Reliable Service Provider / Data Center

[multiweb]

Hi guys, I know there are heaps of IT minded people or working in the IT industry on these forums so I thought that's the place to ask.

I run a dedicated server with the planet.com. I've used them for over 10yrs now. They used to be called RackShack then EV1 and now ThePlanet. They're good as long as you pay and nothing bad happens. If there is a problem though you're pretty much on your own. In the old days you'd get to follow up a problem with a "real" tech who'd work through the problem or at least point you in the right direction. Nowadays it's departments talking to other departments. The right hand doesn't know what the left hand's doing, downtime clock is ticking and nobody gives a ...

So I'm asking, is this a general vibe in the industry nowadays? Customer service is totally gone out of the window? Or do you guys know of or are currently using a reliable data centre that you would recommend? No bad mouthing intended at all but I've spent the last 15h on an SSH screen fixing stuff and I'm a bit p'd off. ;)

Specifically I'd like to be able to DD a master HD so in case of disaster recovery I can boot from a slave. No more no less. It's not rocket science. Just very basic redundancy. Thanks for listening to my rant.

[Omaroo]

Wow - a can o' worms Marc. There are a plethora of dedicated server farms out there for hire, but I don't think that it's an easy thing to pre-judge the level of real support you ARE going to pay for and receive prior to giving them a go. Whirlpool and other forums are just so full of opinion that it's hard to tell what's real advice and what's not.

Are you prepared to provide your own hardware? I use GlobalSwitch in Sydney (Glebe), that's an incredibly secure (and SLA-guaranteed) hosting facility where I telehouse 5 of my servers. I have access (after a training period - lots of protocols and OH&S rubbish) to my own hardware when I need it, but there is no "help" as such. If you want that, then there are plenty of outsourced host support companies such as http://www.touchsupport.com/ that can do what want - i.e. support you, but at a price. No-one just adds support for free these days. In fact, hosting (perse) and support don't go hand-in-hand any more. They are each a saleable item.

Have you approached either GlobalSwich or Fujitsu (two of the biggest and most secure by far) to see if they offer direct support?

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Marc
You are so right about the level of competance in the service industry, especially IT. And of the few who do have some nous there are a number who subscridbe to this forum.

I just had a problem with Windows 7 that had been bugging me for two days while I persevered with Microsoft's instructions that did not work. I posted on this forum and had the solution within the hour.

Your back up problem is quite common and I have my own way round it by running two HHD's in all my main computers each having the main operating system (systems) cloned and able to operate indepently if needed. Each system is complete with all necessary programs. I have separate partitions for changeable data that I generate and back that up separately. I have all my computers networked and can operate from anywhere in the house.

For other IT problems talk to Trevor he is very good on networking and vitual machines.

Barry

[Visionoz]

Hi Marc

I'd agree with Chris about GlobalSwitch - however you could try http://www.planetdomain.com/website-hosting/dedicated-hosting/#hosting-plans as I have referred several of my clients (from Perth) to them with no problems/hassles over the last two years or so - they do provide a limited amount of physical tech support ie they would send someone out to the GlobalSwitch datacentre to manually put in a backup CD/DVD etc if needed at no extra cost - but you have to ensure that you specify/negotiate little bitsy extras before you sign up - AKA "do a deal" :P

They might perhaps be a bit pricey but hey the total package counts!

Cheers
Bill

[mithrandir]

ThePlanet are often called the planet of spam because of some of their lax policies. In their previous incarnations they had a similar reputation. At various times I've had their entire network blackholed at the border router.

Are you more concerned with a hardware failure losing you your server or a software failure (including getting hacked)?

Both should be covered in your TOS. You might have to pay extra for mirrored disks. You could keep a backup copy of the site at home in case they join the list of GFC failures.

[mithrandir]

I've been to GlobalSwitch Glebe a few times and agree with every word Chris says. If I mentioned the name of the customer I'd get in deep doodoos, but security followed by SLAs and bandwidth are the reasons they chose the place.

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Chris is dead-on here. And its worthwhile shopping around to see if there are any hosts that provide support.particularly local, as part of the package.
Most hosts now sub-contract their support services to 3rd parties and use this as a profit centre.
We've gone from having a terribly efficient in-house (Manchester UK) mob to a dedictaed, but considerably less competent bunch in India.
A smaller, 'hungrier' host might offer 'free' services that a larger one does not.

[multiweb]

Hi Guys, thanks for the comments.

I've used third party services in the past without much success. Problem is commitment and reponsibility in their work. Here's a couple of horror stories: wrong box taken offline and wiped out when closing an account (oops!... yeah right), second drive in a RAID server went bad not noticed for 2 months then on box reboot overwritten the newer version of databases and websites on the one that was actuall working (oops!... again).

One of the issues I have with local and the reason I'm offshore is bandwidth. Here you don't get much. I guess it has something to do with Telstra ultimately. The only true redundancy solution would be round robin DNS with multiple boxes but I can't afford that.

My reasoning was that it's possible to mirror a boot drive, at least the OS and site configuration and shelf it so in case of major problem you can boot and go online asap. Even if it's mounted as a slave in the same machine?

[kustard]

At work I run dedicated servers with the usual back up systems in case of problems. As for home though I use pair.com. They are based in the US but their technical support has been really good for the maybe 3 times I've used it in the past 7 or so years.

[multiweb]

Thanks Simon. This ShadowDrive® system is exactly what I was thinking. Will contact them for more details.:thumbsup:

[Omaroo]

I'm confused Marc. Why the question over data center preferences then? LOL!

[multiweb]

At the end of the day I need a reliable system regardless of the data center. What suits me better is to be able to image a whole drive locally in the machine so it's self contained and I can swap quickly in case of problem. My data center doesn't offer this option. Pair.com claim to have this system in place and they provide dedicated servers so I'll be talking to them.