We all rave about how good Linode is but I have come to the conclusion that when there are major issues they are quite bad at providing updates to be honest. I have a Linode down for 2 hours now due to some "hardware issue" and hard drives need to be transplanted. And thats all the info I have. Status page shows everything operational. No timing is given to me. I have no idea if it will be 5 mins longer or 5 hours or more.

I can understand if Linode are waiting on the data centre to update them, but if that's the case Linode really should be demanding updates from them like I am from Linode. If the data centre is to blame for lack of updates then Linode need to sort that out with them.

I'm sorry but this is absolutely terrible... I have no updates to pass to my customers who services are down.

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Web Development Agency in South Wales

If you're on london814 I just asked support and they said there's no estimate on how long the transplant will take so it's a case of twiddling thumbs.

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Paid support
How to ask for help
1. Give details of your problem
2. Post any errors
3. Post relevant logs.
4. Don't hide details i.e. your domain, it just makes things harder
5. Be polite or you'll be eaten by a grue

Yes Linode814.

But thats the problem... why is no one able to give an estimate? Have the data centre not given Linode an estimate? If not, is it because they have not started? Perhaps there's a big issue there, so a big queue, lots of hardware to fix. If they have started, they should be able to estimate how long a hard drive transplant should take? Are they intentionally not telling us/Linode the issue because its serious? Its very odd no one can give an update on the status.

And thats the point of the post, to give my opinion that updates are not very good.

I do not accept we should be twiddling thumbs, I believe someone somewhere is able to give a better update with estimated timing. Once we know, we can stop monitoring the situation, inform customers and get on with other things in the meantime. Instead I am refreshing the support ticket page every minute for updates.

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Web Development Agency in South Wales

You could just keep poking support and ask them instead of asking here. Support don't read the forums very often. Anyway they've said the drives have been transplanted and it should be back to normal soon.

_________________
Paid support
How to ask for help
1. Give details of your problem
2. Post any errors
3. Post relevant logs.
4. Don't hide details i.e. your domain, it just makes things harder
5. Be polite or you'll be eaten by a grue

I agree that the trouble ticket/status updates should be clearer and more forthcoming, but...., are you selling guaranteed uptime to your clients? If so, then you should have safeguards in place for unexpected, and beyond your control, events. If not, then your clients shouldn't be complaining, or if they do, you need to point out that they are not buying guaranteed uptime (which is usually a magnitude or higher more expensive).

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Either provide enough details for people to help, or sit back and listen to the crickets chirp.
Security thru obscurity is a myth - and really really annoying.

They're coming up now

I've been asking them for updates, I was not asking for updates here, but just reporting that I don't think Linodes updates are very good. Wondered if anyone else agrees or not, or just happy to be in the dark when servers are down.

I thought if a lot of people agreed then maybe its something they should sort out. If no one complains like this, they'll just keep not updating us.

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Web Development Agency in South Wales

I'm not running Google, sadly we do not have the resources to invest in such an infrastructure. We have one mail server and do not have a backup solution to kick in when the main server goes down (we of course have backup but not a mirror server so users mail keeps on working with no disruption). Would be great but not there yet.

So the post is not about the fact there was an issue, I accept there will be hardware issues. Its about not receiving very good communication on the matter. The issue was fixed 15 minutes after they told me they dont have any timing to give which is quite odd they cant see they are near completion at that time.

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Web Development Agency in South Wales

Maybe Linode should do a Scotty and make an estimate then multiply it by 4 so they have a reputation of miracle workers when they fix things!

_________________
Paid support
How to ask for help
1. Give details of your problem
2. Post any errors
3. Post relevant logs.
4. Don't hide details i.e. your domain, it just makes things harder
5. Be polite or you'll be eaten by a grue

If I get an estimate that's 4 times longer then what they actually take I will be happier than not having any estimate at all.

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Web Development Agency in South Wales

To suggest not to use timings on things in case of missing deadlines is ridiculous and not very professional. I would prefer an estimate that is missed, than no estimate at all. At least it gives us a guide. For example, lets say they say it would take approx. 3 hours, well if takes 4 hours then thats better than not being told anything because for all I know it could take days. I have no idea if its 3 hours, 3 days, 3 weeks, or unfixable. Saying "several hours" would be a big help. And I would say they must have an idea of this being "experts", they must have done this before? They must know if it will be within an hour, within several hours, within a day, within a week?

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Web Development Agency in South Wales

Would you prefer an estimate that is made up to none at all? Because that seems to be the logical conclusion here.

I dont know what you mean. I give time estimates all the time to customers, but I dont know the exact timing. But I need time estimates so they can know when to expect it and for costing purposes. Maybe a customer has an exhibition in a few days and he wants to know will it be done by then. So I tell him yes or no. I dont tell him I have no idea I will just get on with it and you can wait and see.

I guess you've ordered from Amazon and you like the fact it states delivery estimate between 23rd and 26th September or something, and would be quite annoyed if it said "unknown delivery date, just wait for it".

Decisions can be made with estimates. If they said a few hours I will wait, if they said a few days I would create a new Linode and restore my backup to it. What do you do when no timing is given? Then 3 days later they're still down and you wished you just restored the backup to a new Linode 3 days ago.

I honestly think expecting some estimates on timing is a very reasonable request, and it amazes me people disagree and think no updates on issue like this is acceptable.

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Web Development Agency in South Wales

You've obviously never worked on system hardware before. Often until you're knee deep into the problem you have no clue what is wrong or what the fix is. I'd say the standard practice is to fix the problem, and it will be done when it's done. Guessing is a waste of time and just upsets the unwashed hordes when the guess doesn't magically convert to fact. I feel your pain, I just endured a city wide power outage for over 4 hours a few days ago. DMEA's website (the electric company) outage status widget just kept saying "repair in progress", no estimate, no update, until the lights came on, then 15 minutes or so after that, the status turned to "repair complete". The trick to managing the unknown is for YOU to have your own time limits and responses. After a certain amount of time, send out alerts, after a bit more time redirect traffic to a status page, after still more time, move all sites to a backup server in another datacenter, etc etc. You can control your actions, you can't control the time it takes for an unexpected event out of your control to be fixed.

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Either provide enough details for people to help, or sit back and listen to the crickets chirp.
Security thru obscurity is a myth - and really really annoying.

^ This.

Thanks for the feedback.

I just wanted to sing the praises of the Linode LLC admins and support guys for their excellent jobs when recovering from hardware problems. This happens night and day, weekends, holidays - year round, non stop. Downtime sucks, yes - but these guys do an amazing job getting Linodes back online as safely and as quickly as possible, in spite of this being a frequently thankless job.

-Chris