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Centova Cast license servers down, no control panel access or tune in links!




Posted by Ricky-GWS, 08-24-2013, 08:26 AM
Our Centova Cast panel is currently unusable due to licensing errors.

I am aware that Centova's servers hosting their client system had some issues and thats been ongoing for a week, but in the last 24 hours our Centova Cast is now unusable and their support system and forums are offline so we're stuck.

Just wondering if other Centova Cast users out there have any more information, as their original page explaining what was going on has been removed and replaced by a simple 'down for maintenance' page.

I presume somethings gone badly wrong but we shouldn't be left in this kind of position if their license server is down. I recall this happening with the main billing system that most use a few years ago.

Whats worse is that the license errors even stop the tune in links that Centova provide as 'quick links' from working too. So it literally affects 50%+ traffic as most customers use the quick links.


Hopefully Centova make some changes to ensure that this never happens again. Again, does any one else have any more of an idea about whats going on?

Posted by CW Mike, 08-24-2013, 09:04 AM
Sounds like a WHMCS callback home style issue. Good luck and let's hope they get back up. People depend on them now cast control is rubbish.

Posted by Stream101, 08-24-2013, 05:39 PM
We are down as well...

Posted by Stream101, 08-25-2013, 07:25 AM
Everything appears to be fixed now!

Posted by SeanK, 08-27-2013, 03:02 PM
There forums are gone just says " Nothing here..."

and I tried to recover my password and that didn't work. I haven't received a bill in a little while. Wonder what is going on with them.

Didn't something like this happen last year or the year before?

Posted by Prisma-Breck, 08-28-2013, 05:03 AM
Standard Operating Procedure.

Posted by bros, 08-28-2013, 10:10 PM
Their mail servers are down. My centova is down. Anyone know of a good alternative in case Centova goes completely belly up?

Posted by CW Mike, 08-28-2013, 10:12 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by bros
Their mail servers are down. My centova is down. Anyone know of a good alternative in case Centova goes completely belly up?
Well Centova are the best on the market, before them I used Cast-Control. They aren't the biggest any more but they are the next stable provider. Other than that you have the WHMSonic option. They've probably been targeted if their forums say "nothing here" and other bits are down. Hope they come to the public with an announcement, and I was thinking of re-activating my license soon.

Posted by Prisma-Breck, 08-28-2013, 11:33 PM
This seems to be a routine with Centova. I don't know what actually happens behind the scenes or why, but it's not the first time. A year or two ago their license servers went down and were down for a couple weeks. It caused everybodys license validations to fail, causing the software to stop functioning properly. A while later, the owner reappears and downplays it.

As much as I'd love a true alternative, there really isn't one. Like CW_Mike said, there's Cast-Control and WHMSonic, but I can only see my clients raging if I put them on that garbage. So, I struggle along with Centova and learn to deal with it on my own.

Their license servers seem to be up at the moment. What issues are you having?

Posted by bros, 08-28-2013, 11:42 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Prisma-Breck
This seems to be a routine with Centova. I don't know what actually happens behind the scenes or why, but it's not the first time. A year or two ago their license servers went down and were down for a couple weeks. It caused everybodys license validations to fail, causing the software to stop functioning properly. A while later, the owner reappears and downplays it.

As much as I'd love a true alternative, there really isn't one. Like CW_Mike said, there's Cast-Control and WHMSonic, but I can only see my clients raging if I put them on that garbage. So, I struggle along with Centova and learn to deal with it on my own.

Their license servers seem to be up at the moment. What issues are you having?
Damn. It isn't working for me.

I'm getting ServerControl(startup): Unable to access account for radio: Licensing error

Posted by Prisma-Breck, 08-28-2013, 11:54 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by bros
Damn. It isn't working for me.

I'm getting ServerControl(startup): Unable to access account for radio: Licensing error
If you login to the Centova site, do you have an active license key? Ours got cancelled randomly and I had to signup for another one. If it's active and you haven't changed the key, try refreshing it via command line;

/home/centovacast/system/runascc/runascc exec ccmanage reissuelicense newhostname.com

Obviously newhostname.com needs to really be your new hostname.

Posted by SeanK, 08-29-2013, 01:40 PM
WHMSonic is launching a standalone product, they tell me @ the end of the month which is now, Its called http://www.sonicpanel.com/ but there web site hasn't been updated so no idea if that time line is stil going to hold true.

Posted by Prisma-Breck, 08-29-2013, 03:07 PM
In the control panel market, I don't believe anything until I see it.

Posted by mARCKo81, 08-29-2013, 06:48 PM
hi, i have the same problem, 3hours down

Posted by Stream101, 08-29-2013, 07:17 PM
Guys, they've been back up since Sunday.

Posted by mARCKo81, 08-30-2013, 09:29 AM
Centova is committing an abuse big for his irresponsibility, I have more than 15 hours without being able to enter the panel generating a big damage to my customers. according to them because they lost data some customers showing not be responsible in this.

Posted by chrismfz, 08-31-2013, 03:43 PM
Forums are still down. A week+ now.

No explanation, no announcement, no any mail warning.
Except that, if there is a reason to shut the forums down, at least remove the links from the rest of the site and the subdomain.

What are they doing ?

Posted by Ricky-GWS, 08-31-2013, 05:14 PM
Yes we've been back up a while now - restarting the centova daemon fixed it for us.

Not ideal though to say the least. Hopefully they make changes to prevent this from happening again.

Posted by SeanK, 08-31-2013, 08:14 PM
I still can't recover my password, it will not email me .. I tired emailing them with an email address i have on file and no response.

I am temped to call Steve at 1 (778) 785-4891 which is listed on there site

Posted by thedediguy, 08-31-2013, 10:10 PM
Never had issues when they were down, no problems at all with V3 on a seperate server and all the slaves were fine

Posted by Yahav, 09-01-2013, 12:28 PM
Same here, STILL DOWN.
our panel is inactive for more then a week now.
I can't login to Centova Billing Panel to regenerate the license, Can't recover my password (email not found!? I've used this email address in the account creation 100%)
Can't access their helpdesk.

I sent a PM on their forums just liked they asked two weeks ago,
now the forums are down so i emailed them.
i got one reply said they will look into this or something, and since then no answer.

well..one word:
Responsibility!

Posted by FastServ, 09-02-2013, 10:32 AM
We had one of 4 licenses lost and still not restored, and now again today it appears their whole licensing/support system is down.

Posted by jdownj, 09-02-2013, 11:41 AM
I have restarted the service on 2 of our servers, and it appears to be working... but now have another error that I'd really love to ask support about...

Posted by EVSPORTUGAL, 09-02-2013, 03:27 PM
I am from Saturday to the license canceled
Today I bought another license
and says that failure to pay

What about this?

Posted by FastServ, 09-02-2013, 04:51 PM
Seems to me their main license/billing DB keeps crashing or otherwise getting hosed. At the same time I was getting license errors their site was complaining of 'too many mysql connections'...

Posted by EVSPORTUGAL, 09-02-2013, 04:58 PM
Status: Provisioning
Package: Centova Cast Linux
Signup Date: Apr 11, 2013
Signup IP:

Posted by Dan_EZPZ, 09-02-2013, 06:31 PM
Changing the date on your server then running a license refresh seems to be a temporarily fix for anyone having issues.

Posted by EVSPORTUGAL, 09-02-2013, 07:06 PM
already responded
say they have lost everything and want the ID's of the payments made ​​by paypal from previous months.

I have sent now we wait.
Let's see how many more hours will it take.

If I were just to my customers
surely they have had no.

Posted by Yahav, 09-03-2013, 12:48 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by EVSPORTUGAL
already responded
say they have lost everything and want the ID's of the payments made ​​by paypal from previous months.

I have sent now we wait.
Let's see how many more hours will it take.

If I were just to my customers
surely they have had no.
They told me the same, 5 days ago.
i can't understand how can they be so irresponsible when dealing with people businesses.

Posted by mgunther, 09-03-2013, 11:22 AM
My centova cast servers are still not working!
Any news?

Posted by chrismfz, 09-03-2013, 02:54 PM
It's getting worse...
Index gone.

Web Site Temporarily Unavailable
This web site is temporarily unavailable; please try again later. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Administrator: If you are the administrator of this web site, please investigate the following issue: Database connection failed: Could not connect to database: Access denied for user 'centova_com'@'192.95.20.126' (using password: YES)

Posted by Prisma-Breck, 09-03-2013, 02:57 PM
You can still get in via:

https://secure.centova.com/cp/login/index.php

On that note, I have a license key that I'm not going to be using for the month. As Centova isn't responding, I had to do a whole bunch of testing and find a workaround to a big bug that we found. We setup a separate server with a fresh copy of Centova on it for testing. Do one of you guys who can't get a license want mine? It's valid for almost 4 more weeks. I used it maybe 3 days. First person to respond gets it

Posted by SeanK, 09-03-2013, 06:33 PM
This isn't the first time they have has issues, someone said some legal issues caused them to go down in the past.

They just released a new version of the control panel and seem to be actively patching it working on improving it so it blows my mind that its in the current state that it is with zero communication.

Its time for me to move on to another product before my customers leave for someone else.

Posted by SeanK, 09-03-2013, 09:38 PM
it looks like there site is back up

Posted by patrickheinz, 09-04-2013, 12:48 PM
Guys,

It seems like a database restore from a long time ago into the centova.com system.

If you dont have access to administrative area, try again with old password.

We have to login with old credentials, and buy another license for use on our servers.

Good luck!

Posted by mgunther, 09-04-2013, 01:29 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by patrickheinz
Guys,

It seems like a database restore from a long time ago into the centova.com system.

If you dont have access to administrative area, try again with old password.

We have to login with old credentials, and buy another license for use on our servers.

Good luck!
I tried this...
It works!

I found my Centova Cast license in "provisioning" status.
That way it will not enable my server.
Then, I tried to order a new one, paying through PayPal.
This way, Centova system issued a new license to my server.
Now, it is up and running.

I'm also unable to receive e-mails from Centova.
My mail server complains a wrong hello format and rejects all messages from Centova mail server.

Hope this will help...

[]'s

Márcio

Posted by Hottweelz, 09-08-2013, 10:30 AM
Anyone still having issues? my CUSTOMERS are LIVID. Licensing Error and the site seems to be down

Posted by Stream101, 09-08-2013, 10:35 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hottweelz
Anyone still having issues? my CUSTOMERS are LIVID. Licensing Error and the site seems to be down
Have you considered sending in a ticket? https://secure.centova.com/cp/login/index.php

We were only down for about 1 day and they got our stuff up and running after a ticket was put in.

Also check this out: http://forums.centova.com/index.php?topic=2768.0

Posted by Hottweelz, 09-08-2013, 10:36 AM
Thanks ..the main website is DOWN so I didn't consider the ticket system

Posted by Hottweelz, 09-08-2013, 10:37 AM
Apologies, the ticket system on the link you gave me is also down

Posted by Stream101, 09-08-2013, 10:38 AM
Hmm...It is? I just logged in, thats where I got the link.

Posted by Hottweelz, 09-08-2013, 10:58 AM
i successfully logged in, but try hitting refresh... there's issues.
Quote:
Web Site Temporarily Unavailable
This web site is temporarily unavailable; please try again later. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Administrator: If you are the administrator of this web site, please investigate the following issue: Database connection failed: Could not connect to database: Connection timed out

Posted by Ricky-GWS, 09-08-2013, 10:59 AM
I have seen that error on their site quite a few times when trying to login.

Posted by Hottweelz, 09-08-2013, 11:04 AM
WHen I run my normal cron fix, manually, I'm getting:
Quote:
[DBG] #8 {main}
Result: ERROR Licensing error
also I see
Quote:
[DBG] Licensing error at /usr/local/centovacast/system/class_RPCDaemonClient.php:1055

Posted by mARCKo81, 09-08-2013, 11:17 AM
the error persists, I have a week without being able to access my panel. I made a claim on paypal and they refunded the payment with a note of the most ridiculous

****
This really isn't accurate; the licenses were most certainly still active on our end. I have cancelled them now, however, and am refunding the payments as we did have a temporary service outage over which clients are welcome to leave if they choose to.
****

according to them the license is still active but this being a false excuse.

Posted by Hottweelz, 09-08-2013, 12:34 PM
Believe it or not, this has been YEARS of the same issues with Centova... yet like sheep, we all stay.

Posted by Stream101, 09-08-2013, 01:03 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hottweelz
Believe it or not, this has been YEARS of the same issues with Centova... yet like sheep, we all stay.
Very true. I don't believe them anymore when the same old excuse "it wont happen again." Problem is, it truly is the best panel around.

Posted by Hottweelz, 09-08-2013, 01:05 PM
I've told my staff the exact same thing,,, its the "best" out there, but its "cr*p" at the same time.

Since the 2.2 days, 3.0 has equally let me down, I'm learning about Airtime From Sourcefabric now.

Posted by Stream101, 09-08-2013, 01:07 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hottweelz
I've told my staff the exact same thing,,, its the "best" out there, but its "cr*p" at the same time.

Since the 2.2 days, 3.0 has equally let me down, I'm learning about Airtime From Sourcefabric now.

Airtime is AWESOME! Problem is, you can just move all your clients over to it, they would flip out!

Posted by Hottweelz, 09-08-2013, 01:12 PM
Learning curve I'm sure... I (thankfully, have a very dedicated, and understanging, high paying customer) that just showed me this and basically said "Set it up, I'll test it"

I try to be very transparent with my customers about the Centova issues... its been "That" long of a time span suffering with Centova.

Remember back in the day when we thought Steve literally skipped town?

One day Centova will absolutely dissappear and HUNDREDS of hosts will be asking "Why?!"

Posted by Stream101, 09-08-2013, 01:15 PM
Exactly. Just wait until someone cracks the whole code because of these issues. It will be a LOYAL, long-time paying customer that does it. I've contemplated it many times, just for this reason...

Posted by Hottweelz, 09-08-2013, 02:00 PM
Site still down, licensing server still down.

One of my customers alerted our support staff at 9am EST, no one else is experiencing this today?! Or is it cuz its sunday?

I can't possibly be alone here, otherwise I second-guess our staff.

Posted by Hottweelz, 09-08-2013, 02:07 PM
I managed to get a support ticket in, let's see what they say

Posted by Prisma-Breck, 09-08-2013, 02:52 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stream101
Exactly. Just wait until someone cracks the whole code because of these issues. It will be a LOYAL, long-time paying customer that does it. I've contemplated it many times, just for this reason...
You are exactly right.

Posted by Prisma-Breck, 09-08-2013, 02:59 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hottweelz
Site still down, licensing server still down.

One of my customers alerted our support staff at 9am EST, no one else is experiencing this today?! Or is it cuz its sunday?

I can't possibly be alone here, otherwise I second-guess our staff.
I have had a ticket open for well over a week. Make that almost two. You won't get a response until he gets back and blames this all on his support staff again.

I don't think the license servers are down. My license are currently all still up and I'm not having any issues. I can also purchase licenses and get them approved. Are you guys not able to get licenses issued or what?

Posted by Stream101, 09-08-2013, 03:19 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Prisma-Breck
I have had a ticket open for well over a week. Make that almost two. You won't get a response until he gets back and blames this all on his support staff again.

I don't think the license servers are down. My license are currently all still up and I'm not having any issues. I can also purchase licenses and get them approved. Are you guys not able to get licenses issued or what?
I dont think they are down either. I have had no issues since the first day. I've actually talked back and forth with Steve over the past 2 weeks.

Posted by Prisma-Breck, 09-08-2013, 03:21 PM
I have one owned license and a few leased licenses. The leased licenses got cancelled and I had to resubscribe. That's the only real issue that I had. Somebody mentioned Centova losing their database and having to roll back, so I'm assuming it was related to that. Maybe not, just a wild guess.

We should all pitch in to hire a developer and get a replacement coded. I've started this project twice now but never went through with it. It's just hard to justify the costs to do it correctly.

Posted by lw-host, 09-08-2013, 03:27 PM
I had nothing but trouble with centova cast when i used it so i switched to whmsonic and had no problems at all.

Posted by Prisma-Breck, 09-08-2013, 03:28 PM
I'd switch if it were anything to compare to Centova. It's not that Centova is epic, but my clients just won't accept WHMSonic I don't think. The status suck, AutoDJ sucks, etc.

Posted by lw-host, 09-08-2013, 03:30 PM
I can see if you resell whmsonic is not much good for that.

Posted by SeanK, 09-08-2013, 05:37 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hottweelz
Believe it or not, this has been YEARS of the same issues with Centova... yet like sheep, we all stay.
I left, setting up whmsonic as we speak. A major client requested it over centova

I think the worst thing about all the issues is Centova hasn't released a statement saying why they are having ongoing issues like this.

Posted by Hottweelz, 09-08-2013, 09:58 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by SeanK
I left, setting up whmsonic as we speak. A major client requested it over centova

I think the worst thing about all the issues is Centova hasn't released a statement saying why they are having ongoing issues like this.
I'm looking at whmsonic now

Posted by HostXNow, 09-09-2013, 02:55 AM
It didn't affect our licenses. I guess not everyone was affected by it.

Posted by SeanK, 09-09-2013, 02:28 PM
The owner of Centova posted this on their site.. I am still leaving as if I don't my customers will leave me


Quote:
Apologies for the inconvenience; this was a transitional issue and web site is back up now. We will try to avoid any further hiccups as we continue our migration over the next few days. The secure server (billing/helpdesk) has already been migrated, though, and should be stable and reliable in its new home now.

I will likely post a more detailed explanation of what happened once the dust settles but in a nutshell, I made a horrible, horrible choice to put my trust in a datacenter that seemed ideal, but which I later found out was seemingly unfit to be in business at all, and which repeatedly screwed us in several different ways over the course of a 2 week period. I (and unfortunately our clients by extension) am now paying the price for my mistake.

The current situation is that we are migrating all of our services to a new pair of geographically-disparate, well-reviewed datacenters, and will be finalizing that transition over the next couple of days. After that, there should be no further unpleasant "surprises".

Again, my deepest apologies to everyone who has been affected by these licensing issues. Please know that I am every bit as angry and frustrated by the situation as you all must be, and that the steps we're taking now in migrating to multiple datacenters for redundancy are intended to prevent anything like this from ever happening again.

http://forums.centova.com/index.php?...sg8008#msg8008

Posted by Prisma-Breck, 09-09-2013, 02:31 PM
That's pretty funny. I knew two things would very likely come from this:

1) Centova (Steve), would return.
2) Someone else would be at fault.

Glad he got out of jail earlier this time.

Posted by shoutstream, 09-13-2013, 04:38 AM
Seems their licence issue is happening again :/
also a bug to be aware of i deleted one account last night and it started deleting them all not only do i have licence error i now have client base lost and cant create the accounts

Posted by MyITGuy, 09-13-2013, 12:09 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by SeanK
The owner of Centova posted this on their site.. I am still leaving as if I don't my customers will leave me





http://forums.centova.com/index.php?...sg8008#msg8008
Wonder if they were a customer of VolumeDrive (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showth...hp?t=1296858)?



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