T313C0mun1s7

The Introduction:

I have several clients and a personal account with Surpass Hosting, usually I just refer clients to Surpass and have them forward the E-mails from Surpass to me. I am getting to the point where I have far to many clients to want to track all the different accounts any more. Also, one of my clients is using a reseller account to handle their multiple domains. Thus I have decided it is time for me to get a reseller account and take care of the billing myself, maybe making a little bit is the process.

The Scoop:

I have a domain hosted somewhere else, and one at Surpass in shared hosting that will be moving to the reseller account. None of my other current clients will change. The primary domain for the reseller account will be the one currently hosted somewhere else. The domain hosted with Surpass will just move in as an account under the reseller account and be managed by the WHM. I would like the account move from my shared hosting to my reseller account to be handled by Surpass if possible, it is a forum and the don't want a cPanel backup sitting around getting stale for to long before it is used.

The Questions:

• What do I need to do and in what order to make things go as smoothly as possible?
• Can I get some kind of credit for the time I have left in my shared hosting package? Shell access for my domains would be nice ;-)
• I am wary of being on a server where other resellers are using autopilot. Are these servers segregated from the non-autopilot servers? Can I request to not be on an autopilot server?
• My other domain that will be the primary domain for the reseller account is also on a server using cPanel. Can Surpass do a restore of a cPanel backup to move everything, just like they can with a standard shared account, even though it will go into the special "free" hosted space for the reseller?
• Due to complications on the other reseller account my client has, we are not using the free space and I had Surpass move the primary domain into the reseller package where it is managed by the WHM. How is the primary domain normally managed?
  • I could never get logged into the cPanel for the primary before, even though the username and password were correct. Should I have full cPanel access to the primary domain once it is set up? Will it act just like shared hosting accounts?
• If per chance the DNS servers are different for my shared account after the domain is moved to the reseller account, do I need to do anything to get Surpass to remove the old A records and zone files for the domain?
  • I know I will be responsible for changing the name servers with my registrar. This is not my concern, my concern is the old name server will still think it is authoritative if the zone is not removed and that will mess with anything using those DNS servers that try to access my domain.

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Kayla, Thank you for taking time with this in advance. I know this is right up your alley.

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T313C0mun1s7
PASS65 (72.29.93.65) - Reseller
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Bigjohn

I can handle some of these, so I'll chime in here from my own personal experience....

• If the domain hosted elsewhere is a Cpanel account, they can move it for you. How long it takes will depend on how large the database, etc. are. The account that is hosted at surpass, that you want to have moved into your reseller WHM, that move will be very fast, and will likely have little to no downtime because Surpass already controls the DNS Zones.
  
  Quote:

  Can I get some kind of credit for the time I have left in my shared hosting package? Shell access for my domains would be nice ;-)

  You will be refunded unused portion of the shared plan. SSH costs $20 one time setup per domain...
  
  Quote:

  I am wary of being on a server where other resellers are using autopilot. Are these servers segregated from the non-autopilot servers? Can I request to not be on an autopilot server?

  Great question... I don't think they segregate... and even on a server where resellers validate and KNOW their customers (like you seem to, and I do), it only takes one numbnutz to never update their ancient hackable copy of wordpress...
  
  Quote:

  My other domain that will be the primary domain for the reseller account is also on a server using cPanel. Can Surpass do a restore of a cPanel backup to move everything, just like they can with a standard shared account, even though it will go into the special "free" hosted space for the reseller?

  yes. See above. They will move this totally, then tell you to change the DNS at your Name Registrar.... sometime between 4 and 48 hours later, everyone will see the new site. Then shut down the old one and leave...
  
  Quote:

  Due to complications on the other reseller account my client has, we are not using the free space and I had Surpass move the primary domain into the reseller package where it is managed by the WHM. How is the primary domain normally managed? I could never get logged into the cPanel for the primary before, even though the username and password were correct. Should I have full cPanel access to the primary domain once it is set up? Will it act just like shared hosting accounts?

  your "free" main account is under a master WHM that surpass controls. You get Cpanel level access to this, and all the resource limitations apply just like it was a shared account....
  
  Quote:

  If per chance the DNS servers are different for my shared account after the domain is moved to the reseller account, do I need to do anything to get Surpass to remove the old A records and zone files for the domain? I know I will be responsible for changing the name servers with my registrar. This is not my concern, my concern is the old name server will still think it is authoritative if the zone is not removed and that will mess with anything using those DNS servers that try to access my domain.

anything surpass already controls, they'll change when they move it. You have to change the other hosted DNS information as I noted above.
Good luck!

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T313C0mun1s7

Thanks for the reply, BigJohn

I guess my only remaining question is about auto-pilot. I understand what you are saying about script vulnerabilities, and as a hosting company there is only so much you can do about that. My real concern is resellers with auto-pilot (allowing for automatic account creation and setup) because people have been using this to set up accounts for the unlimited e-mail addresses and using the servers to send UCE (spam). This in turn causes those servers to become blacklisted. Also during the times when they are really hitting the servers hard doing there "marketing" campaign there is a noticeable difference in the server performance.

If there is any way I can get on a server where auto-pilot is not, and will not be used I would prefer that. It may even be a deal breaker for me, as this had been a big problem at Surpass since they first started offering that feature to resellers. Also, the host I am moving from is currently blacklisted, and that is one reason I am moving. I personally feel that if the auto-pilot servers are not segregated they should be.

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T313C0mun1s7
PASS65 (72.29.93.65) - Reseller
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