The Underscore Archives

Jon Bennett wrote:
> Hi Steve,
> 
>>  If you're comfortable with server admin you can run the versions that suit
>>  you of things - and obviously have full root control of the virtual box...
>>  I'm currently using Slicehost just for my demo/svn box but it's making me
>>  want to migrate more sites to their solution when 12 months are up on
>>  virtual hosting packages elsewhere...
> 
> hmm, I'm really not looking for a server I need to keep up to date at
> all, but I think (need to double check) that this server won't be
> running email or anything like that, just www/mysql, so I reckon
> provided the server is patched for me I shouldn't need to touch it
> other than to get more oomph if required.
> 
> does slicehost fit the bill there? Only concern I have is Slicehost is
> US based, and although this company has a foreign office, it's based
> in the UK, as they have a .com domain, hosting in the UK is preferable
> I believe for inclusion in google's uk search results.
> 
> cheers,
> 
> jon
> 
> 

Has any one with Rackspace / Fasthosts / etc ever checked to see that 
everything is up to date? Tbh I don't really believe that they do.

Willing to be proved wrong.

Hosting providing gets me so angry! It is a really good (bad) example of 
what is wrong with a lot of our industry.  Providers taking advantage of 
buyers ignorance, and buyers making judgments purely on price.

Just chatting to other guys off list but in the industry, and here are 
our hosting company bugbears / bollocks marketing claims :-

1) 100% uptime - how do they upgrade the kernel? Rounding errors 
obviously help

2) Hideous out of date releases.  Even new contracts can sometimes only 
provide RHEL 4.  Which whilst the latest release was 6 months old the 
versions of PHP and MySql are nowhere near current.

3) 24/7 support.  All good, but consider this: If your client's website 
goes down in the middle of the night how do they contact you, for you to 
contact the hosting provider?  They should be able to swap failed 
hardware asap, but to be honest they always seem to have to bike it in.

4) Restrictive DNS practices. One wildcard dns record, or only one MX 
record, or only allowing a single A record then only for "www.", please! 
Particularly low scoring providers 1&1 ("1&1's dns management system 
sucks rocks") and Fasthosts ("fasthosts' sucks rocks through a straw")

5) Support staff.  If I tell you there is a problem and provide the 
evidence please just fix it.  If I supply technical data in support of 
my evidence and display some twinkling of understand what I am talking 
about please don't say "have you tried rebooting".

6) Physical security.  A little more outlandish this one.  But they have 
probably left the doors and gates to the cages open anyway.  If a 
hardened criminal wants at your data are a bunch of geeks in the data 
centre going to stop them? If the house sysadmin is threatened with 
having his mother killed do you think he is worried about your data or 
who is going to cook his next meal and buy his clothes for him? Mind you 
that is probably discounting the sysadmins who work the night shift 
smacked out of their tiny minds.

Ok I am probably getting a bit of track here, it's possibly the rum from 
the bottle I found at the back of the cupboard.  But in all seriousness 
the only way to get good hosting is to understand what you want, and get 
personal recommendations, and to realise that good sales team not always 
equal good hosting nor does a cheap price.

<disclaimer>I am employed as a sysadmin by a couple of people, so may be 
biased!</disclaimer>

W