| Posted by centumforums, 04-05-2005, 01:57 PM | | Im having trouble choosing a good Hphere provider.
This is the second migration i;ve done in less than an year. My present hosting company is gonna shut down.
Can someone please recommend me a good Hphere reseller hosting provider.
I need reliability and good support.
Centum
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| Posted by Amish_Geek, 04-05-2005, 02:12 PM | | How many accounts do you have currently? H-sphere doesn't have a very easy migration tool from cluster to cluster *yet*. You might want to find an H-Sphere host who has done this previously who can help you make the transition as smooth as possible.
I remember migrating our cluster once, 300+ accounts to manually re-create by hand. That was a fun week of all nighters! This was however, back before the existing client migration tools.
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| Posted by cartika-andrew, 04-05-2005, 03:16 PM | | There is a 3rd party h-sphere backup tool that allows you the ability to backup each domain and each DB, then restore - however - even if your target provider offers this, it really is of no use if your current provider does not...
There are a number of good H-Sphere hosts that frequent these boards - Im sure you can find some help with this migration.
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| Posted by Brendan Diaz, 04-05-2005, 04:35 PM | | Who did you leave already? That'll help narrow down the suggestions
You might want to take a look at www.DIYHosting.com and www.SteadFastNetworks.com for two solid providers.
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| Posted by Shaw Networks, 04-05-2005, 07:48 PM | | If you're dealing with over 50 accounts (to be transferred to another host) you may want to consider bringing in a server admin to help with the process. There's nothing worse than restoring backups by hand only to realize you left some vital configuration file at the old server, for every account. Consider cPanel or Plesk as your next control panel, transfers like this can be done in minutes with those two control panels.
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| Posted by centumforums, 04-06-2005, 04:04 PM | | I was logged into DIYHosting.com's Live support system for over an hour, no one answered ! This is no good.
Have any of u heard of webhostingst.com ? What do u think of them ?
Any more recommendations for Hphere reseller providers ?
Centum
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| Posted by Cahl, 04-06-2005, 04:13 PM | | The best thing to do at peak hours of the day if live sales chat is busy (as per the notice it gives you.. you were in a queue), is to call our toll free number, put in a sales ticket through the contact section, or visit the pre-sales section of our forum.
I assure you.. it was not that you weren't answered, it was simply that you were in a long queue. As can sometimes happen.
I can see there has been 74 chat sessions today (many of them are probably repeat chats) so that would certainly be why the hold time was longer than usual. However, you can always get a quick answer via any of the other methods listed.
R'gds
Dean
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| Posted by RRolfe, 04-06-2005, 10:14 PM | | Self promotion snipped>>
"CartikaHosting" is right. There is a 3rd party product for backups that could help with the transfer but without it being loaded at your current host then it is not going to be of much help. You can check this by looking for a "Account Backups" option in the plan editor wizard in your current reseller plan.
Another method of transfer that may work is using the "Archive" button in webshell for each client which will allow you to make a tarball of the customer's file so you can transfer them.
However, If your current host is going out of business then maybe they will be willing to help you in your transfer. Since H-Sphere version 2.4.1 there has been a xml migration utility that the main host has access too. It is well documented in the H-Sphere manual. It will allow the main admin to export all of your plans and customer configuration to xml files and then you can get your new host to import them for you. This will save you from having to recreate everything in the control panel. Once all the accounts have been imported by the new host you can simply move the customer's data and you are set.
Just some idea's off the top of my head.
Last edited by anon-e-mouse; 04-07-2005 at 12:44 AM.
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| Posted by cartika-andrew, 04-07-2005, 11:24 PM | | This is an excellent idea !
I am almost particular your host will at least be running v2.4.1. Migrating all your plan data is half the battle. tarball'ing your accounts on the old server - having the new company run a wget + untar on the new server, then some basic config changes on any db apps and you're there.
How many accounts are you talking about? I think with some co-operation from your old and new host, this migration could be completed rather quickly -
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| Posted by Cahl, 04-07-2005, 11:57 PM | | Unfortunately it's not that simple.
Out of the 19 migrations I did this past fortnight... the above failed on 16 hosting companies hsphere systems. HSphere's archive function (which downloads local...) drops out on most systems I've seen when the archive is going to be above 15 or 20 megs.. anything of that size rarely builds a valid archive.
I would personally suggest doing the the old fashioned way by either booking it with your new host or cranking open your favourite ftp client.
However... if the old hosting company wants to play nice.. then they can create the tarball on root, and then just through it in a publicly accessible location and you're golden. (for files anyway).
R'gds
Dean
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| Posted by cartika-andrew, 04-08-2005, 12:26 AM | | I believe we are saying the same thing
Thats ALOT of migrations ! Glad to hear so many are discovering and appreciating the DIY Advantage
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| Posted by PointOne, 04-08-2005, 03:19 AM | | I would not go with DIY. We had major problems with them before they moved to TP. Even then, the network at TP was stable, but they still depended on PSoft for anything beyond normal changes to the systems.
I'd highly recommend Fluidhosting.com. They're support staff is quick, their techs are experts at HSphere, they have a superb network, and they use high quality high performance servers. They definately cover all the bases. They don't advertise their reseller plans on their site, but you can find them here.
Keep in mind, they're pricier than some other Hsphere providers, but you get what you pay for with them.
BTW - We've used both DIY and FH.
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| Posted by ldcdc, 04-08-2005, 08:59 AM | | What do you mean more exactly? I was under the impression that most H-Sphere providers work very closely with PSoft anyway, as some things are better handled by PSoft.
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| Posted by PointOne, 04-08-2005, 11:03 AM | | All I can say is that for a good part of the time I was there, diy would often refer that they were waiting on psoft to look into the problem. These were issues with servers that appeared to become unstable for whatever reason. It appeared that second level support WAS psoft. I can see using psoft for extreme cases, but not as your regular "goto" support staff. DIY may differ with my opinion here, but that's the way I saw it.
I called their phone lines several times when I was there to get voicemail. Never got a call back. Granted this was usually during a downtime situation. But, still, never a return call or acknowledgment.
And after their customers started to complain about these problems via their forum, they shut down the forum. They said the forum was being used to much to communicate support problems...making it too hard to manage from their end. I see they did end up bringing the forum back though. I wouldn't be surprised if it disappeared again if customers had more complaints.
All-in-all, IMO... they are on a good network. There support is fine barring any major problems, then things fall apart quickly. So, I believe you can get an overall better, more reliable service, elsewhere for about the same or slightly more money.
Just my experiences and 2 cents.
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| Posted by ldcdc, 04-08-2005, 12:27 PM | | Thank you PointOne for explaining things further. We'll see what DIY has to comment on that and then we'll be able to draw some conclusions.
I think there was also the issue of customers trying to push their tickets (or draw attention to them) by using the forum.
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| Posted by PointOne, 04-08-2005, 01:22 PM | | That certainly is not a reason to close the whole forum.
IMO, they couldn't handle the heat from unhappy customers. There were a few customers there that 'said it like it was', and called them on their problems. After the forum was full of problem threads, the forum was taken offline. It appears they put it back online after they straightened out a majority of the problems that had previously been plaguing them, which was mostly downtime at their old datacenter.
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| Posted by Cahl, 04-08-2005, 01:42 PM | | Well not to state the obvious or anything, but that move was done 7 months ago, and the very reason we moved our boxes to the planet was because of network problems at the old datacenter. I can't really see how that affects our current network.
R'gds
Dean
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| Posted by PointOne, 04-08-2005, 01:54 PM | | The HSphere move to TP was not 7 months ago. It was 5 months ago.
It was the way in which DIY handled the downtime at the old datacenter. Support was not answering tickets on a 24 hour basis, and phone lines were not being answered. If DIY started having downtime for any reason today, what's to say the same thing would not happen again?
We're a bit OT topic here. The thread starter asked for help choosing a HSphere provider. I've stated my opinion and experience with 2 Hsphere providers I have used.
Last edited by PointOne; 04-08-2005 at 01:58 PM.
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| Posted by Cahl, 04-08-2005, 02:07 PM | | Barring any major problems? I may be missing something here.. however, if it's a "major problem" of course the fix isn't going to be minor. It's self explanatory, no?
The reason we removed/nulled the forum was precisely as we announced, and as ldcdc noted. The forum is not for support, it is for general community discussion. We reopened the forum 4 months ago after long discussion on the topic with our users.
Nonsense. I am sorry but lying isn't going to get you anywhere. Criticism is fine, but only when based on fact. The forum was kept online until long after the very last problem was ironed out in last years migration. I know this because it was MY decision to make sure that we kept that thread open, even when it was just going in circles.
As for your psoft comment:
If there was a bug in the hsphere CP, who would you suggest we report it to?
Every single hsphere host in the world has a close relationship with psoft. It's the nature of their support offering. Whilst I personally don't see eye to eye with many of psoft's techs and their approach to security, it's still an obvious method: Find bug - Report bug - fix bug.
R'gds
Dean
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| Posted by Cahl, 04-08-2005, 02:18 PM | | I apologise; 6 months and 7 days.
Move started: 10-02-2004, was when the first box was made live in the datacenter.
I do.
If we have downtime on any server, it's documented in 247; www.diy247.net and announced as such.
Yes, the old datacenter turned in to a stinker.. I agree. That's why we moved.
R'gds
Dean
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| Posted by PointOne, 04-08-2005, 02:32 PM | | Dean,
We'll just have to agree to disagree. I can respect your defense of DIY, since you work there. I wouldn't expect you to agree with me, that a potential client is better of elsewhere. It is just my opinion that DIY is not the best Hsphere provider available.
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