My box has been down for 6 hours.

[abssorb]

EDIT: Now 16 hours
EDIT2: Now 28 hours

Support advised it will be back up in 2hours, but that was 4 hours ago and now they aren't responding to live chat. I'm currently on hold to support no 10 in the queue.

I know this isn't the place - I've read the sticky.

But I am very concerned. My last host would have pulled a new server off the shelf and built it as a replacement in less than 2 hours. Is this typical?

[Early Out]

Moving 450 accounts to a new server would probably take longer than fixing whatever is wrong with the existing server. Also, if the problem on the server affects disk access, how would they move the accounts to a new box?

Is this a common occurrence? No, but with over 500 servers, it's not surprising that one or two of them might be having a problem at any given time. For a measly $7 a month, you don't get hot backups.

[abssorb]

450 accounts is a surprise.

For a measly $7 a month, you don't get hot backups.

True, but as much of a bargain as it is, this amount of downtime doesn't match the promises in the literature. If it's a one per annum anomaly, I can live with it. Also an hour a month is acceptable.

The helpdesk guys are very polite and trying to help, but delivering a result is taking a length of time my customers are finding unreasonable. It's been a long day for them and me (I've been in the office for 14hrs now) I'm trying to stay objective.

I thought I'd post here to get an idea of how common this is.

[Early Out]

The servers are 8-processor quad-core beasts, so handling 450 accounts isn't a problem for them (when I check the stats for the server I'm on, it usually isn't even breathing hard).

When your server is down, of course, it seems like forever. But remember, even a 17-hour outage once a year is still 99.8% "up."

I don't think anyone can tell you how common this is. Some people are on servers that haven't had any noticeable downtime in many, many months. They're not likely to show up here - everything is going fine for them!

Ultimately, of course, if you find the service unacceptable, you can always get a prorated refund, no questions asked. In my experience, however, a given server may experience a brief rocky patch, but once they figure out what's wrong, and fix it, things usually stay stable for a long, long time.

[tvuolo]

When your server is down, of course, it seems like forever. But remember, even a 17-hour outage once a year is still 99.8% "up."

But you are advertising 99.9% "up." That's 8h 45m of downtime per year for everything from faults, to maintenance, to upgrades.

I think the truly frustrating part is that we get no information other than a vague sentence on the server status page. Perhaps bluehost could add a feature where we could sign up for email notification of our server outtages. The email should include (in general terms) the problem, what corrective action is being taken, and
a) we can expect a resolution, or
b) an ETA on the next status report.

[queenshawaii]

Not sure if you are on box329.bluehost.com but the status just went green!

Services: no known issues: status ok

Now hopefully our sites will be up soon.

[redsox9]

But you are advertising 99.9% "up." That's 8h 45m of downtime per year for everything from faults, to maintenance, to upgrades.

Understand that "we" are not BlueHost. This is only a user-to-user forum with no tie-in to support. You are correct - that is one heck of a guarantee but I would guess that it references an average across the servers. Again, that's a guess on my part.

I think the truly frustrating part is that we get no information other than a vague sentence on the server status page. Perhaps bluehost could add a feature where we could sign up for email notification of our server outtages. The email should include (in general terms) the problem, what corrective action is being taken, and
a) we can expect a resolution, or
b) an ETA on the next status report.

Imagine trying to manage that with the number of boxes and number of accounts per box for every instance, large or small? It would be a logistical nightmare! I can understand the frustration of having your site out-of-commission for an extended period and the best we users can offer here is to check every few hours with BH for a server status. Again, LiveChat or a toll-free phone call to support (at least in the US) is your best option.

[Early Out]

But you are advertising 99.9% "up."

As has been pointed out, "we" are not BH.

But beyond that, the uptime guarantee is a bit of a joke. The key question, is, "what happens if BH fails to meet that guarantee?" The answer is that, if BH doesn't achieve 99.9% uptime, you can get a prorated refund. Of course, if BH is up 100%, you can still get a prorated refund at any time. So, the guarantee is nothing more than a goal that BH shoots for. Beyond that, it means nothing.

Perhaps bluehost could add a feature where we could sign up for email notification of our server outtages. The email should include (in general terms) the problem, what corrective action is being taken, and
a) we can expect a resolution, or
b) an ETA on the next status report.

That would require some pretty fancy footwork, with hundreds of thousands of domains - the outgoing email load alone could be crippling if an outage affected more than one box (anyone else remember the day the nameservers failed? ). And on balance, I think I'd rather have the techies working on fixing the problem than spending time crafting notification messages.

[tvuolo]

Not sure if you are on box329.bluehost.com but the status just went green!

Services: no known issues: status ok

Now hopefully our sites will be up soon.

Yep, I'm on box329. Unfortunately we were green 5 hours ago with the same exact situation. Then it went to restoring from backup, now we are green again, with no home folders (you can see this if you ssh in).

I just chatted with a rep and they are doing ANOTHER restore so another 5 hours before we will have access. (That's my estimated ETA since they won't give ETAs). They didn't respond to my question about a contingency plan if the current restore fails, too.

[tvuolo]

As has been pointed out, "we" are not BH.

Sorry Early Out. I assumed incorrectly that the Moderators were BH.

That would require some pretty fancy footwork, with hundreds of thousands of domains - the outgoing email load alone could be crippling if an outage affected more than one box (anyone else remember the day the nameservers failed? ). And on balance, I think I'd rather have the techies working on fixing the problem than spending time crafting notification messages.

I see your point about if every server went down. I had pictured an opt-in sort of notification so not every client would receive an email. I also imagined the help desk crafting the emails and not the techies.