Merlin is Down - Page 2 - UK Web Hosting | Dedicated Server Windows and Linux VPS Forum

**jrw62_2000** · #21 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 12:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by flesso

Problems like this shouldn't be sent through the tech mailing list since it would be sent to everybody on the list and many might not even be on Merlin. People should be emailed through the billing system so that all customers on Merlin are notified.

This would notify the people who have accounts and pay the fees etc, but what about the people who run sites through resellers?? how would they be notified if you done it this way?

**jc8654** · #22 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 12:17

It's better to send it out to all of the tech people subscribed to the list even if it doesn't affect them. Most big companies do this. They have an IT support email list which goes out to all IT staff and anyone who subscribes. If the email doesn't affect them, they simply delete it but it at least means everyone is kept informed of any general problems.

If the tech-mailing list isn't going to be used for things like this, what's the point having it?

**jc8654** · #23 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 12:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by eUK-Nick

That is a good one. I will try & incorporate this. It was my idea to come up with a tech-maliing list. But have been unable to look into it due to paucity of time. I will try my best to use it judiciously from now on.

I think Nick, I mentioned it to Mark before you joined eUKhost but I do believe you implemented it!

Have a look on the forums. It's in a thread somewhere.

Anyway, I hope this issue gets resolved soon!

**flesso** · #24 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 12:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by jc8654

It's better to send it out to all of the tech people subscribed to the list even if it doesn't affect them. Most big companies do this. They have an IT support email list which goes out to all IT staff and anyone who subscribes. If the email doesn't affect them, they simply delete it but it at least means everyone is kept informed of any general problems.

If the tech-mailing list isn't going to be used for things like this, what's the point having it?

As I said, all customers on Merlin should be mass mailed from the billing area - that makes more sense than the mailing list.

**jc8654** · #25 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 12:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by flesso

As I said, all customers on Merlin should be mass mailed from the billing area - that makes more sense than the mailing list.

I still disagree with that. By sending the email out to all the tech people, even if you're not on Merlin and a problem arises and questions come onto the forums, it will allow you to answer questions. If they just emailed everyone who's on Merlin, some of them might be using email accounts which are down so you'll get the questions on the forum. Now agreed, that might still happen if you use the tech-list but at least you then have a wider body of people who are able to help should questions arise about it on the forum.

**MikeB** · #26 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 12:24

Hi Nick,

Thanks for you reply to my post, guess it's just unfortunate bad timing!

Quote:

Originally Posted by eUK-Nick

Changing hard-drives now. The server is expected back up online in about 45 minutes more.

But at least you do have a forum that is online, and support people who reply.

The server I was on at my old host had complete downtime for 3 consecutive days in mid December, and there still has not been any apology or official word to what happened.
All support tickets have gone unanswered, and the day the server came back online they took their forum offline, and it's still offline to this day... top service... not!

Anyway, good luck with getting merlin fixed

P.S. Is there a "service status" page where we can see if there are any known problems.
I know there is when logged into cPanel but that's not much use when you can't get in!

Cheers,
Mike

**eUK-Nick** · #27 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 12:29

Thats not the practise at EUKHost, We openly discuss the issues which are on-going.

**jc8654** · #28 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 12:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeB

Hi Nick,
But at least you do have a forum that is online, and support people who reply.

I entirely agree with you Mike. But eUKhost are always wanting to improve and I think the use of a tech-mailing list could be a very useful tool in keeping customers aware of any problems.

When I'm busy, I know I check my emails and if there is a problem, go straight onto livechat without checking the forums. So if I got an email going "There is a hard drive problem with Merlin" I would go, "Oh, I don't need to go onto livechat as support are already on it". Similarly, if it was a wider issue e.g. with VPS servers and nodes, it would be difficult to send emails to all the people from the billing system so sending it by the tech-mailing list would work. And I would guess people would rather have emails from one place, rather than numerous hence just using the tech-list, rather than the billing system.

**Eidolon** · #29 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 12:40

I wonder, is it possible to create an RSS feed for this forum. I've no idea about others but Thunderbird supports RSS feeds, and makes new items appear in a similar style as a new email. This might be one option, assuming all tech issues were posted to this specific forum.

**eUK-Nick** · #30 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 12:44

Merlin is up now. Sites will be up shortly too. The DNS is being worked on at the moment.

**Firejack** · #31 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 12:50

Is it just me. Or does this look like a rollback. The pages on my site working at the moment are out of date??

**eUK-Nick** · #32 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 12:53

Merlin is up & running with full functionality now.

Alex P got it done for us. He deserves a

**jc8654** · #33 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 12:54

Good to know it's sorted. It might be worth outlining what went wrong and also about how the tech-mailing list should be used it the future?

**eUK-Nick** · #34 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 12:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Firejack

Is it just me. Or does this look like a rollback. The pages on my site working at the moment are out of date??

Please check now. The site would be upto date. If it isnt please raise a ticket & we will have it sorted out.

**eUK-Nick** · #35 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 13:00

Just to summarise, the server went into R/O mode a few hours ago because of which had to run an FSCK. It was then put into single user mode & then repaired. We have also replaced the hard-drives now. The data is on a brand new set of HDD.

We will be monitoring it closely for the next few hours (that is more than the normal monitoring course) & see how its behaving.

**rhino** · #36 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 13:02

Both our websites on Merlin are still down?

**Firejack** · #37 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 13:05

Ticket raised.

**eUK-Nick** · #38 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 13:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Firejack

Ticket raised.

May I have the ticket number please?

**eUK-Nick** · #39 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 13:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhino

Both our websites on Merlin are still down?

Please create a ticket & give me the ticket number please.

**eUK-Nick** · #40 (**permalink**) 10-01-2008, 13:17

The data which has been uploaded at the moment is a little old. The newest data would be synced & would be online in the next few hours. This intermediate step was taken to avoid total downtime on the server.

Alex P is working on this along with his team. All the data is safe.