Account transfer nightmare

[jacksun]

Has anyone else had a nightmare experience trying to get accounts transferred in from another host?
I have been waiting almost 3 weeks to have accounts transferred and not only do they not get transferred, I can't even get a reply to the ticket for an update.
Per Dan I did not submit the form for each transfer as I was giving reseller credentials to do the 16 transfers. After problems getting the accounts backed up and then restored onto Hostnine's server as the automated WHM wouldn't work because I don't have root I went and backed up each account via cpanel, uploaded them to an FTP account and provided the info to login and download the backups so they could be restored along with an explanation of what was done. Once I clarified the situation I heard nothing more.
With the new information they proceeded to ignore the details about the backed up accounts and started to transfer 3 accounts off the server where the backups where, only those accounts didn't need to be transferred. When advised of this error and what needed to be done there was no response, and still none for the last week.
Still no completed transfers, no response to update requests, no info on what might be wrong.

Over a week ago I was the first ticket in the queue, the ticket is flagged escalated/overdue, and still no response.
As a reseller having accounts transferred in is a part of doing business, and major delays can impact that business. We need the ability to do this ourselves, or in the meantime get priority response on them for which I would pay a fee like $1.00 per account like hostgator charges to get them done ASAP.

As resellers we need this service as a part of our business, and hostnine's support in that regard would be appreciated.

Wayne

[advantagetrading]

Thanks for your info Wayne.

I am about to transfer an account from GoDaddy to my resellers account at HostNine, but I am a bit hesitant. On another website, I recently migrated servers from UK to US Central and in between servers, all my Databases were lost and I had to rebuild from an old half backed up copy. Not much explanation from HostNine about why it happened and it was my fault for not doing a complete back-up.

Merrin

[H9Jen]

@jacksun Do you have a ticket number so I can look into it?

@advantagetrading The data being corrupted was definitely not "your fault" - any time data is moved from server to server there's a small element of risk to that which is why we require that all H9 folks have a backup of their site. By requiring you guys to keep the backup, it enables us to keep costs down and ensures that if something does go wrong, you have the backup that you need because you pick the frequency that the data is backed up.

If we pick the back up schema, it would be a one size fits all solution and that inevitably makes someone unhappy. The purpose is actually to make sure that everyone has the backup they need since you know your site and how often it's data changes better than anyone. Some sites may need a backup once every six months because it's a static site, and some may need 2 times a day.

As long as a backup is on hand, data corruption can be easily addressed - when they're not kept up to date, though, data loss can be a problem.

[jacksun]

Hi Jen, here is the main ticket number......ZMH-145433 and a second ticket YVS-342322

Wayne

[tusker]

Originally Posted by H9Jen

By requiring you guys to keep the backup, it enables us to keep costs down and ensures that if something does go wrong, you have the backup that you need because you pick the frequency that the data is backed up.

Well, it's fine that you require us to keep the backup, but the problem is, it is simply not possible, because RC offers no backup functionality!

So if you please tell me how I can make backups I would be more than happy to do so! BTW, it is NOT possible to backup via cpanel, since some customers changed their passwords. Beside that, it is unacceptable to go daily through every single account and initiate a backup.

What we need is a central backup which backs up all accounts on a single click or even automated via cron job. If you want us to keep the entire responsibility for working (!) backup, give us the tools!

This issue was also brought up in http://www.hostnine.com/hosting-foru...ps-thread.html but there is no response since 2 months.

[H9Jen]

Originally Posted by jacksun

Hi Jen, here is the main ticket number......ZMH-145433 and a second ticket YVS-342322

Wayne

I will jump in and take a look at those tickets as soon as I'm done here.

[H9Jen]

Originally Posted by tusker

Well, it's fine that you require us to keep the backup, but the problem is, it is simply not possible, because RC offers no backup functionality!

So if you please tell me how I can make backups I would be more than happy to do so! BTW, it is NOT possible to backup via cpanel, since some customers changed their passwords. Beside that, it is unacceptable to go daily through every single account and initiate a backup.

What we need is a central backup which backs up all accounts on a single click or even automated via cron job. If you want us to keep the entire responsibility for working (!) backup, give us the tools!

This issue was also brought up in http://www.hostnine.com/hosting-foru...ps-thread.html but there is no response since 2 months.

Currently, a backup solution for RC is being worked on, though there's no ETA for when that will be done - but Jeremy and Dan are currently working to bring that functionality to the RC for Resellers.

Currently, Resellers just using cPanel and the WHM but who don't have a dedicated server or VPS cannot take backups through the WHM and have to go into the user's cPanel as well, so this isn't an issue solely related to HostNine or Reseller Central - while cPanel backups place backups in the user accounts, the WHM places them in a system area only accessible by the system administrator. So, I understand the problems/issues with that, but I do want to point out the problem is not unique to HostNine.

Because that's the way cPanel naturally works, implementing a backup system for Reseller Central is a bit of an undertaking, and not something that can be scripted overnight - it's not as simple as plugging into something that's already there, but a matter of creating a functionality that doesn't wholly exist yet.

We do hear you, though, and it is bring worked on so that you will have that functionality.

[jacksun]

Originally Posted by H9Jen

..... so this isn't an issue solely related to HostNine or Reseller Central - .... So, I understand the problems/issues with that, but I do want to point out the problem is not unique to HostNine.

Actually it is. I understand exactly what you are saying about backups, but I want to run the WHM backup script (the raw PHP script from WHM, not via WHM interface) that does the backup and dumps it to a directory of my choice (local or remote) and I am told Hostnine won't allow scripts and blocks them if you find them. This script is directly from the Cpanel/WHM application with added credentials fields. It solves the backup issue for me, and my clients, but my solution is not allowed, and is actually intentionally blocked.
If you want to say you are working on a backup solution fine, but allow those of us who have found one that does not impact Hostnine's servers to use it until your solution is in place. My solution takes no more server resources than doing an account transfer, and dumps the backup file to a remote server. I am using the script that does individual accounts and must be setup for each account, not the one that is available to do all accounts within a resellers account at once.

Wayne

[H9Jen]

Originally Posted by jacksun

This script is directly from the Cpanel/WHM application with added credentials fields. It solves the backup issue for me, and my clients, but my solution is not allowed, and is actually intentionally blocked.

The WHM Backup script wouldn't work because you don't actually have a WHM - you have Reseller Central. cPanel's WHM works, currently, as if each machine is it's own individual universe. While some things can be clustered (DNS has been able to be for a while, they recently added MySQL, and so on), the WHM as far as a Reseller Panel can not be clustered or used across multiple machines in multiple locations, which is why Reseller Central was written and implemented. That functionality simply is not present in cPanel at this time.

So, it's not that it's being deliberately blocked because we just don't want you to use it - it's that if you try to log in repeatedly to WHM on a server with your Reseller credentials, you'll firewall the machine you're coming from because you don't have a WHM. That's all controlled from RC.

Originally Posted by jacksun

If you want to say you are working on a backup solution fine, but allow those of us who have found one that does not impact Hostnine's servers to use it until your solution is in place. My solution takes no more server resources than doing an account transfer, and dumps the backup file to a remote server. I am using the script that does individual accounts and must be setup for each account, not the one that is available to do all accounts within a resellers account at once.Wayne

As long as the script doesn't cause load problems, then it's no issue. If you can give me the ticket number where you were told the script was not allowed, I'll take a look at it, because if it goes into individual accounts and backs them up, I don't see any problem with the script at all.

If the script you are using goes in through the WHM on the machine, however, and backups up through the WHM, the reason the script doesn't work is that your Reseller accounts on individual machines don't have their own WHM's, they have the RC because the RC is able to control all the Reseller accounts across multiple machines, DCs, and locations whereas the WHM cannot do so.

[jacksun]

Hi Jen, the script is a WHM script (same script used to do backup for account transfer), but it accesses via Cpanel on an individual basis (each instance has a user/pass for the cpanel login). I would run them at various different times via cron.
Here's the ticket DVH-167124

I cannot backup palladiumhosting.net (my primary reseller account) with this script, it fails to access it.

Wayne