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-   -   Scala Hosting Review after 6 years of using it (https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/web-hosting/5875-scala-hosting-review.html)

Bithunter 04-28-2014 08:46 PM

Scala Hosting Review after 6 years of using it
 
I´ve searched the forum for Scala Hosting and found nothing, so I want to start a Scala Hosting thread.
I've started using Scala on January 2008. I have two reseller accounts. I´m just a customer, not affiliated in any other way with Scala.
My experience with them has been pretty good. One of the servers was down for almost a day, but this is the only long downtime I can remember in these years. There were other issues like RAID rebuild due to faulty drives, etc. but the downtime was minor.
Maybe other customers can share their experiences. A kpmedia's review will also be nice. I think Scala is worth to consider when looking for hosting.
Regards!
PD: Sorry for the bad english. I´m not a fluent nor native english speaker.

kpmedia 05-08-2014 01:59 PM

Most forums have limited feedback on this host -- even WHT. But what I have seen is often positive, so that's good.

Downtime as you've described is always understandable, especially after 6 years. I would be concerned about a whole day of downtime, but it really depends on their communication at that time. (I once had a four-day downtime at Futurehosting, but it was caused by Parallels-then-SwSoft. Plesk barfed! During the entire time, every few hours, I was in contact with the techs.)

Your English is fine. :)

Thanks for sharing, and don't be a stranger in the forums.

Bithunter 05-10-2014 08:00 PM

Scala also is very communicative, and I appreciate that very much. There were times when I didn't note a downtime, but they email me telling about the problem and estimates to resolve. I like this!
Time to time they also ask me to tell what I want from them, what I think of their service, and so.
It's not easy to found a forum like this. Objective reviews are rare, so I like to thank you for keep it clean and clear.
I´ve also accounts with Wiredtree and Hawkhost, so I can rate them too :)

kpmedia 05-13-2014 02:36 AM

Anytime anyone posts a review anywhere online, I'm always dubious. There's too much shenanigans in this industry -- too many fake "reviews" on the web. So when you left a Scala Hosting review, honestly, I wasn't sure if it was legit. That's just life in the internet, sadly. I try to be optimistic here, but we do get a lot of newbie post spam (that I have to delete).

But when you also mentioned wanting to leave reviews of Wired Tree and Hawk Host, well, that's a different story! Those hosts tend to be very good -- though not perfect, and no host is. So immediately, I not only want to read your reviews on those two, but I'll re-read your Scala review. I'm always on the lookout for good hosts.

So tell me, hopw does Scala Hosting rate against WiredTree and HawkHost? :)

I'd like to read more details about that day of downtime, too. Why did it happen, and how exactly was it handled?

Bithunter 05-15-2014 10:03 PM

Well, I also expect to be treated as "fake-reviewer". But I´ll make my best to vanish that first impression :)
To be sincere, it´s hard (for me) to compare Scala with HawkHost and WiredTree for a simple reason: I've two Scala reseller accounts, one HawkHost shared account, and a WiredTree VPS.

I´ll copy here the messages received from Scala that day the server was down:
Quote:

Hello,

We are going to take this server down shortly to perform an emergency maintenance. The file system of the server is corrupt and needs to be fixed immediately. A file system check is required. It will take about an hour to be completed. If we don't complete it now the problem may escalate and result in data loss.

Your patience is highly appreciated! Please wait for your server to come back online instead of opening support tickets and chat requests. We are working on the server and we will get it back online once the file system check has been completed.

Regards,

www.scalahosting.com
Later:

Quote:

Hello,

The file system on hunter.vivawebhost.com is getting corrupt too often and we can't keep web sites running while copying data as that will risk further corruption and eventual data loss. We have booted the server into single user mode, fixed file system errors and moving data to the new server which was setup for this emergency migration. Currently, we are moving the data in multiple processes at the same time via gigabit connectivity so that the move can be completed as fast as possible.

The time required to move all the 200GB of data on this server should be about 8 hours. We will keep you updated every some hours via e-mail with the progress of the data move. We apologize for the inconvenience caused and we are doing our best to restore service as soon as possible.

Please do not open tickets and live chats for web sites hosted on this server until we send you an e-mail that the issue is resolved as that will prolong the time required to fix the server and complete the data move. Thank you for your understanding.

Regards,

www.scalahosting.com
Quote:

Hello,

We moved the data to the new server and moved the IP's as well. We started services on the new server and the load is going really high. We are deligently working with our datacenter provider SoftLayer regarding this. They provided 2 servers with hardware problems one after another. They replaced a drive and the raid card in the new machine and the raid array is being rebuilt at the moment. We have stopped all services except apache and mysql to keep web sites up as much as possible until this is completely resolved.

More updates will be sent as we have more information.

Regards,

www.scalahosting.com
Quote:

Hello,

The IO performance is much better now and web sites, e-mail services, ftp are all functioning correctly. We still have cPanel service stopped until the raid rebuild completes so that the performance of the server remains normal and web sites can load without problems.

We thank you for not "bombarding" us with tickets and live chats as that gives us more time to work on the server and get it working correctly sooner. The entire sys admin team and management of SoftLayer are working with highest priority on our server issue. They said it was the first time it happened that 2 servers with hardware problems are provisioned in a row and provided to one customer. We will not accept that as an appology though and we will look into getting our DC ready sooner than later and move our servers under our own control where we can deeply test the servers before using them in production. We will also have multiple servers standing as spares in case such a disaster happens again.

We would like to thank you again for understanding this situation. We know hardware fails but 2 servers in a row is too much. This will never happen in the future when we move to our own hardware - fully tested before put in production.

The RAID array is currently 81% rebuilt and it should be 100% rebuilt in the next 1 hour. Then we will attempt to start cPanel services as well since the drives will not be busy rebuilding the array.

Regards,

Vince Robinson

Scala Hosting CEO
Quote:

Hello,

The RAID rebuild has completed and the performance of the server is now much better. All services have been started. We are still monitoring the server closely and will keep on monitoring it for the next couple of days just to make sure the issue is completely resolved. If you see any problems with your accounts please open a ticket and we will get it fixed immediately.

Regards,

www.scalahosting.com
Not good to have one day downtime, but I felt confident with the support team and their way to manage the issue.
This occurred when the servers were in Softlayer. They later moved servers to Colo4 and since then have not had significant problems. One of this non significants problems was:
Quote:

Hello,

The switch your server is connected to was found to have hardware problems and we are going to replace it in 2 hours from now. During the replacement you will notice 2 service interruptions for 5-10 minutes as we will move the cables of the servers to a backup switch while we replace the original switch. Once the original switch is repalced the cables will be moved back to it. We want to replace the switch now as it may fail anytime and result in more than an hour of unplanned downtime.

Nothing is required to be done from your end. Thank you for your understanding!

Regards,

www.scalahosting.com
On the WiredTree side all was fine until now. I think the support is good when you do not have to contact it :)
Same for HawkHost (but keep in mind I'm with WiredTree and HawkHost less time than Scala: 1 year with WiredTree and a couple months with HawkHost).

If you want more info, just ask :)


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