Merlin is Down

[Rambo]

i have cut them some slack i have had 7 months of crap with this host and you think this is one of the best hosts out there well thats a matter of opinion.i had issues the other day and was told the hdd would replaced so why didnt no one state my website would be knackered for days because of it.i have members pay donations to help get a website up and running now i look a twat seeing i picked a host thats down more than its up.if telling members of eukhost a time scale when it will be done isnt spinning them a bunch of cobblers knowing fine well it aint gonna be done then then what is.

[megaboost]

Originally Posted by eUK-Nick

As per our live chat conversation, I had explained the fact that the sites are all being restored one by one to the newest data. This is done by the server automatically. There is no way we can skip the listing or force it manually, especially just after an FSCK.

I would request you to be a little more patient.

Are you having a joke or something.....this has been ongoing since yesterday.

So thats near enough 2 days with sites not working/functioning properly..... just how patient do you expect people to be?

If a business customer has been stated that he will get 100% uptime and he obviously hasn't, then what chance do the rest of us non-business customers stand?

I'm getting completely fed up of this now, especially when you're telling me that it gets done automatically..... That may be the case but explain the real truth to people, don't get fobbing them off all day long. How about explain to people the real length of time we are going to have to wait.

I have a friend who is also with EukHost and he was telling me that he's been told that you're probably looking at some time in the morning now for full restoration and if that is the case then this problem will be running into a 3rd day on & off.

Now! good customer service would think of the customer and offer them some sort of compensation for their waiting around for what seems like forever! Not once has anyone from EukHost offered me anything in way of compensation. I'm not looking for money back but it would be nice for a company to say "Look! you know what, these guys need something for all this downtime......maybe we can tally up all the downtime and add it the customers length of time with us and prolong the service so they get it a bit longer"

I really think that today has been a very Black & Dark day for Euk...... Lets hope this is resolved soon.

[szirtest]

Originally Posted by megaboost

If a business customer has been stated that he will get 100% uptime and he obviously hasn't, then what chance do the rest of us non-business customers stand?

Thats not the case as it turns out.
Well problem was I wasn't put on the business servers in the first case - its a new account and they've promptly fixed this now so fair play to them for sorting it out pronto.

[megaboost]

Originally Posted by szirtest

Well problem was I wasn't put on the business servers in the first case

Hopefully this wasn't a mistake on their part?

Seems you're luckier than most of us......I'm still waiting

[eUK-Nick]

Originally Posted by Rambo

whats happend to the 4 hours nick think you need to crawl back under your rock as your digging yourself a very deep hole and the more you post the bigger it gets.i spoke to marcus for well over an hour today on live chat and atleast he can have the nerve to tell me its taken over 5 hours to 40% of the restoration and that was at 5pm ish so in my eyes another 60% wont be done in under an hour going by your clock.think the biggest problem nick is your constant lying of the time capacity the job was gonna take.its gonna be well after 10pm tonight guys before your website is fully restored so i'd like to aploigise on behalf on eukhost for your troubles seeing nick seems to not the bottle to tell the paying customers of eukhost the truth.

Simon,

FSCK is something for which predicting the most accurate time limit is not possible. FSCK is the process which checks & repairs the file system on the server. It checks for all bad & broken links, repairs them & then joins them again.

The estimate I gave was based on the time it took for the initial period of FSCK which was happening fairly quickly. However, if the bad sectors or links are more in proportion in the later half of the process, then the time I gave was always going to be less.

Even as I speak to you the FSCK is about 60%. Marcus just spoke to you on the phone. Predicting an exact time frame for FSCK is not possible Simon. There have been instances where FSCl's have gone on for almost 40 hours. I am not saying its going to take that long for us. I just wanted to give an anecdote.

There never has, and never will be an intention to dupe or lie to customers. EUK has not done that before & will not do it in the future too. I hope I have made myself & our position clear on this.

[szirtest]

Originally Posted by megaboost

Hopefully this wasn't a mistake on their part?

Seems you're luckier than most of us......I'm still waiting

Luckily the site wasn't live yet and I have an offsite mirror so I'm going to upload it myself, saves waiting for the disk recovery.

I don't know anything about disk recovery - but I guess the problem here is controlling expectations. You know what its like with computer problems - they can take longer than planned to fix. I guess if eUK had been more pessimistic in their appraisal of the time frame you probably wouldn't be so annoyed.

Hope you get sorted soon.

[joots]

This is pretty grim as i have a few sites on merlin, and they ain't available today. But as they say you get what you pay for (if you want super reliablity u have to pay for it, and look at servers with super failover setups).

For the price you pay (and good things like live chat), i think you have to live with the fact that now and again '$hit' happens.

Or maybe i'm getting soft in my old age (having experienced many hosts, with whom i've always had the odd outage), and these never seem to be reflected in the 99.9X % uptime.

However it is important that when things like this happen, we just get regular updates on what is happening. (like what has happened to some extent in this forum). For my sins i've worked in IT and whenever business critical systems have gone down, i've always insisted that my techies update the situation in central place (the equivalent of this forum), at predefined intervals. (i.e. hourly or every 45mins, and ensure ppl are aware of this). Things do change but much of the frustrations can be mitigated by being a bit honest (i.e. we said something earlier, but now theres a few more problems we've discovered) and let ppl know when they can recieve an update.

From experience people tend to be a calmer with this approach.

Just a thought! touch wood things will be ok soon.

[megaboost]

Originally Posted by szirtest

Luckily the site wasn't live yet and I have an offsite mirror so I'm going to upload it myself, saves waiting for the disk recovery.

I don't know anything about disk recovery - but I guess the problem here is controlling expectations. You know what its like with computer problems - they can take longer than planned to fix. I guess if eUK had been more pessimistic in their appraisal of the time frame you probably wouldn't be so annoyed.

Hope you get sorted soon.

I don't dispute that problems take time but when people give you a time you expect it to be done on that time or around about that time.....when I was told I would have my site restored within 25mins by Live Support then you expect it to be done in 25 mins or there about, not hours & hours later and still be waiting.

Seems to me the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

[jc8654]

Originally Posted by Rambo

i have cut them some slack i have had 7 months of crap with this host and you think this is one of the best hosts out there well thats a matter of opinion.

I had a shared hosting plan with them for 2 years with no downtime on it. I think that speaks for itself. And because of that, I've now upgraded to a VPS with them.

And it could be really unfortunate with what's gone on. Even when you've had problems, I'm guessing they've been resolved pretty quickly? I know some hosts who take over 12 hours just to respond to basic level queries. With eUKhost you get 24x7 support with fast fixes as soon as they can. In this situation, they've initiated what they have to on their side and it's now just about waiting for the server to finish checking everything. There's not exactly anything more support can do to hurry that up.

[megaboost]

Originally Posted by joots

This is pretty grim as i have a few sites on merlin, and they ain't available today. But as they say you get what you pay for (if you want super reliablity u have to pay for it, and look at servers with super failover setups).

For the price you pay (and good things like live chat), i think you have to live with the fact that now and again '$hit' happens.

Or maybe i'm getting soft in my old age (having experienced many hosts, with whom i've always had the odd outage), and these never seem to be reflected in the 99.9X % uptime.

However it is important that when things like this happen, we just get regular updates on what is happening. (like what has happened to some extent in this forum). For my sins i've worked in IT and whenever business critical systems have gone down, i've always insisted that my techies update the situation in central place (the equivalent of this forum), at predefined intervals. (i.e. hourly or every 45mins, and ensure ppl are aware of this). Things do change but much of the frustrations can be mitigated by being a bit honest (i.e. we said something earlier, but now theres a few more problems we've discovered) and let ppl know when they can recieve an update.

From experience people tend to be a calmer with this approach.

Just a thought! touch wood things will be ok soon.

EUK please read this post as it makes a lot of sense

Thanks for this post but very much doubt we'll be updated in intervals though......only get a message on here when we say something.

Yeah I take on board that .:SH!T:. Happens......and u get what u pay 4

[jc8654]

Originally Posted by megaboost

Now! good customer service would think of the customer and offer them some sort of compensation for their waiting around for what seems like forever! Not once has anyone from EukHost offered me anything in way of compensation. I'm not looking for money back but it would be nice for a company to say "Look! you know what, these guys need something for all this downtime......maybe we can tally up all the downtime and add it the customers length of time with us and prolong the service so they get it a bit longer"

I'm guessing they MIGHT consider this but they won't do it until after the server is back up. It would be a bit pointless compensating you for a length of time which has been a guess for how long the service has been down.

And regarding the problem, if it is hard-drive based, then I'm guessing they would be hoping that the drive would last to the weekend which is when most sites get used the least.

[jc8654]

Originally Posted by megaboost

EUK please read this post as it makes a lot of sense

Thanks for this post but very much doubt we'll be updated in intervals though......only get a message on here when we say something.

I'm going to talk to both Mark and Nick about this as I think it could be something very beneficial to eUKhost improving their customer service. As said, you can't prevent downtime because of hardware failure but if people know what's going on, they are more understanding.

[Mallie]

So fortunately my sites aint live yet, but the data is all still old. My main issue is emails.

I was using IMAP4, and have subsequently lost all email data... I thought to switch to POP3 but that has just caused more problems. Will email be replayed?

[jc8654]

I would think email will have been backed up. You'll have to wait for a definite yes or no from someone from support though. Livechat might be the quickest way to get that.

[joots]

Originally Posted by jc8654

I'm going to talk to both Mark and Nick about this as I think it could be something very beneficial to eUKhost improving their customer service. As said, you can't prevent downtime because of hardware failure but if people know what's going on, they are more understanding.

As i said the regular updates are good in situations like these. I had to implement processes like this in big companies with ppl all over the place, and its simple and works. From a business perspective it has the following benefits:

1) once the problem is identified, the majority of people who are concerned know whats going on, so you don't get hoards of people clogging up the support desks with requests for updates etc.
2) EUK is lucky in that its got things like this forum and strong community of users (99% of other hosts don't) so it can act as a good focal point for when things go belly up.

Also, when accounts are created, as well as the usual account details, u may want to introduce new customers to this forum as first step in the support cycle. i.e. if the site is down check the service status in forum X, for any server wide probs.

Getting the email distribution list sorted would reinforce updating ppl on progress, and hence reduce frustration, which leads to pi$$ed of customers, which leads to customers looking elsewhere.

Overall, setting up a simple process with clear SLA's in terms of updating ppl, goes a long way in terms of calming down the masses, and lets the support guys focus on fixing the problems.

Cheers

D

[eUKhost.com]

All websites on Merlin have now started resolving from the secondary drive. We are sorting problems with the primary drive and we will restore data of the primary drive on a new drive once we are able to repair the troubled primary drive.

Everything should be back to normal on Merlin before tomorrow morning.

[megaboost]

Thanks for keeping us up-to-date

[jrw62_2000]

Originally Posted by megaboost

EUK please read this post as it makes a lot of sense

Thanks for this post but very much doubt we'll be updated in intervals though......only get a message on here when we say something.

Yeah I take on board that .:SH!T:. Happens......and u get what u pay 4

Do you have some sort of problem with EUK? Demanding compensation for downtime that has been caused by a hardware failure. They can't off you anything until they know the full extend of the downtime that has been experienced.

I know what sort of problems they are having as i work in IT and hard drives can fail at anytime. you can't predict when it will happen, you can't predict how long it will take to fix. The 4 hours fix time that Nick gave would be a first estimate. Also he would not be the person fixing the server. He can only pass on information when he is given it by the engineers. If he isn't given this information he can't pass it on, hence he will not pass on false information.

Comparing EUK with my last host, EUK is by far the best. my previous host had loads more downtime that i have experienced in the last week with EUK. I had attempted to get support off them and got nothing sent in support tickets and never had any reply. they didn't have a forum or live chat. everything that EUK does have. At least someone from EUK has been on here and giving as much information as he can on the situation and not just left everyone in the dark.

Give EUK some massive slack. From reading previous posts and other threads Merlin is a shared server and does get heavily loaded. Hard drives can wear out quicker when they are used continuosly. They have had a couple of problems previously which they fixed with RAM & CPU issues. Now they have fixed their HDD issue and all should better. Just takes time for data restoration from the failing HDD to the new one. Failing HDDs are always slower to read than ones that are fully heathly.

I think i have got my point across and hope this goes someway to help clear up any confusion anyone was having.

My rant is now over for now.

[AlexP]

Thanks for your patience and understanding, we have attached new drive on server and restored latest data from old drive to new drive of all accounts.

[megaboost]

Originally Posted by jrw62_2000

Do you have some sort of problem with EUK? [No just the lack of service & understanding at times]Demanding [Who's demanding? read my post properly] compensation for downtime that has been caused by a hardware failure. They can't off you anything[Say again!] until they know the full extend of the downtime that has been experienced. [They did know, roughly and should've kept people informed on a more professional basis]

I know what sort of problems they are having as i work in IT[Good for you, you get paid loads then...and what makes you think I don't work in IT?] and hard drives can fail at anytime[You don't say...like that hadn't occured to me]. you can't predict when it will happen, you can't predict how long it will take to fix. The 4 hours fix time that Nick gave would be a first estimate[Well then he should have used the word estimate]. Also he would not be the person fixing the server. He can only pass on information when he is given it by the engineers[Don't you mean Technicians....engineers is so old a statement these days]. If he isn't given this information he can't pass it on, hence he will not pass on false information.

Comparing EUK with my last host, EUK is by far the best[How do you know that until you have tried the rest?]. my previous host had loads more downtime that i have experienced in the last week with EUK[So you kinda know how I feel then over the past 2 days?]. I had attempted to get support off them and got nothing sent in support tickets and never had any reply. they didn't have a forum or live chat[Maybe then you should've looked into that first]. everything that EUK does have. At least someone from EUK has been on here and giving as much information as he can on the situation and not just left everyone in the dark.[Obviously you use live chat a lot then..lol]

Give EUK some massive slack[You sure you don't work for them cuz sounds like you do?]. From reading previous posts and other threads Merlin is a shared server[Hmm yeah I know] and does get heavily loaded. Hard drives can wear out[did you already mention something along these lines above?] quicker when they are used continuosly. They have had a couple of problems previously which they fixed with RAM & CPU issues[and was that over a 2 day period like this one?]. Now they have fixed their HDD issue and all should better. Just takes time for data restoration from the failing HDD to the new one. Failing HDDs are always slower to read than ones that are fully heathly.

I think i have got my point across[and your point is exactly?] and hope this goes someway to help clear up any confusion anyone was having.[Loads of confusion until Euk decided to take heed of the earlier post from a fellow IT guy...oops! Technician]

My rant is now over for now.[well thank the lord for that cuz I was gettin a migrane!]

My point is that I have payed 2 years service so far and this second stretch is nothing more than appauling since the migration took place (just my opinion)

You pay for what you get......blah de blah! but I still expect to be able to use what I pay for.

Anyway Everything seems to be running fine so far......if a little slow but just in case I forgot myself.....this is a shared server!