We have been using GNAX for over 1.5 years and so far so good. Companies like Nocster and ServerMatrix gave us more headaches compared to the few dollars that we saved.
they usually have a great connection between Level3 and InterNAP. I used to use them in the DC in Atlanta. They had Level & InterNAP at the time and you just couldn't beat their ping times. Support was always satisfactory, but yeah, the prices were a little high.
This is not a flame of GNAX, but merely our own observations, we do agree that GNAX is one of the best out there, but this one mission critical issue makes the difference between feeling secure, or needing to move on.
We have used GNAX for about 2 years now. We are considering moving. Their network is great, multiple backbones and usually quick response to support tickets.
I realize tickets get missed sometimes, but we have had 5 or 6 tickets in 2 years that took well over two weeks to get around too. Jeff (owner) realizes that there are issues in how support is handled at times and i think he honestly wants to make improvements.
My biggest problem is in the knowledge of their staff. Yes they are great at providing simple management, just dont ask them to do anything out of the ordinary, such as setup a Mysql cluster. I have asked in several phone conversations with their technical staff about setting advanced options up like this and they dont seem to be able to do the work.
However, the complaint that has us thinking about moving is this:
they offer service monitoring, and we have all servers on server monitoring with them. The problem is that through their own admission they dont actually "do anything" if a service fails, such as if an httpd service fails on a box, they dont call or email, NOR do they restart the service. this causes at times several hours downtime as we have to wait for a customer to call us at 8am to tell us the box has been down for 4-5 hours.
This is retarded if you ask me, they have alarms going off all over the place, yet wont restart the service??? Why service monitor the boxes in the first place if your just going to sit there and listen to bells go off??
Do we have some responsibility? YES, we should restart our own services, no question, and we do. However what happens in those rare cases when our NOC is our first line of defense on these issues, when its 4 AM and no one at our company is in.
Should your data center monitor your boxes and restart those services if they fail? Absolutely! Every other DC i talk to says these basic services are standard features of any DC, are they lieing? does your DC restart services for you if they fail?
GNAX doesnt restart them. I will say that Jeff Hinkle, in a phone call last week, informed me that i could get a call if a service failed. But a week later (this morning) httpd service on a busy shared server failed, and we did not get a call, total down time nearly 12 hours before i got informed via client phone call.
Jeff assures me they are in the process of implementing better handling of these issues, but how many more down times must i endure to get my DC to just restart a failed service for us?
Last edited by hyperactive-Inc; 03-27-2006 at 03:23 AM.
I will agree on the support system at gnax. While Jeff is a great guy, and provides many people with a great product, etc. His support does need to be re-worked. While we were only with him for less then a week, the startup support tickets would sit for days at a time, without a single response.
if they are offering equipment and service monitoring, then they should be responsible for notifying the customer at the very least when they see an issue...is that in your contract anywhere?...
I have had 20+ servers at GNAX for the last four years. There was some issues with a rash bad hard drives a couple of years ago but things have been smooth sailing for the most part. And support responds in sub minutes. My complaint is they don't have any servers available at the moment.
Experience with GNAX?
