CAN SOMEONE TELL US WHAT IS GOING ON!?!?! I AM COMPLETELY DOWN AND THERE IS NO HELP AT ALL FROM SUPPORT?!!!!!

My suggestion is for you to go to IRC, #linode or #linode-is-broken at irc.oftc.net, the staff is there 24/7, you might be able to get help faster.

I think rather than poking at other members and making assumptions about their usage, it might be better to take a step back and evaluate your own configuration. The reality is whether you are a sole proprietor or Google things can and will happen and if you want to isolate yourself and your customers from those events you need to plan, develop and deploy your solution in a manner consistent with your level of concern.

That's not to say things couldn't have been done better today and I would like to think that they will in the future.

I was actually working on the site I have here at Linode earlier this evening. It was working fine.

I logged into the forum here and learned of the problems. I thought I had lucked out until I tried to access my site. Only the front static page was visible. I could not log in via ssh. I was able to log in via the Linode console. Mysql is up but not responding through the site.

I am lucky, the site I have here is still in development. Thank goodness.

I have had service since February. This is the first problem I have had. It is just another lesson in server administration. Constant vigilance and backups!

Jeff

You have the right to be pissed nsajeff, I'm not saying you don't. Maybe I should've kept my mouth shut, but I felt like defending them because they do a fine job imo. You've read the posts, 5 years of uptime, that's pretty impressive. And Linode is not an expensive shell account to me, but you're right, nor is where I host clients websites.

Don't think I don't know what being under pressure and annoyance by customers and bosses is like, next week there will be a real life 'test drive' of the red5/flash video conferencing/video broadcast/chat tool I(along along with other two developers) have been developing for the last 8 months, where 2700 people(that's right) will be using it at the same time, and I couldn't circumvent all the performance glitches yet.

Production systems operations is a tough, uncompromising, and precise business. If you can't take the heat, get out of the fire. This is no more a reflection on how we conduct our personal lives than a surgeon's precision in an operating room is on his personal life.

Mistakes happen, but this was not a "mistake". They didn't mistype a hostname or accidentally bounce the wrong box. This was negligence.

If I had failed so spectacularly to adhere to basic industry standards of care at any of the companies I've worked for, there is a very good chance I would have simply and instantly been shown the door. At the very least, I would not have been allowed near production boxes again for months.

Like most I was disappointed about the unexpected downtime today (about 2.5 hours downtime for me), but it happens so rarely that it's not the end of the world. I work in a technical field, and it's understandable that occasionally issues pop up that weren't ever seen before or expected.

What I hope is that once this is fixed, (and the admins get a chance to sleep) is that this "event" becomes a "lesson learned" from a communications standpoint. Since they are much bigger now than they've ever been, they need to find a way to communicate to a large number of customers at once on occasion. (Maybe have someone post every hour the list of affected hosts) Other than this big incident, though, the communication from the staff has been great!

I'm still a satisfied customer, though, and I won't hesitate to recommend Linode to someone else!

Hey guys! Crap breaks.

If you really want a better SLA, then you should probably get one in writing.

Thanks for getting it back up and running, linode staffers.

If a RAID controller had starting puking all over itself or a power supply popped a capacitor, I assure you I would not be here loudly voicing my displeasure. Based on their past performance in such situations, I'd probably be thanking them for prompt action.

The present situation is not "crap breaks", it is "Linode broke it".

It's a good thing that their uptime guarantee (section 5) covers both hardware error and human error then, huh? The part where it is 99.9% over a month as opposed to a year is nice too.

Second, not to be the obvious counter-whiner, but if you're really that pissed then take it to their contact page or ultimately, your wallet - not the boards here. It won't change a thing.

Interesting that this turned into a flaming thread. Oh well.

I absolutely call BS on Linode for the unacceptable uncommunicated maintenance. And the continuing silence after the event. And even now, 8+ hours after the event started, they haven't chimed in with much information.

And let's focus on those issues. Who cares if your Linode is a personal shell (mine is not) or a production system? We all expect to know when something we pay for is broken, and when it'll be fixed. Oh, and a warning before it's going to be broken, if you know it.

My point? Focus. Let's focus on one thing.

Communication.

Let's all demand more and better communication from Linode. I agree that we don't want to pull people away from resolving the issues. And we don't want to be kept in the dark, either.

So let's all demand clear and timely communication from Linode. Whether it's in forums, blogs, tweets, or email, what we want to know is "What's going on?".

We don't care about the medium, we care about the content.
We don't care about the framing, we care about the content.

Please, Linode, communicate with us. I haven't seen a single post from someone say they're going to leave Linode (yet), but why wait till it comes to that point? Why wait till you're in the position of begging for customers before talking to the ones you have?

/ramble

The existence of an SLA and the paltry refunds do not excuse the careless behavior in evidence here.



Really? I'd always been under the impression that Linode was one of those rare companies that actually encourages open dialogue with their community, including in their official forums.

If that is not the case, then that is indeed a reason to consider taking my business elsewhere.

To be sure, there are local datacenters where I could put one of my spare 1Us for little more than I pay Linode, and get more resources in the process. My time is valuable enough that I've elected to stay with Linode rather than administer my own hardware, but perhaps I should reevaluate that stance if Linode truly does not care what is posted in their own forums.

Don't care? You clearly don't use IRC where they are active even right now ... I'm pretty sure the standard operating procedure is ticket -> IRC -> forum for problem resolution (e.g., forum is not for realtime support).

I was responding specifically to kbrantley's frankly irrelevant assertions.

And no, I generally don't use IRC these days. It is an inefficient and rushed form of communication for which I generally have little use.



Which is neither here nor there. If you'd care to look at what I've actually posted in this thread, you'll see that not once have I sought any form of support or assistance. You and kbrantley seem to be addressing a strawman.

Please refer to the newly posted service status announcement for additional information on outage resolution efforts. Thank you again for your patience.