These guys already blew up their routing a few weeks back, and took 72 hours to restore... and just received this email this morning: "We apologize greatly for this inconvenience, but this morning during a server commision we were assigned, we mistakenly consoled your server, booted it into a windows 2003 64bit installation program, and before we had a chance to realize we were working on the incorrect server, formatted your primary hard disk. This has unfortunately resulted in data loss on your server. We are completely prepared to help you through this. If you require absolutely any assistance from our team, please let us know, and we will help you as much as we can." Jesus. Fortunately, I think it was the backup box rather than my primary... In any case, I think I need a new dedicated server hosting service. I'd prefer someone in Chicago (preferably 350 E Cermak), someone reliable, supports bare metal restore/cloning... Any suggestions?
Wholy shit. Sorry, bit swearing is appropriate in situations like that. I do computers 20 years now, and I have never seen crap like that hit the fan. They can be happy not to be in europe - full liability would hit them, regardless of what the contract says (you can never rule out malice or gross neglect, and that was gross neglect). Whow.
Well... I don't want to burn any bridges before I get my new setup going. If you send me a PM, I'll let you know privately.
Please tell us who it was ... for all our sakes. PM us if you don't want to go public with the name (I'll respect you're decision not to publish the name ... but I want to know who it was!)
Apologies, heech. You were offering to tell us if we PMed you. I think your post must have crossed mine! I have PMed...
Yes. Pls PM me if you would. Also, what happened to the backup? Was that wiped too? Couldn't they restore your server from the backup? Every dedicated server I use has this backup feature either either automatically included with the package or an option, which is a no brainer.
There's always some variant of backup, but backup of operating-system level files is usually not available (or at least not automated). In the case of this provider, I am relying on manual, weekly bare metal backup/restores between two different servers. (I also do key *data* backups to a different hosting service.) So far at least, my operational procedures worked today. I'm covered today. I'm still going to look around for new hosting services.
http://www.colocationamerica.com/colocation/colocation-locations.htm http://www.equinix.com/ -they also have colo at the site and some here have spoken highly of them