The eclectic musings of a bitter software engineer.

Time to switch hosting providers

Thursday July 13, 2006 @ 07:42 PM (PDT)

Jetpants was down for about 20 hours beginning last night, apparently due to "power-related problems" at the data center hosting our server. Every other server in the data center was back up and running this afternoon, but for some reason they didn't bring Jetpants back up with everyone else.

Over the course of the day, I filed an urgent support ticket (which went ignored); called about fifteen times and spoke to support personnel who repeatedly assured me that they would immediately investigate the cause of my server remaining down and get back to me, but never did; and spent a great deal of time banging my head on my desk.

I also ordered a brand new server from Dell and chose a new hosting provider. Jetpants will be moving to the new data center in August.

Comments

Which data center will you be moving jetpants to?

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Friday July 14, 2006 @ 12:52 AM (PDT)

I'd rather not say too much about it just yet, since there's still a chance it could change.

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Friday July 14, 2006 @ 08:58 AM (PDT)

What server did you order?

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Mike
Friday July 14, 2006 @ 10:06 AM (PDT)

The new server is a tricked out Dell PowerEdge 850.

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Friday July 14, 2006 @ 01:40 PM (PDT)

I have had nothing but issues with Dell in all of the years I have worked with computers. They are utter pieces of shit, loaded with assware, and completely unusable.

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Nightshade
Tuesday July 18, 2006 @ 09:23 AM (PDT)

Dell definitely doesn't load their servers with assware, and they've got the best prices and support of anyone in the industry. Also, Dell servers are the only ones that have the legendary Dell Remote Access Card, which allows me to access the console remotely without having to dish out tons of cash for the use of a KVM over IP switch.

This means that if something goes wrong with the server, I don't have to call someone and wait for them to figure out what's up; I can just log into the DRAC, see the status of the hardware, view and interact with the console, and even reinstall the OS if necessary.

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Tuesday July 18, 2006 @ 09:49 AM (PDT)
In response to Nightshade: The company Ryan and I work for runs almost exclusively Dell servers, laptops, and desktops, and we have pretty good luck with them. Their pricing is competetive, the physical design is well laid out (especially in the new BTX chassis for the GX280 and in the 2850 servers), and they are easy to maintain. Granted, if given unlimited resources I *would* opt for servers from Sun or Xserves, but as Intel machines go Dell is a reasonable choice.

With respect to "assware", allow me to point out that not only do most technical people and organizations load their operating systems onto new boxes, but Dell will ship their systems with Linux or no OS installed at all.

Since we are obviously conducting successful business operations using Dell hardware, I suggest that the assertion that Dell hardware is "totally unusable" is false.
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Wednesday July 26, 2006 @ 12:11 AM (PDT)
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