Rackspace Cloud Review

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Posted by Richboos, 12-27-2010, 07:31 PM
Hello. I have been a visitor of this site for about a year, only signing up a few months ago. I appreciate everything people do here. A few colleges of mine found out about this site from me after I found out they were simply looking at Google for those "rigged" site rankings (Like the ones that are owned by iXwebhosting CEO). I just powered down and deleted my server instance on the Rackspace Cloud. The decision to leave was made over a month ago but it has taken me this long between designing sites, a vacation, and the holiday to migrate. The main problem for me was the incredibly slow control panel. Often it would choke in both Firefox and Chrome, kicking me out with a generic error message. A support ticket as suggested did not lead anywhere. Then about a month ago I am thinking about upgrading from Ubuntu 9.10 to 10.04, and even testing 10.10. Now from using Linux on all personal computers since Ubuntu 4.10 (Hoary right?) I know that a dist-upgrade can go downhill the next time you boot. Of course I am not going to do this on a production server! So I go to try and create a new instance and it fails. It fails two more times. Then the support ticket system fails. Then it says I have a new server instance created, but I never get the email with the root password. The reset root password button in the control panel crashes the control panel again. 24 Hours later the other 3 servers instances suddenly appear. For about 12 hours I was being billed for 3 servers instances I never recieved confirmation that they were actually created. The email also finally came sometime overnight. This is just one of a few similar stories. I could no longer justify paying cloud prices. On-demand service is supposed to be On-Demand What is the point of that pricing model when you can not even use it? And now I hear there was an outage last week where one server crashed and brought down many server instances? This makes me feel like it wasn't a cloud infrastructure at all. -- Now that I think about it, I always thought it was weird there wasn't a connection from their ORD1 to Cloud Files (It was considered out of your network therefore backups cost extra $$$). Also, the backups were limited to the size of your alloted RAM - what the heck?? So a review to those of you considering Rackspace Cloud Servers. > When it works, the servers are fast. > They are reliable as you can see from 243 days of uptime. (Before that was my own reboot) But if you really need on-demand I suggest you look else where. You will be stuck in the mud if you have to quickly add a node for testing/rescue/etc if the control panel decides to run like it is based on Windows M.E. I have since moved my VPS to Linode and am paying about half what I was paying at Rackspace. I would like to say I miss on-demand images for testing, but they never really worked for me. Last edited by Richboos; 12-27-2010 at 07:34 PM. Reason: Backups
Posted by Mr Terrence, 12-27-2010, 07:46 PM
Thanks for your review - good luck with your new provider
Posted by JasonD10, 12-27-2010, 09:53 PM
That is a good detailed review, thanks for providing the details of your experiences over the course of time. It sounds like they have some issues to deal with, but don't let that deter you from Cloud services either in the future as that is just one provider.
Posted by Richboos, 12-28-2010, 02:05 AM
Oh yeah I am not letting it spoil the bunch. I will probably experiment with another cloud solution in the future. Especially when the pricing model is by the hour so I won't have to spend a lot just to test.
Posted by ninkynonk, 12-28-2010, 04:11 AM
Excellent! I really was considering cloud hosting from them. Still might give em a try
Posted by Njer, 12-28-2010, 07:49 AM
Personally I have heard also good things about cloud hosting - there are many advantages of running web hosting on cloud accounts.
Posted by TheHostGenie, 12-28-2010, 11:51 AM
I tried their cloud services when Windows images were in beta (6-7 months ago), and there were a lot of issues with the CP, sounds like they still need to work some things out.
Posted by ninkynonk, 12-29-2010, 01:19 AM
have they fixed the issues with the CP?
Posted by Rossco4434, 01-08-2011, 03:42 AM
I've been testing a stormondemand centos/cpanel install. Seems good with a couple of strange issues (which could be us or could be them). I've lodged a ticket but haven't solved it yet. 1) An application we've developed works on other Cpanel accounts ok but does not work correctly with theirs. 2) When doing a system update(yum update), systems to stall and bug out somehow. I've also used tried slicehost years ago, and was quite happy with that. If your paying big bucks $$$, I'd recommend another provider if they mess you around. Fav's so far. Managed: Liquidweb/stormondemand/Unixy seem to be my favourite. Umanaged: Linode/Slicehost
Posted by QuickWeb-Roel, 01-10-2011, 08:49 PM
try VPS.NET, seems like OnApp is really a good panel.
Posted by IGobyTerry, 01-10-2011, 09:57 PM
Just as a note, VPS.NET clients do not get direct access to OnApp, however have built out a fully featured control panel that allows you complete management of your VPS.
Posted by Layer3, 01-11-2011, 12:44 PM
I've had a couple of VM's on Rackspace's Cloud Servers and the performance of the VM has been great...HOWEVER their control panel is about the most unreliable POS! Can't stand it. Works about half the time. Locks up. Non-responsive, etc...
Posted by dotHostel, 01-11-2011, 12:46 PM
Did you check date/time the e-mails were sent? The fact you received the e-mails with the passwords many hours after doesn't mean the fault occurred their end.
Posted by Caroline_9429, 01-25-2011, 10:04 AM
Interesting review Richboos, thanks.
Posted by boskone, 01-25-2011, 10:09 AM
Onapp is certainly a great panel and is extremely fast - the ability to create and spin up/down images in near real tie is one of the key features - well worth a look!
Posted by Sposs, 01-25-2011, 10:12 AM
Always worrying to see VPS providers trying to pass it off as cloud machines.
Posted by Latox, 01-30-2011, 05:02 PM
I ordered rackspace cloud, 3 days after using it.. I cancelled my account and moved elsewhere. Their service is terrible and their cloud management interface isn't something worth talking about either.