Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 52
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Posts
    65

    Godaddy Terrible!

    I'm not sure if this is considered standard practice among hosting providers but I'm faced with a big problem after godaddy just informed me that in order to guarantee that my server doesn't crash every 2 hours they will need to move it to new hardware and reprovision the drives.


    I have four different websites (+svn respository) running on this dedicated server so it's going to be a pain in the butt for me to have to figure out how to back up and move everything to a new server...and what's worse, it's not like they're letting me keep this server around while they get me started on a new one. They offered me a $150/drive USB backup option which sounds ridiculous expensive considering that this is happening at no fault of mine.

    Anyway, I just wanted to share this with you guys just so you know what you are getting yourselves into if you are dealing with these guys. BTW, if anyone has any good advice on how to make this migration less painful (short of having to backup everything), I'm very open to your ideas!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    3,816
    Back up everything, migrate away from godaddy maybe?

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by quantumphysics View Post
    Back up everything, migrate away from godaddy maybe?
    I agree , DO IT NOW . Godaddy never have been good for web hosting. They rely on domain name service
    ARMINDS ... empowering people’s minds!
    Affordable Fully Managed SSD Cached Xen VPS @ arminds.com

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Posts
    65
    Yes, I may have to do that. My server (which is used by four three different live mobile apps) was up for only 2 hours a time all day yesterday. They claim they changed the RAM, CPU, etc but I'm not sure I really believe them.

    I don't know why they don't have a more customer friendly migration policy when then is a disruption of service requiring re-provisioning at no fault of the customer's. Why do I have jump through hoops just to get my service back to what it was two days ago? Is it really that hard for them to take an image of my hd and put it on the re-provisioned server? Sorry, I know I'm venting but it just seems a little unreasonable to me that they think it's ok to have me re-install everything.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Posts
    221
    Usually the standard (unmanaged) practice is to mount the old drive as a slave for free for a couple days in order to allow you to easily copy over files assuming the drive can still be read from. Any dedicated host who refuses to at least do this is probably not worth your business.

    Nicely ask again if they can simply mount the old drive as a slave for 48 hours to help you transfer the configuration.

    BTW, always make sure you have at least one local (at your office or residence) or remote backup not with the same provider. If you don't, one day soon enough you'll probably wish you did.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Posts
    221
    Quote Originally Posted by kuchu View Post
    Yes, I may have to do that. My server (which is used by four three different live mobile apps) was up for only 2 hours a time all day yesterday. They claim they changed the RAM, CPU, etc but I'm not sure I really believe them.

    I don't know why they don't have a more customer friendly migration policy when then is a disruption of service requiring re-provisioning at no fault of the customer's. Why do I have jump through hoops just to get my service back to what it was two days ago? Is it really that hard for them to take an image of my hd and put it on the re-provisioned server? Sorry, I know I'm venting but it just seems a little unreasonable to me that they think it's ok to have me re-install everything.
    If they just changed the CPU and RAM (or moved to another server with different specs), usually (but not always) they should be able to simply put the old drive in very easily. At least for a Linux based server using a stock kernel (If you custom compiled your own kernel on say Gentoo it may be a different story since you might be missing certain drivers or feature sets - but then you'd just have to load from a KVM and a LiveCD and rebuild it, etc). In most cases the kernel will detect the new hardware fine and still load as before. It's possible there might be some minor adjustments needed but it's no big deal.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Posts
    65
    Thanks dlm7, you're absolutely right. I'm getting more and more nervous about not having backups. And I'm starting to wonder if it's the drive that's failing especially since they claim they changed both he RAM and CPU. Right now, just keeping it up long enough to do backups is going to be an issue because it goes down every hour to two hours.

    I recently purchased another dedicated server from 100tb so this may be a good time to complete the migration which we have been doing at a slow pace.

    Here is what I got from Godadday.

    Dear Sir/Madam,

    Thank you for contacting Server Concierge. In regards to your server, xxxxxxxx:

    Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. I understand that you are having difficulty accessing your server. Our technicians were able to perform a hard reboot, which brought the server back online. It is currently accessible through both SSH and Simple Control Panel. Our technicians have also swapped the CPU and RAM on the server, to help alleviate any performance issues the server may have been experiencing.

    Please note that although the server is online now, we cannot guarantee its reliability as the hardware on this server is failing after over one year of use. It is recommended that you allow us to perform a chassis swap, which would put your server on brand new hardware and resolve all reliability problems associated with this server. This would however require a re-provision of this server, which would wipe your server clean.

    If you would like us to place your server on new hardware, please respond with the following information :

    1. A statement granting us explicit permission to change the chassis associated with your server.
    2. The 4-digit Support PIN associated with your hosting account.

    Use the instructions below to locate the 4-digit Support PIN for your account. Please include the PIN in your reply.

    You may also modify this setting using these instructions:

    • Select 'Account Settings' from the 'My Account' menu
    • Click on the 'Account Security Information' link
    • Confirm your email address in the 'confirm Email' field
    • Enter in your password in the 'Current Password' field
    • In the space marked 'Call-in PIN', enter a 4-digit number that you will supply to our Customer Service or Technical Support Representatives in order to verify your identity and customer account
    • When you are done, click on the green 'Save Changes' button

    NOTE: Modifying your PIN is optional. For verification purposes we will require that you provide the PIN in your reply.

    Additionally, you may re-provision your server using the following information :

    To reprovision your server, deleting all data and applications and returning the server to its initial setup state, please follow the instructions below:

    1) Log in to your account.
    2) Select 'Servers' link.
    3) Click 'Launch Manager' next to the Server that you'd like to reprovision. It will open up in a new window.
    4) Click on the 'Support' section to expand it and then click on the 'Reprovision' button.
    5) Confirm the reprovision.

    Please note: reprovisioning the server will erase all the data on the server, including any backups stored on the server. You are responsible for the integrity of your data backup and restoration.

    If you are unable to back up your server's content prior to re-provisioning the server, it would be possible to place your hard drives into a USB enclosure. If you would like to have your current hard drive removed and placed into a USB enclosure:

    1) You will need to provide the last four of the credit card which you would like charged, and authorize the charge. The charge is $150 per drive. If you have multiple drives, please specify whether you would like us to enclose the primary drive ($150), the secondary ($150), or both drives ($300).

    2) Our Data Center technicians will remove and replace the specified drive from your server. We will notify you when this has been done.

    3) You will then request reprovision. Reprovision will erase all data currently on your server. Do not request reprovision until we have notified you of the removal of your current drive.

    4) You will notify us when you have requested reprovision. Reprovision can take 6-24 hours depending on your server set up.

    5) The drive which was previously removed will be attached as an external drive, via an external USB enclosure, allowing you access to the original drive with your data.

    6) You will then be able to restore data from the external drive. The external Hard Disk will be removed after 30 days.

    If you experience any other errors with access or delivery, please let us know. We would be happy to assist further. We appreciate your patience and understanding on this matter.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    3,816
    they want to charge you $150 per drive to temporarily attach it to your new server for a month? really?

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Posts
    65
    Quote Originally Posted by quantumphysics View Post
    they want to charge you $150 per drive to temporarily attach it to your new server for a month? really?
    My guess is they were too busy re-provisioning servers to change this email since April 1st.

    Oh, but here is the interesting part guys. I have GoDaddy email me about once a month asking me to renew my 1 year service which is going to expire in less than a month. Bad timing fellas.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Posts
    221
    I'd probably contact them one more time. Preferably get a manager if you've already tried once. Ask them to reconsider the charge or just put the old drive in the new server at no charge considering it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes and isn't your fault. Maybe link to this thread too so they know about it and to give them a chance to respond and make it right.

    It should be free to do what you are asking but I might be able to see some trivial charge like $10 - $30 to pay for the tech's time. $150, however, is quite outrageous.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Posts
    373
    Wow, they charging you to change out there faulty drives. This is crazy and very hard on anyone especially since its not something that was caused by the client.

    $150 for a backup now thats even more crazier.you can get a server for the cost of there back up

    Best thing is to migrate from them even though its going to cost you some downtime but its better to do it now than to have to deal with something worse from them.
    IrieHost Inc - Professional Web Hosting Provider & Social Network Servers
    VPS • Shared Hosting • Dedicated Servers • Reseller Hosting
    24hrs Support | 30 Days Money Back | 99.99% Uptime
    See you soon @ www.riehost.com

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Posts
    65
    Well, I have a bigger problem now. The server won't stay up for more than 10 mins every time is boots. I'm starting to get really worried because I can't even complete an svn checkout of my projects on my local machine. Time to call them.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    Miami, FL
    Posts
    2,762
    If you have KVM or etc, log into that and disable/stop all processes which is not related to your server. Don't allow any services to start or to run. Do everything from the KVM itself. See if that would help.

    Usually if a drive is going dead or is dead, you won't even have a chance to load anything up but since this is loading up and stopping in between, I'm thinking it's a software problem more than a hardware problem. Plus server freezing up usually has something to do with RAM or MOBO.
    Aaron Ong
    Dedicated Servers - 100TB Servers - 100Mbps Unmetered Servers - Web Hosting - CDN Network
    Servers in Central, East/West Coast USA, EUROPE and ASIA
    Welltodo Century
    - www.welltodocentury.com

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Posts
    65
    Thanks aodat2. I tried to do what you suggested but I couldn't find any useful information on the web on how to find out whether or not I have a KVM set up. But thanks about the information on disk failures...it's somewhat reassuring because that's the single worst thing that can happen right now.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    Miami, FL
    Posts
    2,762
    KVM/IPMI usually is setup by the host. If you need to look for it on the net, I'm guessing you do not have it.

    Basically it's something like VNC. It shows you exactly what is going on the server basically like you're on the server itself (locally) and not like SSH. You basically could not know if you have KVM/IPMI unless you're told by your host. Ask GoDaddy, they should be able to tell you if you have it or not.

    Also since you're moving to 100TB, why not just get the people from 100TB to help you get this done? They should be able to help. If you can't get a direct answer from them, its always advisable to email directly to tom@100tb.com

    Out of curiosity, WHY did you ever choose GoDaddy in the 1st place?
    Aaron Ong
    Dedicated Servers - 100TB Servers - 100Mbps Unmetered Servers - Web Hosting - CDN Network
    Servers in Central, East/West Coast USA, EUROPE and ASIA
    Welltodo Century
    - www.welltodocentury.com

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Posts
    65

    *

    Nah, I don't have anything like VNC installed. As far as asking 100tb.com to help me with the migration, I'm not sure how helpful they'll be since I've already had the server for a couple of months. Perhaps, they may have been more willing to help if I had done this when I was trying to get the server set up with them.

    I've had previous contact with Tom but in all honesty, he sounds like he has to deal with too many things (which I think is a problem for the company) so I don't have a lot of confidence in them being able to get this done for us in time frame that's reasonable.

    To answer your question on why I ever picked godaddy.com, it's probably just the name recognition because I'm not very familiar with all the hosting option...but most importantly, I didn't know about this website.

    UPDATE: Godaddy has agreed to waive the $150 backup fee and they've agreed to restore my data on a new chassis for free. The question that I can't seem to get answered is what's being backed up. For instance, will the back up pick up my svn repository which is using berkeley db? Will it pick up my 10 mysql databases including jira & confluence? Will it pick up the installations for php, jira, drupal, svn, mysql, etc? The guy on the phone didn't have a clue so I'm off to the support chat to ask the more technical folks. Will keep you guys posted.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    Miami, FL
    Posts
    2,762
    I can't comment much on GoDaddy but if something like that were to happen to us and we were to tell you that we'll get things done for you, it basically mean that we'll make a duplicate of the HDD and put it back in for you. So nothing will change, just that you'll be on a different HDD. That's what we mean when we say that but as for GoDaddy, it could be anybody's guess what they mean about it. You need to ask in more detail.

    Plus, I do feel that your question should be escalated to Lvl 2 Techs. Their frontline seems a little too "not knowing" to be feeling safe about this. I somewhat know your feeling on issues like this. Just can't sleep well without knowing someone will do it correctly and stuff like that. Not feeling too secured. LOL.
    Aaron Ong
    Dedicated Servers - 100TB Servers - 100Mbps Unmetered Servers - Web Hosting - CDN Network
    Servers in Central, East/West Coast USA, EUROPE and ASIA
    Welltodo Century
    - www.welltodocentury.com

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Posts
    221
    Quote Originally Posted by kuchu View Post

    UPDATE: Godaddy has agreed to waive the $150 backup fee and they've agreed to restore my data on a new chassis for free. The question that I can't seem to get answered is what's being backed up. For instance, will the back up pick up my svn repository which is using berkeley db? Will it pick up my 10 mysql databases including jira & confluence? Will it pick up the installations for php, jira, drupal, svn, mysql, etc? The guy on the phone didn't have a clue so I'm off to the support chat to ask the more technical folks. Will keep you guys posted.
    Good to see some progress. I would think that it would be a complete backup with everything but you are well advised to not assume anything and check with them. Make your own backup elsewhere ASAP when you get a chance!

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Posts
    65
    So I asked for lvl2 support to no avail. But the story from the rep on the chat was more consistent with the email I had received. They will be doing no backups and will simply take the existing hard drive, put it in an enclosure and make it available through a USB port. The guy on the phone was clueless and he has actually told me that the ETA will vary on how much data I had on my server...which is completely wrong because there is actually no backing up happening here.

    This obviously sucks because we will now need to reinstall everything we have back on this server. At this point, I'm almost certain I'm going to move everything to our 100tb server immediately or before the end of next month.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Posts
    65

    Angry

    It looks like GoDaddy wiped out our entire hard drive accidentally. We gave them the authorization to go ahead and take out the hard drive to put it in an enclosure and make it available to use after a reprovisioning. They're now telling us that they are able to mount the hard drives but there is no data on them.

    In retrospect, I wish we had gone with our instincts and tried to back up whatever we could before turning the server over to these incompetent people. We're at this point trying to piece together what we have from our local backups but needless to say, we've been set back by months thanks to our reliable host.

  21. #21
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Posts
    373
    Quote Originally Posted by kuchu View Post
    It looks like GoDaddy wiped out our entire hard drive accidentally. We gave them the authorization to go ahead and take out the hard drive to put it in an enclosure and make it available to use after a reprovisioning. They're now telling us that they are able to mount the hard drives but there is no data on them.

    In retrospect, I wish we had gone with our instincts and tried to back up whatever we could before turning the server over to these incompetent people. We're at this point trying to piece together what we have from our local backups but needless to say, we've been set back by months thanks to our reliable host.
    Certinaly not great news and i'm truly sad for your experience with them.

    Always Back up your server even if its a minor change in configuration or hardware.

    This is something we practice when working on clients server even if they did a back up already, we do one for our self just to protect our clients from loosing data.

    Move to a reliable host and always backup even every week/month if possible.

    Sorry again and have a nice day/evening
    IrieHost Inc - Professional Web Hosting Provider & Social Network Servers
    VPS • Shared Hosting • Dedicated Servers • Reseller Hosting
    24hrs Support | 30 Days Money Back | 99.99% Uptime
    See you soon @ www.riehost.com

  22. #22
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Posts
    65
    server-guy, thanks for the kind words. What's been infuriating to me has been the lack of concern from godaddy about the fact that they just nuked out entire hard drive to oblivion. They seem so casual about it and they're giving me a blanket statement "no data was recoverable."

    This is a hard drive that I could access myself no more than 48 hours ago and had many gigs of content. As of today, the only data there is on there is a lost+found folder with today's time stamp.

    The explanation they're trying to give me is that they can't say for sure that any data was lost. In other words, after spending a whole year on the server and reaching up to 1.5TB/month of bandwidth they're questioning if I even had data to lose on it.

    It's really quite incredible.

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    Miami, FL
    Posts
    2,762
    Erm... when I told you it was not a problem, it shouldn't have been working out this way. All you had is the server shutting down. Taking out the HDD and remounting it on another server is not a HUGE problem where you would need a rocket scientist to figure out. I totally DO NOT understand how GoDaddy could have wiped out all the data which was on your HDD in the process.

    I'm sure that it was either the wrong HDD which went it or somethng like that might have happened as there is no way how your data could be lost just like that. I really don't know what to say at this point of time. It was suppose to be an easy fix and yet this was done. How pathetic can GoDaddy be?
    Aaron Ong
    Dedicated Servers - 100TB Servers - 100Mbps Unmetered Servers - Web Hosting - CDN Network
    Servers in Central, East/West Coast USA, EUROPE and ASIA
    Welltodo Century
    - www.welltodocentury.com

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    China/USA
    Posts
    40
    godaddy only for domains registration...

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Posts
    65
    aodat2, exactly! I don't know what's so freaking difficult about taking out a hd and attaching it to a new setup. One of the drives has only a lost+found folder on it with yesterday's time stamp so it's pretty clear that it was either reformatted or is a new drive altogether. The latest from Godaddy...

    Dear Sir/Ma'am,

    Thank you for contacting Server Support.

    Regarding your Dedicated Server 'xxxxxx' and your issues with your USB drives. After reviewing your account, I have found that the drives attached are your drives. I had the DC technicians check several times to verify that we attached the correct drives. Unfortunately the drives are mounted and attached correctly to your server how ever there is no content on the drives.

    Please let us know if we can help you in any other way.

    Sincerely,

    Chris S.
    Server Support

    At this point, it looks like it's looking more and more pointless to talk to godaddy because they have clearly wiped out my drive and are trying their best to cover up their f-up. Some twenty minutes after this email, I got another email from them asking me to renew my service for another year at this great company. Screw you, Godaddy!

    I've already started trying to put the pieces together on another server elsewhere.

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. GoDaddy's system - TERRIBLE !
    By bjdea1 in forum Domain Names
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: 06-02-2008, 06:20 AM
  2. Replies: 70
    Last Post: 06-05-2007, 03:29 PM
  3. GoDaddy - Terrible Customer Service or Just Me?
    By simon22 in forum Dedicated Server
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 01-03-2006, 04:31 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •