Site Down!

So my site is down. Arvixe can't even get it restarted. The server is not booting completely. I just went live on Tuesday. Was getting a member signed up every 5 minutes.

1. Ugh! What can I do and what do you think went wrong?

2. Should I change hosting companies? (DosDawg what would you do in this situation? How would you prevent this from happening?

3. What could have caused this? They can't even do a reboot.

Do you have a good working backup of your site and db?

The site is up and Arvixe said that it was an error in the firewall and it blocked all incoming connections. Something error in the IP tables. Can someone explain?

This happened to me as well. Did you just have the firewall installed? The problem for me was CSF. The firewall module would not operate correctly with my current kernal so they moved it to another one. Hope that helps.

I haven't done anything to the server. :( Here is what Arvixe said:

Greetings,

This should be back online. It appears that there was an error in the VPS' firewall that was causing it to reject all connections. I have corrected this and everything should be working properly now. Please let us know if there is anything else we can assist you with.

Regards,

Michael Mortimer
Technical Operations Officer
http://www.arvixe.com
Arvixe, LLC

Thanks Medfly :) What is CFS?

Ok so the site is up. Arvixe's solution was to disable the firewall. Don't I need it??

csf - ConfigServer Firewall

Disaibling Firewall may not be a smart move...

MY SITE IS DOWN AGAIN!!!! Really??? Twice in one day??? My hosting provider is ARVIXE btw. The same one who shut off my firewall cause it caused my site to go down. They thought I didn't need it. Wow!

I'm sorry for your issues. Can you please outline your domain name or the ticket ID where you had the conversation with Michael Mortimer?

I am currently not seeing any VPSes down on our monitoring system (and based on Michael's response, I'm guessing you are on a VPS and not a shared hosting account)

Using your username on here, I found your email address in our database and furthermore, found your VPS server. I see that it is up right now and your page is loading. I also see that you've been our customer for over 500 days and appreciate your loyalty. However, I was not able to find your ticket where you've had this conversation with Michael Mortimer. You may have contacted us using a different email address.

So that we can properly identify and make sure that you are not running into such issues in the future, I would ask that you send the ticket ID to our QA departmenat at qa .at. arvixe.com along with the URL for this page. We will definitely give the highest amount of attention to your case and resolve the issue as best as possible.

I get a response here on the Boonex forum from Arvixe to help, but when I contact you guys I get nothing. Hmmmmm.

Ticket ID: ENM-827-72367

nameserver failed @ Thu Apr 21 18:52:50 2011. A restart was attempted automagically.
Service Check Method:  [check command]
Cmd Service Check Raw Output: named is not running

nameserver failed @ Thu Apr 21 07:39:49 2011. A restart was attempted automagically.
Service Check Method:  [check command]
Cmd Service Check Raw Output: named is not running

nameserver failed @ Thu Apr 21 07:27:30 2011. A restart was attempted automagically.
Service Check Method:  [check command]
Cmd Service Check Raw Output: named is not running

nameserver failed @ Thu Apr 21 07:08:43 2011. A restart was attempted automagically.
Service Check Method:  [check command]
Cmd Service Check Raw Output: named is not running

This is an automated message from SiteUptime.

The system confirmed 6 failed checks at 30 minute intervals starting at 
April 21, 2011 06:50:41

Alert Type: Site is Available

Result: Ok

Time: April 21, 2011 09:49:10    3 hours downtime

Service: http

they may have a bad dns record on there master machine or etc/named.conf my have the wrong ownership or it got changed on a cpanel update....   many more reasons why it might be broken beyond those listed above.

I waited an hour on chat to get a response on why the server went down so much and how to prevent it. Never got an answer. Firewall still down. Maybe Arvixe will PM me on here. Think it might be time to change hosting companies. :( Gotta do it by Monday.

Well let me know what happens by the end of the day and i'll see what i can do for you.

We have not seen an email in our QA inbox at qa .at. arvixe.com and I see that your tickets are still closed. Please either update an old ticket where the issue is still on going or if this is a new issue, send a new email into support .at. arvixe.com . Then, post the ticket ID *here* so we can assist you or simply email it to qa .at. arvixe.com .

I am offering to help and I want to help but I need your help.

As for this specific issue and in response to dolphin_jay's question, the individual is on a VPS. So the entire VPS relies on the level of usage within the VPS to operate properly. Highly used VPS servers will show issues as I/O or memory usage rises (such as failing services), etc. Regardless, as it is a separate system, it is not something we have complete control over in taking down or bringing back up. While your site is down, there are no other sites down as you are on your own VPS.

But please, outline your issues clearly in an email or a ticket then provide us with the ticket ID either here or by emailing in.

I tried to back up the site yesterday and it crashed.

wow. It's funny that arvixe only replies to negative comments. last one that they commented on was in dec 2010. You would think they would use some discretion and a more positive tone instead of blaming it on the client like it seems they always do.They might get more business.

On the ticket issue - every ticket is closed when Arvixe responds not when the issue is resolved. That's how it works. So the reason my tickets are closed is that I haven't responded back to the ticket online when they said they turned off the firewall. I called in but they don't recognize the call. The situation has not been resolved.

My advice from experience, do your research when getting your hosting company and mods. There are alot of them out there, some good and some bad. Don't make the mistake of getting a bad one that will set you back money, time and the reputation of your website. Look at other people's sites and see how they work. Ask them what mods they used and how the developers responded to the bugs. This will save you alot of headaches in the future. Also make good friends with a trusted developer mod. They can get you out of alot of trouble when your site is down. :) Hope this helps.

Arvixe I appreciate trying to "help" me on the forum. But your actions off the forum signify other intentions.

@dolphin_jay I just might take you up on your offer :) I will PM you.

The sole purpose of us being here is to resolve your issues so you can continue to build your website and use our services. We have yet to receive an email from you at qa .at. arvixe.com . If we respond to a ticket, we've either made a chance to your VPS that we feel may have resolved the issue or we need further correspondence. The ticket is closed to outline internally for us that we have responded to a ticket. By updating the ticket, the ticket opens up immediately and is made available for our staff to review and further assist you with it.

So, I am begging you to allow us to help you by using the standard methods of support and outlining your dissatisfaction to qa .at. arvixe.com with concrete details so we can track down and resolve any issues that we can.

We currently host well over 2500 Dolphin sites and that number continues to grow across our shared, vps and  dedicated offerings. We want your site to be one of those. But we can't help you unless you provide us with proper feedback so we understand what the problem is.

If the only response you get from Arvixe is here perhaps it's best to look for a new host like I will be.  No straight answers to anything.  One blames the other.  The other says it's our problem then the other says no it's your problem.  I only went with Arvixe because they were recommended here but to say I am deeply disappointed in their so called customer and technical support would be saying it nicely.

Thanks BeWytched. :) I went with another hosting provider and had DolphinTechs migrate the site over. Everything is going smooth and running fast. No more high load on the server! They did an excellent job and took alot of stress off trying to do it myself. I have over 3700 members which are online 24/7 practically.