In the future (within a year, possibly 6 mo.) I'll probably be updating my current Windows VPS plan from the Base VPS plan to the .NET VPS (it all depends on a highly-likely new client).

When I was originally thinking about moving over to HMS (which was a very good decision) I had asked about upgrade paths, and the response I received then was that it would involve moving from one box to another.

So ...

For those of you who have upgraded (or downgraded, I suppose) from one VPS plan to another, what have your experiences been? Anything to be on the watch for? Anything that would require extra planning time? How much is HMS able to migrate (and, in practice, how much post-work needs to be done)? And, of course, answers to any other questions are appreciated.


Preemptive answers to possible questions:

I'm running a number of sites currently.

Other than LogParser, I haven't installed any software.

I've made numerous changes to the 'standard' users. Well, not numerous; just a couple.

Thanks in advance all!

~James

EDIT: Added a question mark to the subject title.

To start:
I am glad to hear there will be some fast growth with your server.
I am a bit of an expert on server migration at Hostmysite as there is a chance when your ticket comes in for the move I will be doing it. Here is what to expect:
First of all your current server does not go down until the new one is fully tested by you-
We don't want anything getting missed-
We will move all data but settings must be moved by you-
There are some neat tricks to get your settings exported and when it comes time I can share them with you-
It is always good to tell us of anything different or unique on the server-
We do at least ten migrations a day and they are complicated so its not unlikely that something could get missed-

The #1 most important thing to remember is the tech support reps at HMS are there for one reason- To be sure you stay. I am at home at 11:00 after an 11 hour day, with the flu, and I still am doing support! Are we crazy? Most of us...
If you need some more help or answers or feel its time to make the move please give me a call at 1-877-215-4678- 11am-8pm M-F EST -
Just ask for Kyle

Once again, another great instance of support from you guys.


Thanks for the information about generally what to expect. I was pretty confident that it would be a fairly easy move, but it's especially good to hear that I'll be able to do some testing before it's moved over completely. That's mostly what I was worried about, but I was also curious how much you were able to move over.

(I have a co-worker who had some problems with one of his servers, a dedicated one, and after hearing what happened to him, I naturally started thinking about what would happen if I had to migrate. Basically, they setup a server, but without patching it, without moving files over, and without much support for issues that he ran into, at all.)


You've also got some good advice regarding VPS, that anyone can benefit from; document the changes that you make to your VPS.

I must admit that I've missed documenting a few things, but I've captured most of the changes I've made.


That said, hope you feel better!

~James

Thank you!
I am sorry to hear a dedicated customer did not get everything moved! It really depends on his contract really, but I always help a VPS customer get moved. We commonly do mail, site data, and databases. That usually is everything, but with both servers up you can UNC from one server to the next to move anything else left over. Thanks Again!

Sorry, I guess in my attempt to leave the company name out, I neglected to include that the dedicated server wasn't with you guys.

It's actually with another company. The only reason he sticks with them is because they're cheap, but he definitely ended up paying for it with his time. Another reason I like you guys; you save me money and time.

Now, if only we could add on additional resources as needed (outside of dbs, as is already possible).

For instance, if I could pay extra $/mo. and get more RAM or disk space, I'd be sending more money your way right now

Same here. I think the biggest flaw with the Windows VPS is the lack of upgrade options. I asked for a gig more drive space, and it wasn't even an option.

I know what you guys mean- In the past we did allocate more resources to specific VPSs on the nodes. That caused us to either come up short on the total number of possible VPSs on the the server therefore killing the server cost effectiveness or we said "ok" and got on the server and found no more resources to give. That forced us to enforce an upgrade policy to obtain higher resources. Trust me I wish we could but it would sink the profits in a hurry.
Thanks for your thoughts again!

Kyle's right.

We found a large number of customers requesting upgrades for their VPS servers. However when the nodes were provisioned we delegate a set amount of resources per VE, and as such subsequent upgrades of the VE could possibly place the node over it's preferred 60% resource allotments.

What this means is if we were to upgrade just a few VPS servers the whole node could be negatively effected.

Some of our customers may have some experience with their hardware node going down, even though their servers were performing within the constraints of the VEs limitations. I'm sure you wouldn't want your server to go down because someone else's upgrade and this is precisely why we discontinued RAM/Disk Quota upgrades.

Our dedicated servers start at about the same price as our high end CF VPS packages. It may be in your best interests to request a quote.

As the other techs above said, it's more a matter of technical impossibility than anything else. Were we able to do this and not negatively impact clients, we would.

I called in tonight and the tech told me they could allocate more memory to my VPS for $15 / month, I was very happy to hear this. Then I get an email from support telling me that they couldn't do it. My reaction was to shoot the messenger of bad news.

I understand why you guys don't do this ( profits and all that crap ), but wouldn't it make sense to go above and beyond to ensure the customer has options, as some of us with a VPS will eventually be colocating or moving up to a Dedicated as our needs grow. I feel like I am stuck with my Pinto VPS and the only upgrade option is the Ferrari VPS. At least give us a 3/4 gig plan to choose from, as the 1 Gig plan makes no sense considering I can colocate a 1U rack server for the same price.