Ginger Sever - Unscheduled Maintenance

[AndrewGlow]

Unfortunately no, we need cpanel backups to be restored.

[Matt]

The OS is still being "RE" re-installed from the CentOS mirrors. It should be done soon.

[Alexander]

Or DC guys reported that OS reload on the new hardware will be completed in a short time.

[k-scarber]

ok that short time is now up to an hour. What is the NEW estimate for when this server will be back up. I need to tell my client something other than Soon.

[Matt]

The only thing I can tell you is when you install an OS on a server, it takes time to download the source code, and that can be anywhere from a couple hours to many hours depending on how fast the CentOS Linux download mirrors are responding, same situation for cPanel which is a separate download after the OS is installed and verified working. Once those are both up and going, then we unpack the sites and those are unpacked in alphabetical order, one account at a time.

The OS should be almost done, but there is no "progress bar" to give any type of estimates at this stage.

If you have backups we can create an account for you on a different machine and you can upload the site and repoint the domain to it if it will make things go faster for you.

[Matt]

As I wrote the above post I got a message from our datacenter staff and they told me that the OS just finished and cPanel is installing now. This part usually takes 1-3 hours depending on cPanel mirrors.

What we will do after cPanel is installed is unpack the sites from our internal backups.

This can take several hours especially if your account username begins in the latter part of the alphabet.

However, the accounts on professional shared servers (like Ginger) are typically smaller in size than "unlimited" servers so the backups should restore fairly quickly in general. the other benefit is professional servers do not have as many accounts on them compared to the lower grade shared accounts. so this too should speed things up overall.

[spinduct]

I see some "Green" lights starting to show up on NetStatus Monitor for ginger. Finally, some visable progress.... Can you update us on status. thanks.

[Matt]

cPanel is still installing but as you can see many of the services are online right now which means the various servers are up and running in a basic state.

Once you see all green lights on that page, it means that we have begun the backup restoration process and sites should start to appear back online.

We will update this thread once more when backup restoration has been started.

No other news to report at this time other than we are working as fast as we can, and we do apologize for the delays.

[Matt]

cPanel just finished installing now we are going to unpack backups and reconfigure the servers.

We will post again when all sites are restored from our internal backups.

While I am here posting, I would like to address a few issues we saw come through the helpdesk. Backups and Better Service.

Backups
It is important that our customer's keep backups of their web sites for incidents like this. A couple people mentioned that they did not have backups and wanted to know if we had them on hand. The answer is yes, GlowHost maintains backups for our internal purposes. For example, in situations like this our customers find them very useful and are thankful we keep them. However, many hosts do not offer backups at all. The other thing to keep in mind is, if this were a natural disaster or something where the server itself was physically damaged in a major way, the potential for you to loose 100% of your data is very high.

To limit your exposure to a catastrophe which could potentially close your business, it is important that you consider your data retention policies. If your data is important to you, never rely on a host's internal backups because it is never guaranteed to work, unless you are paying for a specific backup system.

This was a Professional grade shared server, which means your backups are taken every day plus one time per week on a random day. On unlimited shared servers, backups are taken on Sunday evenings, which means your web site's would have been just about a week old when it came time to restore them.

Please check your host's backup policy for your type of hosting package and make sure to always keep local copies!

Better Service
Many of you have expressed comments such as that you recently paid a lot of money for advertisements, that your business relies 100% on your web site, or that you are loosing thousands of dollars in lost revenue. If this is truly the case, no type of shared hosting solution is suitable for your type of business.

You can limit your exposure to these types of incidents dramatically and reduce down times when you start considering the dedicated servers that we offer, especially those which have RAID + Backup options available.

You have to consider that if your site is making hundreds or thousands of dollars (or more) in revenues per month, does it make sense to pay for $20 or less hosting?

What we are offering for those of you who need it are discounted dedicated servers with specifications more powerful than you see on our web site currently. We have a new line up which is available only to you right now so if anyone is interested in discussing a more reliable solution for business, please contact me and we can go over the options and pricing and will find something to suit your exact needs.

You can send me a PM on this forum or open a ticket at the helpdesk and I will be happy to contact you personally.

The dedicated servers we are offering start at $179/mo and come with the following specs:

This is a very powerful "Entry Level" dedicated server for those interested, though we have bigger and more powerful machines also available:

• Intel Xeon E3-1230
• 8GB RAM
• 2 x 1TB Hard Drives
• 100TB of Transfer
• 1Gbit Dedicated Port
• 3 IP addresses
• Private VLAN
• Completely Dedicated to your site(s)
• RAID available
• cPanel/WHM included
• Fully Managed like what you are used to with shared hosting

Please excuse me if that sounds like a sales pitch, but I think several of you could benefit greatly from a dedicated server at GlowHost if what we are hearing at our helpdesk are accurate descriptions of your business. With the discount we are offering which is 20% off of the prices which will be advertised in the coming weeks, now is a good time to consider this option.

Backups are still unpacking now and updates will follow.

[spinduct]

It has been quite a while since the last update. A status update would be appreciated. Thank you.