RSAweb no support on weekends for Linux VPS

AnRkey

AnRkey

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The company that I work for requires that I run a dynamic DNS server for them. I opted to host it with RSAWeb in their cloud hosting service. I've been using it for a while now and everything seemed to work well.

I was surprised then to get a notice from my monitoring system yesterday at 06:40:32, reporting that both my IPs on the VPS are unreachable. I phoned RSAweb yesterday morning to report the issue. I gave them my cell number to call me and report back on the situation. They did eventually call back and said that it had been logged to one of their cloud services engineers. Yesterday afternoon I phoned them again because they still had not responded to my ticket. I asked the help desk agent to escalate the issue to management. I asked to please receive a call back as I felt the situation is urgent.

This morning, after 24+ hours of downtime, I phoned them again after no engineer had even responded to my ticket. The helpdesk agent was reluctant to phone the manager, however I insisted. The helpdesk agent promised again to phone me back. After not receiving a call I phoned back again.

This time the helpdesk agent told me that the issue would only be resolved tomorrow, as no engineers were working this weekend and that the engineers will only be in on Monday morning. I explained again that this was unacceptable, but the helpdesk agent does not seem to be able to do anything anyway.

It's now 30+ hours since my server went down and It looks like it will be 50+ hours before an engineer even starts working on the issue. For a DNS server this is simply unacceptable!

To RSAweb management, you've convinced me, I'm moving my VPS to a hosting company that cares about their clients. You have no idea what hosting is about.

To anyone else out there, have you had similar issues with RSAweb? I'm sure others would benefit from this information so that they can avoid being bitten.

Sincerely,

John the annoyed network admin!
 
50+ hours downtime now.

Got through to Morné on the helpdesk. He's going to phone me back he says.

We'll see.
 
I just had a call from Morné, he had no new info to give me. He confirmed that he cant do anything more until an engineer from their cloud platform comes out of the meeting.

At least I got a phone call back this time.
 
General rule of thumb is dont host with companies that do not have 24 hour support (or close to it).

I moved from vps.co.za for the same reason.
 
My server just came back up. Morné phoned me to give me the news. My Bind DNS server seems fine.
 
ghoti said:
General rule of thumb is dont host with companies that do not have 24 hour support (or close to it).

I moved from vps.co.za for the same reason.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this was a big lesson to learn. I can't believe they can treat clients this way.

Apparently a manager _will_ phone me. I'll post an update when or if they do.
 
AnRkey said:
Yeah, this was a big lesson to learn. I can't believe they can treat clients this way.

Apparently a manager _will_ phone me. I'll post an update when or if they do.
Click to expand...

If your stuff is mission critical... move.
 
ghoti said:
If your stuff is mission critical... move.
Click to expand...

Yes, I've made up my mind. I will most definitely be moving.

Lucky for me, only one of my IPs changed, so I was not impacted on anything other than one of my VPN servers.
 
This is actually a pretty good topic. Who offers the best 24/7 support for VPS`s in South Africa? The hosting ethic here is a little shocking.

The best people I have found is Afrihost. Though Ive had extended downtime before with them (took them a long time to respond to my queries and the advice was not ideal).

There are places out side South Africa, that offer way better support (like rackspace and hostgator).
 
Just a question, it looks like both your DNS servers went down in this catastrophe? Why not host your 2 dns servers with different hosts, giving you actual redundancy on the DNS hosting part.

So 1x DNS server with VPS host #1. Whoever that may be.
another 1x DNS server with VPS host #2. Again, whoever that may be, as long as it is not the same as #1.

Then you can take it a step further. Host anything else application wise, also on different VPS hosting companies, and with some scripting, detect if the one host is down, redirect everything to the host that is up. You will need to learn how to do replication ect. between the 2x sites, but at least your stuff won't be down when a single VPS host provider messes up, and doesn't have 24/7 support, AND 2x VPSs at different hosts shouldn't be too expensive.
 
Tinuva said:
Just a question, it looks like both your DNS servers went down in this catastrophe? Why not host your 2 dns servers with different hosts, giving you actual redundancy on the DNS hosting part.

So 1x DNS server with VPS host #1. Whoever that may be.
another 1x DNS server with VPS host #2. Again, whoever that may be, as long as it is not the same as #1.

Then you can take it a step further. Host anything else application wise, also on different VPS hosting companies, and with some scripting, detect if the one host is down, redirect everything to the host that is up. You will need to learn how to do replication ect. between the 2x sites, but at least your stuff won't be down when a single VPS host provider messes up, and doesn't have 24/7 support, AND 2x VPSs at different hosts shouldn't be too expensive.
Click to expand...

+1 - very good advice
 
I recommend you make a list of hosts you like,
and send them support tickets on Saturdays and Sundays at odd hours, see how long they take to respond.

I know of a specific VPS host whom will not be named here, close for December holidays,
highly unacceptable in a world where you need your website to be online 24x7.
 
As expected, no manager phoned me. I know exactly how much they care now. Bye bye RSAWeb!
 
The Web Space Bar said:
I recommend you make a list of hosts you like,
and send them support tickets on Saturdays and Sundays at odd hours, see how long they take to respond.

I know of a specific VPS host whom will not be named here, close for December holidays,
highly unacceptable in a world where you need your website to be online 24x7.
Click to expand...

Please PM me the name of the hosting company so that I don't fall in that dark hole as well. ;)
 
Tinuva said:
Just a question, it looks like both your DNS servers went down in this catastrophe? Why not host your 2 dns servers with different hosts, giving you actual redundancy on the DNS hosting part.

So 1x DNS server with VPS host #1. Whoever that may be.
another 1x DNS server with VPS host #2. Again, whoever that may be, as long as it is not the same as #1.

Then you can take it a step further. Host anything else application wise, also on different VPS hosting companies, and with some scripting, detect if the one host is down, redirect everything to the host that is up. You will need to learn how to do replication ect. between the 2x sites, but at least your stuff won't be down when a single VPS host provider messes up, and doesn't have 24/7 support, AND 2x VPSs at different hosts shouldn't be too expensive.
Click to expand...

True, this is how it should be. When I deploy the next setup, I'll do it this way.
 
Only pay for support if its 24/7 365 else you dont have it when you need it. This is why alot of ppl host using overseas support providers, because we have no idea of 24/7 support in South Africa.
 
mercenary said:
Only pay for support if its 24/7 365 else you dont have it when you need it. This is why alot of ppl host using overseas support providers, because we have no idea of 24/7 support in South Africa.
Click to expand...

When the sales guy helped me with my initial package way back when, he said there was 24/7 support. I guess not so much in a real crunch.
 
Guys, I have got 3 cloud servers with Afrihost and I couldn't be happier. Their control panel allows you to manually reboot your VPS with the click of a button if something goes wrong, and their support is awesome.

I would also recommend Hetzner if you want to go the dedicated server route.
 
deweyzeph said:
Guys, I have got 3 cloud servers with Afrihost and I couldn't be happier. Their control panel allows you to manually reboot your VPS with the click of a button if something goes wrong, and their support is awesome.

I would also recommend Hetzner if you want to go the dedicated server route.
Click to expand...

I was down for 2 days over a weekend, apparently waiting for a Hetzner tech to bring a Windows CD on site to repair a dedicated server. No thanks, never again. Have had issues with Afrihost and RSAWeb as well waiting for support. I waited almost 3 days for an issue to be resolved with RSAWeb, only after a harsh comment on their Twitter page did I *ever* receive a call back from them. We've moved all critical hosting overseas to companies who understand why it might be a problem for your server to be down for an hour, let alone 48.
 
ghoti said:
This is actually a pretty good topic. Who offers the best 24/7 support for VPS`s in South Africa? The hosting ethic here is a little shocking.

The best people I have found is Afrihost. Though Ive had extended downtime before with them (took them a long time to respond to my queries and the advice was not ideal).

There are places out side South Africa, that offer way better support (like rackspace and hostgator).
Click to expand...

I've found with Afrihost the best tactic is to log a ticket and then phone them again and again until you get someone that knows what they are doing. Certainly beats waiting impatiently for someone to hopefully get back to you :)
 
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