Vilitas Merger - any problems?

nickbeee · #1 09-Aug-2004, 10:18

Hi Folks,
had my first hiccup with Vilitas after a reliable two years...
The billing system would not authorise my CC for some reason so I got a debit notice from them about it. Happy to say it seemed to be resolved quickly after emailing support.
Just had an email from them about phase two of their merger - lets hope it all goes smoothy

Div · #2 09-Aug-2004, 19:39

So who did they merge with?

JdS · #3 10-Aug-2004, 09:33

I was not aware of this 'merger' thingy until you (Nick) mentioned it here and there's a very good reason why I am in the dark - apparently the merger has nothing to do with my websites hosted at vilitas.com.

I know Scott has been busy lately and I don't want to pester him for details about these changes just to satisfy my curiousity (since they don't concern me), so I don't know any other details to share at the moment, maybe nickbeee will add to this thread with what he knows?

nickbeee · #4 11-Aug-2004, 10:09

Hi Folks,
FYI I'll post the emails I have received from Vilitas...

Quote:

Today I have the pleasure to announce that Vilitas and iHosting, Inc. will be forming a technical merger. iHosting, Inc. is a company specializing in Dedicated and Collocated hosting for the past seven years. We feel that this merger is beneficial to everyone in many ways as we grow into the future. The things you can expect as a result of this merger are improved technical support, faster upgrade cycles and bug fixes to the control panel, and extended services beyond basic shared web hosting.

Over the next month or so there will be two major events that will demonstrate the advantages of this merger. First, we will be upgrading our control panel shortly to a newer more powerful version of HSPHERE. With this comes many new features and bug fixes which will be outlined in more detail as they become available. This should take place over the next two weeks, and you will be duly notified if there will be any downtime as a result. I don't expect that there will be more than a few minutes. Shortly after the upgrade all accounts will be migrated to much more powerful servers on a stronger network. This event should cause no noticeable downtime except that the Control Panel and all web site updates will be locked out over a 48 hour period (dates to be announced). Once the migration is done, the merger will be effectively complete.

It should also be noted that your prices will remain in effect and will not be raised! Any existing special deals or contracts will also be accepted as is by iHosting, Inc. with no changes.

Please bare with us over the next month as we shake out the details and get this ball rolling, and as usual thank you for helping us make this all possible!

Sincerely,

Scott Deming
Dizix, Inc.

Next one...

Quote:

The first phase of the merger with iHosting, Inc. has been completed. The upgrade to our control panel software is now done.

You might log in and see quite a difference and say "wow, what happened here?" If it is not in your taste, take a look at the other skins available by clicking on the "Select a New Skin" link. The Expressa and Expressa Lite are especially pleasing with drop down menus, if you have JavaScript enabled.

and another...

Quote:

The second phase of the merger with iHosting is set to begin on Wednesday, August 11th in the early morning EST. There should be very little if any disruption of service, but you will not be able to update your web sites or access the control panel for up to 48 hours to make sure we remain in sync for DNS propogation.

During this phase, all web sites and content will be migrated to new more powerful servers on a larger and faster network.

In the coming weeks we will be making some announcements providing details of other services that we will be able to offer, including dedicated hosting, live telephone support, and much more.

Thank you for your patience, we hope to have this migration complete before the weekend. Naturally things may cause some delays and there may be a few hiccups along the way so please bare with us as we work things out over the next few days.

The most recent, received today...

Quote:

The server migration has been post-poned for at least a few days, so we haven't locked down web site and account updates yet. We're still working out some of the details to ensure as smooth of a transition as possible and hope to complete this some time next week.

Thats all for now,

JdS · #5 11-Aug-2004, 10:21

Thank you for the update, nickbeee. Everything's clear as mud now

nickbeee · #6 16-Aug-2004, 12:40

Another update...

Quote:

Our migration is now scheduled to begin at 7 AM EDT on Tuesday, August 17th. As a reminder, the Control Panel and all FTP access will be disabled until the migration is complete. We don't expect this to take more than 48 hours, and there should be very little interruption to service.

Let me explain a little about what you might expect to happen.

First, your web sites will exist in two places at once during DNS propogation. We will not turn them off on the old servers until we are certain that propogation is complete. This might mean that some sites that are MySQL intensive may become a little slower because all MySQL database connections will be made across the internet instead of our internal LAN. It should also be noted that if you've configured your web site to access MySQL using the IP address instead of the server name (mysql.vilitas.com), it will cease to function. We will be proxying these types of services for a week or so to avoid any immediate trouble, but you should be aware of this so you can make the necessary adjustments if necessary. Basically, if you have any mention to the server by direct IP address (199.236.4.163) you will want to change it to the server name (mysql.vilitas.com).

Second, we've tried very hard to make the server configurations identical on both ends so the migration should work perfectly. However, it is possible that we may have missed a perl module or something else that is highly specialized for your web site. If you have anything like this please let us know so we can try to get things in order for you. We will test things aggressively and monitor error logs after the migration in an attempt to catch and fix these things quickly.

Finally, once the migration is complete your web sites will be running on a faster more power servers on a better connected network.

OmarEduardo · #7 06-Sep-2004, 10:20

I am experimenting a few problems with the vilitas merge, I am a little disappointed and tired, so I think I will find another web hosting if the problems continue. Here is my list:
On september 1, the mysql server was unstable, sometimes on and sometimes off.
Later, my inbox was cleared and a few hours later restored. But the received mail on that time was lost.
On september 5, I lost all the incoming mail.
And today, september 6 all the morning the web server is down

I have requested a support ticket for the most of the issues.

JdS · #8 06-Sep-2004, 10:24

Hello OmarEduardo,

It will help if you share with us your website's URL (the one that's hosted on vilitas.com).

OmarEduardo · #9 06-Sep-2004, 10:28

Sure - Its
http://www.tecnosubastas.com
although its not online right now

Quote:

Originally Posted by JdS

Hello OmarEduardo,

It will help if you share with us your website's URL (the one that's hosted on vilitas.com).

nickbeee · #10 08-Sep-2004, 14:06

Well unfortunatley I've experienced some problems too. Although most have been resolved Via Scott I've lost the confidence I had with Vilitas.

To summarise:

MX records got mangled so my email all ended up on the server instead of going to my email service provider. Managed to fix myself via Control Panel and the tools at http://www.***.com
Lost ssh access but it was restored when requested.
Have been waiting for days to have a perl module CGI::WML restored that was on the server prior to migration.
A look at the df command from my shell shows the disk to be at 90% capacity already.
Having just paid for 12 months hosting the billing system hiccuped and charged me a monthy fee. This was promptly rectified but when checking with cpanel I had been switched back to monthly billing with zero credit. Resolved after emailing them.

I anticipate that there are teething troubles with migrations such as these, I just hope all these issues can be resolved smoothly otherwise I will have to consider a move of host.

Cya,

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Vilitas Merger - any problems?

Not impressed :(