We are currently experiencing a network issue affecting all of our customers on Sitezhosting 3, 4, 5 and 6. A transformer in our data center caught fire and created a small explosion knocking down three of the walls in the electrical room. Luckily no one was hurt in the fire and there has been no damage to the servers. The fire department did require, however, that our server provider ('The Planet' in Texas) take down all generators - causing (what we've been told) around 9000 servers in Texas to go offline. The fire department instructed 'The Planet' not to initiate their backup generator plan which is what they usually do in a power outage to ensure there is no disruption in service. These are highly unusual circumstances so unfortunately the latest update from the data center technicians suggests the outage may last until Sunday afternoon.
We are very sorry for the inconvenience. Please rest assured there is a team at the data center working around the clock with the fire department to get the power and data center back online as quickly as possible. I apologize for the inconvenience and frustration this has caused. We also will be working all day to keep you up to date with the latest information. We will be posting all updates in our news section of our support center.
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We would like to take this opportunity to address some concerns that have been mentioned to us.
Backup Plan:
After finding that our first server provider was less then reliable and gave us sub-par service we researched long and hard for one that received great reviews, had great customer service, and a reliable data center and servers. Our servers are located in a well known and large data center called 'The Planet' located in Texas. Their facilities have the following:
- Power systems at The Planet’s data centers are designed to run uninterrupted - even in the unlikely event of a total power outage. We have, for example, a state-of-the-art N+1 power generator architecture. In the event of any generator failure, back up power systems provide ample capacity to keep servers running.
- In an extended power outage, on-site diesel generators at our data centers can run indefinitely. Power generators receive regular preventative maintenance to ensure the will continue to function in any emergency.
- Every server is fed with uninterruptible power supply (UPS) that assures service in the event of a power failure. Our UPS power is N+1 redundant with instant failover coverage should the primary UPS fail.
- Our data center HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) systems are N+1 redundant to ensure that in the unlikely event of an entire HVAC system failure, there is a duplicate system ready to assume the load.
- The Planet data centers feature advanced fire suppression systems to keep any fires localized and prevent them from spreading..
Preventative maintenance at our data centers is performed regularly by our own highly trained personnel to meet or exceed manufacturers recommended practices. These include quarterly generator maintenance, quarterly UPS maintenance and battery testing, and monthly HVAC maintenance. - The Planet is a member of The Uptime Network, a prestigious knowledge consortium where global standards and best practices are created and delivered to maintain system uptime.
- We own and manage highly secure, state-of-the-art data centers which are devoted exclusively to our customers.
There is a backup plan in place with the backup generators, however the fire department is preventing them from initiating the backup plan which is why there is an outage. The fire suppression system worked as intended which is why there was no server or data loss due to the fire. We consider this good news as the small explosion and fire could have resulted in devastating losses that would cause the downtime to be greater, not to mention possible injuries for the 24/7 data center technicians. There are also nightly backups in case of catastrophic server failure so data would not be lost, however since this is a much larger issue then with a server the nightly backups are unnecessary as the servers have not been hurt by the fire.
Quality Servers:
Our dedicated servers have had a 99%+ uptime in this data center. We haven't experienced any outages prior to this that we know of. We use high quality servers, and most importantly we do NOT oversell our server space. It is a common practice to put hundreds of sites on the server because not every client uses the space and bandwidth given to them. Jamie and I do not believe in this practice. This is why we offer what we do - it is the space and bandwidth that is solely yours to do with as you please. This results in servers with low resource strain to allow the best possible performances with low chances of server failure.
Disaster Recovery:
We are researching to see what we can offer as far as a remote disaster recovery plan. There are data centers and service providers out there that can provide a system like this, but they will be much more costly. We are looking for one that meets our standards of customer service so we don't have exact pricing yet, but we anticipate the package costing at least $40-$50 a month to allow the security of little or no downtime in the event of a fire, flood, or worse.
We would also would like to mention that we do have the ability to purchase our templates as templates only. With an individual template purchase you can host your template on any server that meets our requirements for the site to run properly. This way you can choose a hosting provider that suits you best if we do not meet your needs for hosting.
Thank you for your understanding and we will be keeping everyone informed and updated with as much detail as possible
