Server Management

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Posted by iBold, 02-27-2006, 09:24 PM
Ok. A brief bit of histroy.. I am brand new to this entire experience (having my own server). I went with ev1 because I have read good things about them and honestly am comfortable with the 'big company' appeal that they offer. They seem to have everything together. Now knowing that I have never done this before, I read some more and looked into server management companies. I read some more and decided to go with PlatinumServerManagement. They had solid reviews and you couldn't beat the price. I'm not sure if they realize it there, or just don't cater to an audience like myself, but I have gotten no where with them. I have general questions, like setting up my own nameservers (which was there suggestion for me), so I post these questions in the support ticket (ie what do I have to do on my end), and I almost always get a generic response, like 'you have to setup your nameservers'. Now I know I have to do it, but I specifically asked what I have to do to do that. So they have switched my nameservers and I have posted questions like 'nothing is working, I have taken steps 1, 2, and 3 to make it work, what do I do' which has thus far gone unanswered. I initially emailed them before I purchased there service, and even spoke with them on the phone. I told them I had a shared hosting account with HostGator, and needed 2 of my sites moved to the new server. I explained that I had no SSH access, nor root access, and asked if they could move the sites over. They said that was included in the price of my service, and they would gladly do that. 3 days after I opened the ticket they tell me they cannot and need a SSH backup of each of my sites, which HostGator won't provide me. So now my sites can't be moved over. I understand I am only paying $30 per month, but honestly, I asked the questions before I signed up. Everything else that they have offered (I assume) was fulfilled properly (initial server setup), just nothing else has gotten me anywhere (setting up nameservers, moving my old information). It has been longer then a week now. Is there anyone out there who has a similar situation (no server experience, need to move over multiple sites, needs to setup nameservers) who can suggest a management company who can do this for me? I don't mind paying more money if someone can do it properly and QUICKLY. Thanks in advance for your suggestions. Honestly if there was someone out there who would do this for $100 / month and be able to set things up for me tonight I would strongly consider them at this point. I'm over my bandwidth limit on my accounts and at $.50 / GB I'm throwing away money everyday..
Posted by tonys_hiptop, 02-27-2006, 09:49 PM
http://www.platinumservermanagement.com/
Posted by Bahawolf, 02-27-2006, 09:58 PM
This should be in the Managed forum. I've had a great experience with PSM.. no problems so far.. But, try ServerWizards.com PSM is as cheap as they get though for server management.
Posted by ayksolutions, 02-27-2006, 10:10 PM
His problem was with PSM. Make sure you read the OP's post before you make a comment. Moving on... Unfortunately, due to them only costing $30 per month, they can't allocate too much time to 'tutoring' you as they have a ton of clients and most likely not enough techs to help. If you tell them what you want done, they will do it (unless its account moving apparently). We have a few clients who use our servers and use them for their administration needs. So far so good. With that being said, I would recommend you try out www.got-management.com. We have been working with them for over a year and a half now and they do a phenominal job. Jon (the person who runs it) is very good at what he does and takes the time to explain things to you and actually teach you something, should you need it. They do charge a bit more ($95 per month), however, this includes everything from hardening your server, consultation, logging, monitor your servers as well as taking the necessary steps to bring your server back online should it need to be. I would give them a shot. They give a free consultation so you really have nothing to lose. Hope this helps.
Posted by iBold, 02-27-2006, 10:23 PM
Seems strange that they wouldn't have generic responses to things like setting up nameservers...like 'we have set up the name servers within your hosting, now you need to do this, this, and this to make sure it all works properly' just so that people don't reopen the tickets. I've been emailing ServerWizards back and forth for awhile now, and they are looking at my old hosting and new server free to make sure they can move over the accounts before I signup for anything further. I will take a moment and check out got-management.com and see what they have to offer. Thanks for the input.
Posted by ayksolutions, 02-27-2006, 10:42 PM
Glad to see that you are willing to give got-management a shot. i think you'll be pleased with it. In any case, good luck.
Posted by iBold, 02-27-2006, 11:19 PM
It seems that the problem was my ev1 server didn't have mySQL 4.1, so the sites DBs didn't transfer properly. You would think this would be something PSM would have noticed and pointed out?
Posted by swflnetworks, 02-27-2006, 11:26 PM
Try going with www.jonesolutions.com Same price as PSM, faster replies.
Posted by dsotmoon, 02-27-2006, 11:29 PM
I have been very pleased with serverwizards, i'm a server noob (even after a year) and they have even helped after the initial services when they didint have to, I will be using them for a long time to come
Posted by ayksolutions, 02-27-2006, 11:52 PM
Yeah, heh. That is pretty bad. For $30/month, you can't keep a line of quality admins on hand, that is just not possible. Even if you have a ton of servers, a good tech would cost a decent amount of money.
Posted by iBold, 02-28-2006, 01:03 AM
I would imagine it is. I always thought these budget management companies worked on the theory that everyone uses a whole lot of support at first, then just kinda sticks around asking 1 or 2 questions a month, and thats where they make their money at. Seems like the first week is their time to shine, and PSM just didn't do that.
Posted by ServerManagement, 02-28-2006, 05:29 AM
He called and said he only had 2 sites and didn't know how to transfer them, so I said something to the effect of, 'if you only have 2 sites, we'll be more than glad to give it a try'. However, our web site does clearly state that we only do transfers if you have root access, which is probably why he called and asked first. We did this, but the mysql databases didn't import properly, so we asked him to see if his previous provider can make a dump of the sql and we'll import it that way, but he never got back to us on this. We were and are more than glad to help in any way possible, but since I offered it as a courtesy in the first place, I find it so disgusting that he'd bash us with it later, no matter what the outcome was. We cater to all audiences, from admins that need to sleep at night, to the beginner that needs hand holding. We did everything he asked us to do, the server setup, security, etc., all within a few hours of him requesting it. This is a complete lie. We NEVER told him to do any work on the server, we setup his nameservers and all we told him to do was to register them at his domain registrar, which we would've even done if he provided that login too. I think he misinterpreted this as us telling him how to setup his server, which is not in any way what we did. We don't limit time on anyone at all, there has never been one post on WHT of any claim that we dropped anyone for submitting too many tickets, or that we brushed them off with quick replies. We have enough technicians to support our clients, and are in the process of hiring 1-2 more employees over the next few months to support our growth. Thanks for the compliments. The truth of the matter is that we do satisfy our customers, and so often go above and beyond to help out. We offer so many ways to give us feedback or report any problems anyone has, iBold just chose to complain on WHT before giving us a chance. Every once and a while we have a customer that is dissatisfied, which company doesn't? He's one of them, but as he even said in the first place, he choose us because of the positive reputation we have. If you search WHT, there are countless number of positive reviews/positive feedback on us, and maybe a handful of negative posts. Sadly, much of the negative posts are from people that have never even used our service, but they just like to "join in on the bashing". I think I've responded to each point here with our side. I'm not going to publicly discuss this matter any further. Our reputation on WHT is greatly positive, even as iBold said himself in the first place. I just wish iBold would've been bold enough to discuss his dissatisfaction with us first before posting here, but that speaks to his reputation. Last edited by ServerManagement; 02-28-2006 at 05:39 AM.
Posted by captaintonka, 02-28-2006, 06:10 AM
We have been using Platinum server management for over 1.5 years now and can only have possitive things to say. They do manage servers and do a fantastic job of it. $30 is a small price to pay and purley the experiance that you might have had is just a missunderstanding. When it comes to creating nameservers this is done by you as the administrator of the domain. PSM rating 10/10
Posted by Premier, 02-28-2006, 09:42 AM
Sounds like misunderstandings to me. PSM does do their best to help their clients, and definitely provides excellent support for $30/month, but as with most companies, there are times when a customer is unhappy for one reason or another.
Posted by CanadianHost, 02-28-2006, 10:03 AM
As PSM clearly demonstrated in their reply here there are always more than one side of the story. I think it is unfair for others to jump on the band wagon and bash PSM or any company for that matter simply out of an effort to get business for themselves or their friend's business without knowing both sides. Very unprofessional... Anyways, PSM has always done what I have asked them to do. If I don't ask them to do something then they don’t know it needs to be done and as such can not possibly do it... In respect to your name servers, if after they setup the server and told you to register the DNS at your registrar and you didn't know how to do that then you should have told them I don’t know how, here is my registrar account info. Moral of the story is PSM has been a very dedicated support company and if you had problems/complaints you should have picked up the phone if you were that upset and called Ethan at PSM. If I am out for dinner and I get bad service I don’t walk out on the sidewalk and start bashing the restaurant in public. I do the logical thing and ask for the manager to make a complaint and hopefully resolve the issue. As you said yourself, they have solid reviews here on WHT. With so many people so happy with their service and price what are the chances of them being a bad company because of a very select few individuals? PSM, thanks for the wonderful service you have provided me and my support staff over the years. I couldn't ask for a better company and you will forever have my business.
Posted by iBold, 02-28-2006, 10:52 PM
I wasn't bashing PSM, and I'm not sure why it was taken that way. There responses were in fact not understandable by me (a newb, which I explained), and everything I said either did / didn't get done. I did ask for clarification ("what I needed to do on my end to make sure this works") and did get the response (" You must register the nameservers and also make sure you have the domain name registered. ") to which I had no idea what to do to setup nameservers. I apologize if my question was not clear or if that response was supposed to mean more then it did to me. You did respond to my question with another question of 'would you like me to pursure this?' instead of a solution (which I now have because I did go with someone else, so no, you do not need to respond to the ticket). That would have been awesome. Why didn't you say that in the ticket? Just saying a generic response for common issues like that would be better. One that says you can set such things up, or how to set things up within your registrar. Thats all. The only reason I came here was to find an alternative who could meet my needs, which I did. They had zero issues migrating my sites without SSH, and have done everything else necessary. In any event, because of this thread being taken as bashing instead of constructive critisism, and because of a rule that after you open more then 3 tickets (I had 5 if you include my request for cancelation) you are no longer able to apply for a refund, my $30 goes to them. As a suggestion to PSM, fix your FAQ. It misrepresents your refund policy. Or at least link that to the section of your TOS that deals with such things. Just so that everyone who reads this thread is clear, PSM did setup my server, and did do the security audit as advertised. They have even offered a solution outside of a refund. I am in no way saying that they are bad guys in this. Just that I couldn't get things working. I never intended this to be a bashing of PSM, and probobly shouldn't have included their name in my post. I didn't think that it would be viewed so poorly. On the other hand, I did call and ask about what they could and couldn't do, and was given an answer that what I needed was covered under their $30 contact fee. It does not matter if it is advertised on your site, a verbal contact is just the same as the one on your site. WHT Admin please feel free to delete this thread, as it was taken in completely the wrong context. Thank you. Last edited by iBold; 02-28-2006 at 11:05 PM.