Moving to a RAQ4
By Toby Allen
Friday, September 12, 2003
I've been using a reseller account from webfusion / HostEurope for about a year now, and though it was time maybe to upgrade to a dedicated server, the cost is about right, and it would mean I could add websites without having to pay anything extra, this sounded like a cool idea. I was always a bit worried about it making my life more complicated (this is not my primary business) so I rang up their sales team and asked for more details. Sounded good enough, reasonably simple to set up new accounts, they'd stick mySQL on it for me for a reduced charge, came with php etc. Sounded like everything I needed.
Account got set up, my credit card got charged, and then all hell broke loose.
The first problem I came across and the one I'll discuss here, is so fundamental that I almost instantly cancelled the account (more on that in the next few days). I got a Cobalt RAQ4 which is their entry level dedicated server. There is NO WAY to check a website before the dns has been updated across the internet (no www.mymaindomain.com/~newwebsite no 111.111.111.111/~mywebsite, nothing). Now this may not be a major issue for new accounts (although it would still be a nice to have feature), but for existing domains and websites eg my resold accounts eg. my clients. This is essential. I need to be able to move stuff from the old sites, to the new sites, including setting up mysql databases, making sure php scripts work with yet another different version of php, ensuring cgi-scripts work etc. I cant as suggested by one of the technical guys, move everything across and switch it on. Pray that on my clients shopping sites everything will work fine. Anyone who has ever done any programming knows that this is a recipe for disaster.
I finally found a solution, which is to set the primary dns server for my dialup account to the ip address of my cobalt box so I (and only I) can see the site before it goes live. This works ok, but it is a workaround rather than a solution. How do Cobalt manage to sell these things?
Moral of the tale
Always, Always talk to the technical guys first, and let them pass you back to the sales team to purchase the damn thing.