5ite is down for more than 24 hours

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Posted by connac, 07-23-2013, 11:46 AM
VPS 5ite is down since more than 24 hours. No communication from their side, only a quick response that their germandy node was having technical problems. Since then, nothing.

For your background information, 2 highly popular webshops I designed are hosted at 5ite. They belong to 2 businesses that have put a lot of effort in building a strong reputation online. They paid hard cash for the design and the promotion of their shops. They hired employees to process orders and take care of logistics.

One of them is actually a market leader in the niche products they sell (barber equipment) and pay large amounts of money for google ad campaigns to attract customers to their shop.

On top of that, yet another customer is depending solely from his sales his website has generated, hosted at 5ite.

Yesterday, out of a sudden, I received some phone calls from some of these customers informing me that their sites are down and that they cannot receive nor send any email.
I immediately consulted the 5ite control panel as they tend to present all known technical issues and outages on a particular page. No luck. The server state was confirmed offline according to the control panel and a reboot was impossible. I submitted a total of 5 tickets asking for more information, at one point I received the following message:

Our germany node in which your vps located is currently having technical problem.
We're still restoring the VPS from our backup, unfortunately there is no ETA for this restoration.
However we will update you asap.

It has been more than 24 hours since, and I received no update whatsoever.

2 businesses are left with no sales channel and no way to communicate with their existing customers. The damage inflicted by this on their reputation is enormous; the shop has been offline for its second day now without any notice and I dont have any clue if it will reappear or not. No communication whatsoever from 5ite, they have been professionally ignoring all my emails requesting for an update.

I have no idea if all data will be retrieved, but I am starting to feel upfront what will probably happen. Lets hope for the best.

I am worried for my customers more than I am worried for myself. My own reputation has been crushed anyway, I dont know if I can repair this afterwards.

More than anything I am disgusted by the lack of communication. They dont even try to reassure you, they just ignore you and hope you will give up. They really dont care at all about their customers, you are worth nothing to them when push comes to shove.

As a warning to all of the community in here: dont use 5ite, dont trust them, and dont buy into their sham 99% uptime horsesh**.
Posted by LankapartnerHost, 07-23-2013, 11:54 AM
If they are much Important sites & large investing, they should invest for dedicated server as well.
Posted by Jeff Bee, 07-23-2013, 12:36 PM
I would try calling them instead, it's much more difficult to ignore you if you're on the phone with them.
Posted by jaypeesmith, 07-23-2013, 01:51 PM
Do you have backups of the customers' data/sites. If so, wouldn't it be possible to get them up and running on a different VPS, in case things like this happen and you can't afford to wait?
Posted by connac, 07-23-2013, 04:22 PM
I did propose to move to a dedicated solution to my customers, but you know how it goes : if it ain't broke, don't fix it. They were quite afraid of the whole process in moving from one provider to another. They started small so a VPS seemed perfect back then. Man do I wish I had persevered.

Calling them is not an option. I could not manage to find one phone number.

I do have a backup locally which is about one year old. My server was managed, including redundant daily backups (I thought) so I was not really worried and did not automatically create backups regularly.

I still did not receive any answer. I feel betrayed and I am hopeless about my data. I think it is lost and they don't have the courage to just say so. They prefer to ignore. What can I do more ??
Posted by PeanutHosting, 07-23-2013, 04:39 PM
Connac, Sorry to hear about the situation i hope gets resolved sharpish!
Posted by connac, 07-23-2013, 04:43 PM
Still no news and no response from their side.
DO you have any idea about what can be done to at least receive a response ?
This is their website: www 5ite com
Posted by connac, 07-23-2013, 04:50 PM
Can it be a money issue? I mean, could it be they are thrown out of the German datacenter because they couldn't pay their fees or something?

I find it difficult to think a technical problem would take so long to be resolved, especially if they have backups.
Posted by PeanutHosting, 07-23-2013, 04:56 PM
Hrm,

Their website is online, i can only assume you have tried ticket & emailing have you tried the contact info on the whois ?

Quote:

http://www.whois.com/whois/5ite.com

Posted by connac, 07-23-2013, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeanutHosting

Hrm,

Their website is online, i can only assume you have tried ticket & emailing have you tried the contact info on the whois ?

Yes I know it is online, which is even more frustrating. It's their german servers who are affected apparently. I submitted several tickets, the only respons I received was that their german nodes were having some technical difficulties and that there is no ETA (estimated time to what?) on that. Which in fact means I cannot do anything about this.

Thanks for the tip, I will try to call the number in the whois data
Posted by PeanutHosting, 07-23-2013, 05:09 PM
Other than that not a lot to chase up, maybe find out which DC they use or whom they resell from and see if they can tell you anything.

Sadly i do not know a lot about them so i can give great assistance on this one.
Posted by connac, 07-23-2013, 05:25 PM
Accoridng to their site, this is the German datacenter they are using:
www hetzner de
Posted by techjr, 07-23-2013, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by connac

Can it be a money issue? I mean, could it be they are thrown out of the German datacenter because they couldn't pay their fees or something?

I find it difficult to think a technical problem would take so long to be resolved, especially if they have backups.

There have been hosts that have taken 70+ hours to recover from node failures. I don't see them claiming to take backups and all backups can be taken from the solusvm panel I believe. If they should have backups for their clients so should the OP for their own clients too.

The outage is certainly unfortunate and I hope no one has to experience an outage ever but end users need recovery plans too.

What certainly seems odd to me though is their footer area links to a top 10 website all linking to high paying affiliate programs in the top 10 list. Why anyone would link directly to the competition on their own site is beyond my comprehension. What's even worse is their twitter page and announcement page don't mention anything regarding the issue.
Posted by connac, 07-23-2013, 05:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by techjr

There have been hosts that have taken 70+ hours to recover from node failures. I don't see them claiming to take backups and all backups can be taken from the solusvm panel I believe. If they should have backups for their clients so should the OP for their own clients too.

The outage is certainly unfortunate and I hope no one has to experience an outage ever but end users need recovery plans too.

What certainly seems odd to me though is their footer area links to a top 10 website all linking to high paying affiliate programs in the top 10 list. Why anyone would link directly to the competition on their own site is beyond my comprehension. What's even worse is their twitter page and announcement page don't mention anything regarding the issue. Their server status certainly shows an issue though.

Exactly. Their twitter account has not been updated since somewhere in 2012. I suspect they run a bunch of hosting companies under different names.
Posted by connac, 07-23-2013, 06:47 PM
I received a reply after I told them I would share my story on the major webhosting boards on the net:
-----------------------------------------------
Hi,

We're still trying to restore the VPS from our backup, unfortunately there is some issue with restoration process and no ETA for this.
However we will update you asap. We're sorry for this incovinience. Thank you.

Regards,
5ite Support
-----------------------------------------------

Not really a reassuring message but it's better than nothing isn't it?
Posted by Actual, 07-25-2013, 01:09 PM
I have had exactly the same experience with 5ite. The first I knew there was a problem was when someone tried to email me and the email bounced. I use(d) one of 5ite's VPS for a few blog sites (nothing critical), but not only did 5ite not bother to tell me they had a problem - their network status claims everything is fine.

I opened a ticket and received the same cut'n'paste response as connac above. They offered to move me to a US-based node temporarily, and I accepted that offer, but just silence since then.

They claim a problem with their backups as well, I am very suspicious. If it was a simple hardware failure, that should be resolved within 24-48hrs MAX. I assume they have been locked out of their data centre (perhaps they haven't paid their bill?). I have made other arrangements and moved my sites to another VPS elsewhere.

Annoyingly, I've lost about a week's worth of blog posts because my own backups are weekly. Not happy.
Posted by PeanutHosting, 07-25-2013, 03:12 PM
Not a very good business practice sadly.
Posted by papa_face, 07-25-2013, 03:26 PM
Sad to hear people having problems with a host I started up and subsequently sold.
I hope you guys get these problems sorted out, unfortunately I can't assist so please don't PM me for support.
Posted by connac, 07-26-2013, 04:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by papa_face

Sad to hear people having problems with a host I started up and subsequently sold.
I hope you guys get these problems sorted out, unfortunately I can't assist so please don't PM me for support.

That's sad indeed. Why didn't we receive a communication about the new owners of 5ite as customers ?

By the way, still no sign of life with my server.. I received exactly 2 standard cut and paste replies to my numerous tickets.
Something is very wrong with this hosting company.
Posted by Actual, 07-26-2013, 06:32 AM
They've stopped replying to tickets altogether now :-(
Posted by connac, 07-26-2013, 06:47 AM
Actually, something weird is going on.. When I log in my control panel, I can see my server is supposed to be online. However, I cannot access it.

When I ssh it with the build-in java ssh client, I can log into and I can see my files. The IP has changed though so they didn't configure DNS yet.

Is there any way for me to copy the files through SSH. I tried uploading it to an ftp server but I cannot seem to open an ftp connection as I receive a 'password incorrect for root' message, eventhough I am sure the password is right. It also seems the ftp command automatically connects with user root. Anyone has any insights to share ?
Posted by Actual, 07-26-2013, 07:01 AM
connac, configure your FTP client for 'SFTP' that should use the same login/password as your SSH login. It works just like standard FTP.

I just logged into the cpanel and see the same as you (my server is "online").

Maybe they've moved us both over to another (US?) node - they promised they would do that for me on a support ticket.

I will try and access it!
Posted by connac, 07-26-2013, 07:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Actual

connac, configure your FTP client for 'SFTP' that should use the same login/password as your SSH login. It works just like standard FTP.

I just logged into the cpanel and see the same as you (my server is "online").

Maybe they've moved us both over to another (US?) node - they promised they would do that for me on a support ticket.

I will try and access it!

I tried WINSCPing it, it does authenticate (only with the temporary credentiales of the built-in java ssh client and the new IP number), but then it freezes and can't establish connection..

I can ssh with Putty as well.
Posted by Actual, 07-26-2013, 07:24 AM
You are doing better than me! The IP address is not pingable for me :-(
Posted by connac, 07-26-2013, 07:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Actual

You are doing better than me! The IP address is not pingable for me :-(

You have to open the built-in SSH client, it's called "serial console". It's a java applet. After it loads it will display a random password on top of the window, and a login popup will showup. The login is already entered, you have to enter password for that session.

If you want to putty, look at the bottom-left of the java serial console, you wil see a new ip address. Use that address in stead of your regular one and use the new session credentials instead of your classic root/password combination.

I finally managed to take some data through ftp..
Posted by connac, 07-26-2013, 08:19 AM
I've managed to retrieve all of my data by doing the above.
Posted by DavidBee, 07-26-2013, 08:43 AM
There is no excuse for lack of communication these days. All these guys had to do was take to twitter and facebook.
Posted by papa_face, 07-27-2013, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by connac

That's sad indeed. Why didn't we receive a communication about the new owners of 5ite as customers ?

By the way, still no sign of life with my server.. I received exactly 2 standard cut and paste replies to my numerous tickets.
Something is very wrong with this hosting company.

No idea, maybe you weren't a customer at the time as I sold it more than 2 years ago. Again it a question for the current owners not me.
Posted by PeanutHosting, 07-27-2013, 09:21 AM
Regardless of whom is the owner who holds the book of blame what has happened is and always will be wrong business practice, i think what these clients are trying to say to 5ite is, "Sort it out guys it isn't acceptable"
Posted by Actual, 07-27-2013, 12:45 PM
In the end, I have managed to recover my files as per the method connac suggested above (thanks connac!). Not sure on the age of these files (I don't think they were recent backups) but they were newer than my backups!

Lesson learned here - don't just set backups and assume they are still running after 2 years. Test them :-)
Posted by connac, 07-31-2013, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Actual

In the end, I have managed to recover my files as per the method connac suggested above (thanks connac!). Not sure on the age of these files (I don't think they were recent backups) but they were newer than my backups!

Lesson learned here - don't just set backups and assume they are still running after 2 years. Test them :-)

You're welcome. I am happy you recovered your data.
To finally close this thread, the server is up again and I have access to all my data. Currently I am looking for a nice dedicated server offer with good price/quality. Anyone having a suggestion, you are more than welcome to reply/PM!
Posted by asalan, 08-14-2013, 10:35 AM
if server is down i always asked the provider so all my complain, but with one condition we must take premium pake