Host moved to a new server - normal? I've been hosting multiple websites on a reseller plan with Host4Geeks after I had an awful experience with Hostwinds. So far, I've been really happy with them and have had no intention of leaving for the indefinite future — or at least until I feel really ready to manage my own VPS plan. ++++++++++++++ list of top cheapest host http://Listfreetop.pw Top 200 best traffic exchange sites http://Listfreetop.pw/surf free link exchange sites list http://Listfreetop.pw/links list of top ptc sites list of top ptp sites Listfreetop.pw Listfreetop.pw +++++++++++++++ However, a few days ago, out of the blue, I got an email notifying that they are moving the server my plan is on to a new datacenter; thus the IP would change. Today, I found that my websites were all offline, so presume that the change has been made. I updated my configuration in Cloudflare but I see that the DNS records in Host4Geeks do not seem to have been correctly updated — ie, they retain the IP address of the old server. I also wasn't able to log in to WHM until support manually provided me with a new link. Currently all my websites are offline. I'm praying that the DNS is still propagating and that it won't screw up all the Wordpress websites. I'm wondering whether this is a typical process for a host to undertake and whether, in such a case, they typically provide a bit more hands-on help than what I have received from Host4Geeks. It has seemed quite buggy and I'm disappointed that they're not willing to do more to deal with my ticket. At the moment, their live chat is not operational and they are taking quite a long time to respond to emails, which is the only way of reaching them (they don't offer tech support by phone). Again, I'm just trying to figure out if this is par for the course. If it is not, I would definitely consider moving to another provider after this has been resolved as reliability and uptime are always my key concerns. TIA for any advice. You are using external DNS with Cloudflare so must be using their nameservers. It sounds like an issue with the DNS records in your Cloudflare account. Have you updated all the records for whm, cpanel, webmail, etc subdomains with Cloudflare? Yes, I have done that. Seems like it was rushed with no consideration to their customers. itiad.com gold-ptp.net inmotion hosting at&t hosting services top-ptp.conseil-pub.com best5link.com 5 domains of wellness domain in math website.ws bountyhunters.io Usually, a plan is in place to ensure that there is no downtime. You should really ask what happened. It's normal for a provider to move you onto a different server and for the IP to change as-well but as a customer you should have received two things.. 1.) Notice - Unless it ties into the server having some terrible unfixable issues then a shorter notice period is acceptable "IMHO" however, if it's wasn't a critical switch then you should have had more notice. Also, in regards to the response time they should have had more staff on hand to assist out with outcome issues. 2.) Reasoning - Why they need to conduct a server switch. Normal would depend on how much notice you were given and if the move was a regular scheduled move or an emergency move. If they needed to move your entire server to a new datacenter they should have notified you way in advance so you could move everything over to your DR site before the move so you would have no downtime. If this was not planned they should let you know why they had to move (could be financial issues, lease problems, growth problems, better deals with another provider or a number of things which you should not be left in the dark to guess about.). Well, it sure sounds like they dropped the ball, but I'd love to hear directly from them here. I updated my configuration in Cloudflare but I see that the DNS records in Host4Geeks do not seem to have been correctly updated — ie, they retain the IP address of the old server. I also wasn't able to log in to WHM until support manually provided me with a new link. Not sure why the DNS entries on the hosting servers were not updated if the migration was done properly. If there is an IP mismatch between your hosting server and Cloudflare, you will have downtime. This is what happened here as it seems. Currently all my websites are offline. I'm praying that the DNS is still propagating and that it won't screw up all the Wordpress websites. DNS propagation can sometimes take up to 72 hours in some areas. But that's extremely rare now a days. In most cases with Cloudflare DNS, it does not take more than a minute to propagate. Have tried after clearing your cache or using a VPN to access the sites from a different location? In any case, if there was an IP mismatch as mentioned above, clearing cache won't help. I'm wondering whether this is a typical process for a host to undertake and whether, in such a case, they typically provide a bit more hands-on help than what I have received from Host4Geeks. It has seemed quite buggy and I'm disappointed that they're not willing to do more to deal with my ticket. Migrations can often have issues caused by unforeseen circumstances. Not sure what was the cause here. Would be nice to hear what your provider has to say about it. Migrating your accounts from one server to another isn't extraordinary, it is occasionally done for various reasons such as OS upgrade, hardware upgrade, facility relocation, etc. Of course, unless it is an emergency, it would always be responsible of the hosting provider to provide advance notice. Unfortunately we wouldn't know what was the reason motivating Host4Geeks to migrate your accounts from your previous server to the new one. Since you are their direct customer, I guess you could ask them what is the rationale for them migrating your accounts to the new server? That would be the most direct answer you would receive, since it comes direct from your hosting provider. Alternatively they do have an active representative on WHT and I guess he will step in to clarify once they have tidied up any remaining loose ends. DNS propagation can sometimes take up to 72 hours in some areas. But that's extremely rare now a days. In most cases with Cloudflare DNS, it does not take more than a minute to propagate. Have tried after clearing your cache or using a VPN to access the sites from a different location? In any case, if there was an IP mismatch as mentioned above, clearing cache won't help. Migrations can often have issues caused by unforeseen circumstances. Not sure what was the cause here. Would be nice to hear what your provider has to say about it. Tried all that and the website is still down (I pointed the nameservers of one of the 15 sites back to Host4Geeks to eliminate any Cloudflare issues as a potential cause). In any case, if there was an IP mismatch as mentioned above, clearing cache won't help. Looks like it? https://imgur.com/a/SWXE6pg How long was the notification period? I would expect at least 14 days as sometimes there are other concerns some are manual and slow (for example a client I have has to whitelist the server IP with the payment processor via the account manager grr). But what I don't get is why they wouldn't use IP tables to route IPs to the new IPs for a period and script some post migration checks and follow up with customers that weren't in compliance, too many cpanel companies have "cpanel university" techs that couldn't figure out anything unless it had an Orange next button. (I not saying I recall the rules required off the top of my head, but some googling, some testing, and some issues solved) MattF - Since the start.. 3 days, but "30 minutes" if you read the email carefully! Received in my inbox on the 18th with subject line: "IMPT: cPanel Server - UKSRV1 Urgent Migration" Highlighting the part of the message that seems to basically have not happened. ** Hello XXXXX We hope you are doing well today. As part of our commitment to provide a quality hosting service, we’re notifying you of upcoming urgent maintenance activity affecting your hosting service with us. Please read the details below carefully: Maintenance type: Server Reason for Maintenance: Our proactive monitoring systems have alerted of some hardware issues on the cPanel server UKSRV1, which may lead to some unwanted hardware failures. As preventive maintenance and to ensure undisrupted services we are moving all accounts of this server to a new server that has been deployed. Since the migration is a full server migration, all your accounts and sub-accounts including all files, databases, emails, etc will be moved over. We will be starting this within 30 minutes of you receiving this email. Impact: Since the old server will remain online during the entire duration, your sites and services will remain fully functional and there would be no downtime at all. With the amount of data that is to be moved, we expect that this migration may take around 48 - 72 hours. There are a few things that we would like to inform you of: Shared, Semi-Dedicated & WordPress Hosting clients: You will receive an email from us, once the migration has been entirely completed. If you are using our nameserver (i.e. ns1.websiteserverbox.com ns2.websiteserverbox.com and ns3.websiteserverbox.com) there are no changes that are required from your end. Once your account is moved to the new server, your DNS will automatically be updated and your sites will start to load from the new server. Your cPanel login details and all other usernames and passwords shall remain unchanged. If you are hosting your DNS elsewhere and pointing your website to us through an A record, please make sure you update the A record with the new IP that will be assigned to your account. You can find this IP by logging in to your cPanel account check the right sidebar. If you have a dedicated IP address, you will also find the new dedicated IP for your cPanel account in the same location. Reseller Hosting Clients: If you are using your own private nameservers or our Whitelabel nameservers there are no changes that are required from your end. Once your account is moved to the new server, your DNS will automatically be updated and your sites will start to load from the new server. Your cPanel login details and all other usernames and passwords shall remain unchanged. If you are hosting your DNS elsewhere and pointing your website to us through an A record, please make sure you update the A record with the new IP that will be assigned to your account. You can find this IP by logging in to your cPanel account check the right sidebar. If any of your cPanel accounts have a dedicated IP address, you will also find the new dedicated IP for the cPanel accounts in the same location. Time of Maintenance: Effective Immediately. Duration: Due to the prolonged duration of the migration, we suggest you make minimal changes to your website in the following 72 hours. However, after the migration should you notice outdated data/content on your website, please open a ticket and we will re-migrate the latest copy of your account/website. Please submit all such requests within 48 hours of receiving the email notifying you about the completion of the migration. Data Center: London, UK Thank you so much for taking the time to review this notice. If you have any questions or concerns about this scheduled procedure, please don't hesitate to contact our staff for more details. We apologize for the short notice about this migration, it is being done to avoid any issues that you and your clients may face and keeping your best interests in mind. We will continue to update this thread as the migration proceeds. Thanks! Seems like they found some issue with hardware. That is just one way of showing you how proactive they are and it seems an urgent task. I assumed you contacted them already about the issue? Seems like they found some issue with hardware. That is just one way of showing you how proactive they are and it seems an urgent task. I assumed you contacted them already about the issue? Yup. Their only answer was "we see that your website is loading". (The one website they noted as "loading" was displaying a Wordpress error message.) They have no voice-based customer support, so the only means of getting in touch with them is by email/tickets, which they take hours to respond to. Any recommendations for a better reseller host with proper customer support? It indicates the issue is caused by IP mismatch. Have you tried changing the IP Address of the A records in your cPanel to the new IP Address from email? I know this is your providers job, but you might save some time if changing them fixed your issue. It seems they didn't perform an express migration. Then some providers do not prefer an express migration. Yup. Their only answer was "we see that your website is loading". (The one website they noted as "loading" was displaying a Wordpress error message.) Probably because of a DNS caching issue at their end, they are seeing the site on the old server. They have no voice-based customer support, so the only means of getting in touch with them is by email/tickets, which they take hours to respond to. Ticket is a better way to provide web hosting support as it allows better investigation of the issue at hand and solutions can be referenced to at a later time without contacting the provider. If they are having issues with a lot of sites, that explains the delay in their reply. Any recommendations for a better reseller host with proper customer support? Have a look around the forums. WHT is not that much active now a days than it was in the past. Providers cannot recommend themselves or make offers and you can't recommend anyone without actually using them. It indicates the issue is caused by IP mismatch. Have you tried changing the IP Address of the A records in your cPanel to the new IP Address from email? I know this is your providers job, but you might save some time if changing them fixed your issue. This gets interesting. I compared the DNS records in the new Cpanel to what I had in my Cloudflare, which I stopped using yesterday for this domain. The DNS In my host just has A records (pointing to the wrong IP). They're missing: CNAMEs, TXT records for "domain key", and MX records (although the last I added directly to Cloudflare when I started using Gsuite, so these could not have been copied over). HOWEVER: For all other (21) domains on my account, I simply updated the A records with the new server IP. So I thought that that would have technically fixed the issue. Unfortunately it does not seem to. Unfortunately it does not seem to. Sorry to know that. Have you tried fixing the A Records from WHM > Edit DNS Zone? Note that there will be a SOA record. You will need to type in your 1st nameserver followed by a dot (.) in the SOA field. For example, if your nameserver is ns1.example.com, type in ns1.example.com. in the field next to SOA. Also, check whether the NS records are representing your current nameservers. If those do not help, then you are out of options as it seems. A root access might be needed to fix it. This demonstrates perfectly what I mean by absymal support. Despite the fact that I have updated Cloudflare A records with the new server IP, they are trying to use that fact (alone) to shirk responsibility for dealing with the issue. Unbelievable. https://imgur.com/a/pi9bEty That's the response, by the way, to "this is urgent, all my websites are down, could you check why?" WHT is not our helpdesk. The reason was clearly mentioned in both our emails as well as on the public status page, which states that the migration being done due to some hardware errors being detected which may lead to a future hardware failure and it was not being moved to a new datacenter but a new server. https://status.host4geeks.com/ "Our proactive monitoring systems have alerted of some hardware issues on the cPanel server UKSRV1, which may lead to some unwanted hardware failures. As preventive maintenance and to ensure undisrupted services we are moving all accounts of this server to a new server that has been deployed." Also, my reply that you shared above is due to your response which stated: "Yesterday, I pointed the nameservers for DSRGhostwriting.com directly to H4G." Which you did not, you pointed the A record to our servers and not the nameservers they are both different things. If you want to share communications that we have within the ticketing system, which we consider as private, please atleast share both sides of the replies as opposed to selective sharing. It does not come as a surprise though that for almsot every support ticket you have opened with us, there exists a corresponding WHT thread. Externally, it is not possible to view or check if you have pointed an A record from CloudFlare to the correct IP or not since CloudFlare cloaks it and I checked that your DNS that is the nameserver was pointing to the CloudFlare nameservers and NOT to host4geeks nameservers as stated by you in a previous reply. We have 100s of customers on the same server that have been migrated and only a handful of them had some minor issues that we have worked with them to clear out. You have 2 active WHT threads about the same thing within a few hours. It indicates the issue is caused by IP mismatch. Have you tried changing the IP Address of the A records in your cPanel to the new IP Address from email? I know this is your providers job, but you might save some time if changing them fixed your issue. It seems they didn't perform an express migration. Then some providers do not prefer an express migration. Probably because of a DNS caching issue at their end, they are seeing the site on the old server. His DNS was and is hosted with CloudFlare as opposed to what he states, in which case the DNS records on his cPanel does not matter and does not change. Screenshot: <> His DNS was and is hosted with CloudFlare as opposed to what he states, in which case the DNS records on his cPanel does not matter and does not change. Screenshot: <> Hi Kushal, It's disappointing to see that you adopt such a combative approach. By the way, I did actually revert the nameservers on the domain you mentioned to H4G, although I subsequently changed them back to Cloudflare when I saw that that did not resolve the issue. All I can say is that your lookup system is imperfect. Also — why does that matter? Your botched migration has caused downtime on over 20 domains that I operate, including those of some customers. Whether I update the nameservers natively through your UI or via Cloudflare is immaterial to the point. I am aware of the difference between A-records and nameservers. The fact you feel the need to state that makes me wonder whether you are following the tickets. BTW, there was a purpose to this thread — to see whether this is normal and I should give you some time to work this out, and the other thread — to see if better reseller hosting providers exist. Your replies (which lack any apology for the inconvenience, I note) have convinced me that it is certainly time to look for alternatives. Finally — I shared a general notice you sent to your customers, which was not marked as private, and you have chosen to publicly post a domain name under management in the account that I mentioned. I would ask that you remove this screenshot — and it calls into serious question your commitment to your customers' privacy. Prospective H4G customers, be warned. Changing nameservers and records can take a few hours at least to propagate and for caches to expire. As such, using a site like webpagetest.org or tools.pingdom.com that shows a screenshot of the site is best to do during such events. As those sites' checker instances wont likely have any cached DNS lookups, DNS propagation should not be an issue for them and would show the new server's version of the site. When you say the sites were not working, what errors were you getting specifically? -Steven | u2-web@Cooini, LLC - Business Shared Hosting | Isolate sites with Webspaces | Site Builder | PHP-FPM | MariaDB There are about 20 sites on this reseller hosting package. Some sites were throwing up the "white screen of death" (HTTP Error 500). Some of the Wordpress sites had a Wordpress error saying "this site is experiencing technical difficulties" (I can't remember the exact language of the error message but every close to that and a well-known one) — although enabling debugging mode didn't fix things. Finally, some were giving a "there is no website here" CGI bin. At the time of writing, most of my websites are back online. I speculated to Host4Geeks that there was potentially a PHP version miscompatability between the new server they provisioned and the old one given that the websites had all been working days ago only something server-side changing made sense. I was told in a ticket that "we have already identified this issue and are presently working on it" so I'm putting my money on that being the likely cause of the issue. An apology of course would have been nice but their CEO's responses here have already spoken volumes about their professionalism.