Getting closer to having a 1&1 server up again!

So this past Saturday I was reimaging a server for a customer and things went awry. Here's the story.

Yesterday, Monday, I called in to find out what the progress was. Still the same old story. Waiting on the server department to identify the problem and fix it. For those who know me and know how I handle vendors I should have been taking people's heads off by now. But since 1&1 is such a large organization I thought I'd try a different approach. Politely asking to speak to their manager.

This morning I called into 1-877-HELP-AT-1AND1 and talked to Mary who dutifully told me the same old story. The server department is looking at it and will get back to me. I asked to speak to her supervisor so she put me on hold. When she came back her supervisor did not want to talk to me but instead wanted her to forward me to the "Server Line". This sounded promising. Next I spoke to Michael. I didn't ask him what department he was in but after giving him all the same information he said he was going to transfer me too the "Server Line". I guess I didn't make it the first time. Next I heard "Server Line may I have your customer id?". OK now I've gotten some where. The guy didn't even introduce himself. I gave him my info and he started looking at things. After a bit I got his name, Steve, and then he told me the same old thing. We have to wait on the Server Department who is working on it. I did not lose my temper, I simply asked him if he understood my problem. Then I asked if I could talk to a supervisor. He politely transferred.

"This is Richard", OK now some one who seems to want to get straight to the point. A nice British chap in the U.K. We talked for a little bit and I found out that the group I originally talked to on Saturday had goofed up and opened the wrong kind of ticket and that it was basically sitting in limbo. He went on to say that Steve had already opened the proper type of hardware ticket and that he expected some action in the next few hours. Now we are talking! I took this opportunity to ask a little more about the server support and how the data center is manned. It turns out that calling the 1-877-GO-1AND1 sales line and choosing the option for server support is the better way to reach the right group. Although it is possible that the call could still be routed to the general call group if they don't have enough people on the Server Line. As for the question of people manning the data center, he said they don't have an office immediately in the data center itself but that a Server Department person is on duty 24 hours a day and that their office is less than 5 minutes from the actual data center. I didn't ask if that was 5 minutes walking, running or driving. None the less someone with a pulse is near the data center all the time. That's the important part.

So here I sit, waiting... Well actually I have plenty of work to do besides worry about that server. The upgrade to Plesk 8.0 and CentOS didn't go so easy. There were problems with the DNS records, GID on mailman, the missing lists, and ownership of webuser accounts just to name a few. One good hint, always look at the /etc/psa/psa.conf file. It can let you know where things are just incase they are moved, like the mailman lists.

2:55pm:
Hooray!!! I got the email from 1&1 saying the re-imaging process has been competed. Hmmm lets try that one more time just to make sure it works.

3:55pm:
Back from the bank and all looks well. Time to start the install of CentOS and Plesk 8.0. Wow! it just installed CentOS in under 4 minutes. This is a happy server now.