Terrible Downtime, Excellent Support, New Backup System

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  • reviewum.com
    Member
    • Mar 2004
    • 63

    Terrible Downtime, Excellent Support, New Backup System

    The move to the new system with CP04 caused a TON of downtime... like 32 hours which wasn't super, especially because the two days that my site www.reviewum.com was down were to be a few of the biggest days of the year..... oh well.

    The great news is that Andrew did an EXCELLENT job of keeping us posted in the forum, and when everything came back up he was VERY quick to respond to and fix problems!

    Keep up the great work Andrew... my only concern now is not having any backups of my sites!!!

    Speaking of which, I've asked this before, but I just can't comprehend the ramifications if it were to happen....

    With the new system, if a hard drive fails (which they do) then all customers on that server (which is probably MANY) will have to have backups of their sites either locally or through Dathorn (paid)?

    I'm thinking that human nature is to just say, "it will never happen" but if / when it does... oh boy!!!

    Like I said, I just can't comprehend that there isn't any kind of backup at all on these servers.

    I think Andrew should just increase all the plans by $1 per gig (making the basic plan $15.50 a month). This should average out nicely since I'm pretty sure that 90% of the users are only using 50% of their disk space.

    What do you all think about this?
    www.reviewum.com - Teacher Reviews - Professor Ratings
    www.nifty-stuff.com - All Kinds Of Nifty Stuff (mostly LEDs)
    www.LudCon.com - Ludlow Concepts
  • mikeh80
    Junior Member
    • Mar 2004
    • 9

    #2
    Originally posted by reviewum.com
    <snip>
    I think Andrew should just increase all the plans by $1 per gig (making the basic plan $15.50 a month). This should average out nicely since I'm pretty sure that 90% of the users are only using 50% of their disk space.

    What do you all think about this?
    No please!

    I'm a poor college student running a couple of small websites. None of them need to be backed up. Dathorn is already overkill for me but at $13.50 per month I can justify it.

    btw: The great service and frequent announcements also help me justify the cost.

    Comment

    • Jonathan
      Senior Member
      • Mar 2004
      • 1229

      #3
      Originally posted by mikeh80
      No please!

      I'm a poor college student running a couple of small websites. None of them need to be backed up. Dathorn is already overkill for me but at $13.50 per month I can justify it.

      btw: The great service and frequent announcements also help me justify the cost.
      I'm a poooorrr student too
      Except high school...I think
      "How can someone be so distracted yet so focused?"
      - C

      Comment

      • Frank Hagan
        Senior Member
        • Mar 2004
        • 724

        #4
        Originally posted by reviewum.com
        With the new system, if a hard drive fails (which they do) then all customers on that server (which is probably MANY) will have to have backups of their sites either locally or through Dathorn (paid)?
        If I'm understanding the new system correctly, each server has a RAID 1 array of two drives, meaning that the data is duplicated on each drive. So each server has 2 copies of everything.

        Hard drives do fail, but the chance of two hard drives failing at the same time is remote. Dathorn will be able to restore operation by hot swapping the defective drive out with a new one, and the server should be back up and running.

        However, that doesn't address data errors that can occur on your site because of a script run amok, a change you make, etc. And I suppose there could be data errors and that sort of thing with a failing drive (I wonder if those get mirrored over to the other drive in the array???) A site backup, either from Dathorn or by yourself, is still going to be necessary (unless you have a static site that you can just re-upload).



        I don't see an appeciable difference betwen paying $1 per gig and $2 per gig ... its a choice between $3 or $6 per month on my business plan. I'll pass that price along to my customers somehow

        Comment

        • Dan
          Member
          • Mar 2004
          • 99

          #5
          Hard drives do fail, but the chance of two hard drives failing at the same time is remote. Dathorn will be able to restore operation by hot swapping the defective drive out with a new one, and the server should be back up and running.
          I have seen multiple drives fail very closely together when they were from the same production lot...it's not a pretty sight

          Comment

          • Frank Hagan
            Senior Member
            • Mar 2004
            • 724

            #6
            Originally posted by Dan
            I have seen multiple drives fail very closely together when they were from the same production lot...it's not a pretty sight
            I'll bet! We have a RAID server here at work that has multiple drives, 5 or something like that. They did have two fail within a day of each other, but that's the closest we've come to disaster.

            Comment

            • reviewum.com
              Member
              • Mar 2004
              • 63

              #7
              Originally posted by Frank Hagan
              If I'm understanding the new system correctly, each server has a RAID 1 array of two drives, meaning that the data is duplicated on each drive. So each server has 2 copies of everything.

              Dathorn friends, can this be verified (Andrew)? I was under the impression that there is "absolutely no backup" meant nothing, nada, zilch, bumpkis. No secondary backups, nothing at all on the "new system".

              I'm covered if something goes wrong on my end, but I'd hate to be responsible for re-installing xx number of accounts from scratch if the drive blew.
              www.reviewum.com - Teacher Reviews - Professor Ratings
              www.nifty-stuff.com - All Kinds Of Nifty Stuff (mostly LEDs)
              www.LudCon.com - Ludlow Concepts

              Comment

              • Slider
                Junior Member
                • Mar 2004
                • 16

                #8
                Originally posted by reviewum.com
                Dathorn friends, can this be verified (Andrew)? I was under the impression that there is "absolutely no backup" meant nothing, nada, zilch, bumpkis. No secondary backups, nothing at all on the "new system".

                I'm covered if something goes wrong on my end, but I'd hate to be responsible for re-installing xx number of accounts from scratch if the drive blew.
                You are correct. There are no backups done of your accounts unless you pay for them. But like it has been said before, the drives are mirrored, meaning there are two drives with the same data on it. If one fails, your data is still there.

                If you are cheap like me, I run my own set up backup shell scripts which copy everything to a directory (databases included), zip it up and then FTP's it to another server that I have for this purpose in my home office. Or you could use the built in back up function and keep a local copy on your computer.

                The positive to Andrew backing up your data is that he will restore it for you and it is a cost that you can pass on to your customers. To some people who aren't as hosting savvy as others, this might be a great alternative to insure you have backups of all your clients and your sites.
                Broadband Rangers
                Project Goodtimes

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