaced. This could mean an OS reload and other related tasks, were done on the Server. Only HG knows for sure.


However even though the server is a managed server, it's your responsibility to keep it running; we don't monitor dedicated servers since the server belongs to you.

That sounds like a contrast in terms. By definition, a Managed Server is monitored (usually every 5 minutes) for whether Apache is working or not. If a not and a reboot required, it is done by them. Now a Managed Server does mean you should be aware of certain scripts causing a problem but, it is common to not have 'root' access for a Managed Server. If you didn't have regular Shell access you might never know.

Wow. I was actually looking into getting a dedicated server from them.

Hope you find a better provider and they respond here soon.

*subscribes to thread*

Wow. I was actually looking into getting a dedicated server from them.

Hope you find a better provider and they respond here soon.

*subscribes to thread*

I think you need to look theplanet.com if u ever wanted a server. I basically see Hostgator not the best place to deal with servers. It would be good for shared and resellers.

HostGator's focus has always been oversold shared hosting, and personally instead of your sweeping statement of NOT going with a reseller, try going with someone who focuses on dedicated servers.

I think you need to look theplanet.com if u ever wanted a server. I basically see Hostgator not the best place to deal with servers. It would be good for shared and resellers.

Who do you think Hostgator resells servers for? '

That's right Theplanet.com, so that would be a bit like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

Who do you think Hostgator resells servers for? '

That's right Theplanet.com, so that would be a bit like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.


:agree: +1

Please do a search on thePlanet.com before going with them, as a search showed me that unpleasant things happened after their merger.

Hello,


What was your ticket number with us? I would like to review what happened. Thanks!

The ticket number was JLZ-418318

There was an update to the ticket with an fsck log dump. He said they needed to 'clear up some drive issues with some file system checks'.

I had a simiar bad experience with hostgator.com Starting on September 5th

I was on their $99 reseller account and now moving away to PacificRack.com because I can't stand having my forum down for days!

They suspended one of my car forums without notice or even an email. I had to submit a ticket and ask what happened because the people on the phones do not have the power to do anything. Only admins can do things and for that you have to submit tickets which sucks. Read below for my ticket summary:


"Hi,
My website is saying that it has been suspended to high Appache load?
Can you please unsuspend my account? I am going to be moving my server to a dedicated host in the next 24-48 hours."

Hostgator "the server cannot be activated until it is moved to the new server, we can provide you with a backup or ftp access to the account. If you are moving to one of our servers we can move the account for you to the new server."I asked what was causing the high load:


Hello,
Unfortunately, discerning what part of the account was causing the issue is going to be difficult since neither you nor us were left any notes for the suspension. However, since the account was causing load issues, we cannot just unsuspend it yet.Great so my forum is off line for days...

Hi I am trying to move my account *********** to another server and the
database says it is locked.

Can you please remove the lock so I can move this site off the server? I
really need this done ASAP as the site is down. Also I need SSH access, is this possible for my to have access to it?


Hello,

I have enabled FTP and CPanel access so that you may make backup of your files. If there is anything else we that we can help you with, please let us know.
The account is locked again. Are you trying to Kill my website and all of my traffic?! My website has been down for 3 days.

Please send me a backup file to xxxxxxxx@gmail
or attach it to this message.


Hello,

The account hasn't been unsuspended. You stated you were moving the site and needed the files to transfer so FTP and CPanel were enabled for you yesterday so that you could do so. I do not see a ticket under this account stating the domain was unsuspended. If you are having further problems than this, please let us know. I don't understand, has my account been suspended or is it free? My
programmer emailed me acouple hours ago saying it was locked again.

Can't you just send me the database backup?



Thank you

Finally on September 7th my account was unlocked and I was able to move away. Talk about a total nightmare. Alex from pacificrack.com was a gem and helped move my site off. Goodbye hostgator :)