DiscJockey

if the server is not up 99.5% of the time, does this means we all get a free account??

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blaze

Yes, this is a good question. How does the guarantee work? How do we all know "for sure" the uptime of the server? Are there logs to view? Does Surpass handle this and then automaitcally credit everyone's account should something ever occur with the uptime?

The server status logs don't really help with this matter because only a few days ago, you server status page said my server was fine and was working -- however -- your DNS servers were under repair and greatly affected my sites and they weren't coming up at all for several hours. That is still considered downtime, right? My point is that many things can happen besides relying on the server status page -- it's just not reliable enough for proving what the uptime is.

So how does anyone know for sure what their uptime or downtime is and how should we handle this? I suppose I would like to know the proper etiquette for obtaining a refund according to the guarantee -- without sounding like we are complaining. After all, being a reseller -- it is important for me to know how to handle these situations and how to prove where our uptime results come from. Makes sense, right?

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miakeru

No. This applies to network uptime.

Servers going down, or DNS servers being fixed is not covered by the Service Level Agreement.

Here is the official quote from the SLA:

Basically, if the network (bandwidth providers) goes down, you will be credited.

blaze

Hmmm... that doesn't seem right by your definition, Miakeru. Network connectivity doesn't ONLY mean dealing with bandwidth providers -- it says "available for http access by third parties... web site availability." If your web site is NOT available due to a server issue and cannot be accessed -- then I believe the guarantee does still hold. This would be because there is NO NETWORK CONNECTIVITY... well, at least to me this is what it would mean. But this is why I wanted to ask -- is there a Surpass Admin that can take a stab at this and verify if Miakeru is, in fact, correct? How about you, Kayla?

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miakeru

No.. the "web site availability" is what they call the sentence before it. Kind of like a summary.

Take this, from the same SLA page, for example: See how they are using ("service") to define hosting plan? Same thing with http access by third parties 99% of the time ("web site availability").

It is a VERY common practice in the web hosting industry to only guarantee network uptime, not hardware. Most will "unofficially" credit for server downtime, but a server shutting itself down completely is something very uncommon. Usually it is just a service that crashes.

Network connectivity is directly relating to the network the server is on. You would be credited if the network went down, or if the cable was somehow unplugged from the server, as it was not able to access the network. A website being unavailable for whatever reason does NOT mean that the network is down.

The Service Level Agreement is in relation to the server as a whole, and not individual accounts, I believe. This means that if a DNS zone for your site was somehow corrupted, Surpass would not be obligated to credit you for not being able to access your site, but I bet they would anyway.

SLA's are usually very strict, to prevent from having to credit people if they muck up their own site. It is not set in stone, however, and you very well could receive credit for downtime that is not covered in the SLA.

Say Apache crashed for a couple of hours. Surpass would not be obligated to credit your account any time based on what the SLA says.

blaze

This is a very "touchy" subject for me -- so I appreciate your help. I am just concerned with how to react to people when they approach me with "My site is down and has not been up for 99.5% of the time." I wasn't very clear on what to say as to what exactly the guarantee stands for. I would surely credit them all regardless if a server was down, even though I really don't have to -- but I wanted to know the proper explanation behind it. I didn't want to simply say "Umm... yeah... sorry about that, but that is how the web works. Here's your credit." (Ha!) Even though that really is an honest answer, it's just not suitable to many folks who do not understand. People like to be told what is going on, when it happens and why... and it's hard to explain when you don't fully know yourself. So thanks.

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miakeru

Most do this. The strict tone of the SLA is really just to protect the company.

If you do issue them a credit for it being down, make sure you let them know that the SLA only covers the network, and not the hardware. That way they won't just expect a credit next time, and will be really happy when they get one.

blaze

That's good advice... so thanks.

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miakeru

You're very welcome. I'm glad I could help.