IBM Hosted Servers Abondoning Dallas

[Ry Vor]

Well, no one wants to be bothered with this stuff, but I have to tell you.  See Uncle Mike Corner post for a little different take.

I have had hosted (i.e., by a company known as IBM) dedicated and shared servers since early 2004, with Fall of Rome and later Alamaze.  I have paid them well over $60,000 to not have to be concerned with server crash or service interruption and those of you with us since The Resurgence in 2013 know that to be the case: we pay to make sure players do not have games interrupted or service down. 

Now, I reflect on that $60,000+, and what have I really gotten out of that?  How much have our players gained by that?  So if IBM F***s me over with this transition, I doubt I will continue to reward them with servitude monthly homage.  That is, I would likely have my own machine, (new, bought just for Alamaze) do it, that would likely be $4k for five years or so. 

This thing was thrown in my lap.  I got a message yesterday at my personal email account that IBM sent saying service ends today, we told you a couple months ago.  But mainly, IBM sends email to support@alamaze.co, and I get about five emails everyday from them telling me useless stuff about how certain systems in Indo China will be down for a minute at 4am global time.  Somewhere in there apparently they said they are closing Dallas, and I should "prepare". 

So apparently (though I would love to sue their asses), we may have a problem, Houston.  Mike seems to think this is an existential threat, and as he explained, I have no real notion on that. 

Rest assured, Mike and I both have code saved off the servers.  But we will see what happens.  Just FYI, this forum is independent of IBM, as is the email service. So if IBM fails, we will stay in touch through this forum and through emails to support.

Did I mention I am pissed off at IBM?

[Ry Vor]

Just so everyone knows I am not BS'ing as my credibility is everything.  This just came in the last hour:

Hey Rick,
 
 I have prepped replacement quote  #2740462 for a replacement instance in our Dallas 13 data center  with the two free months promo. This actually will be an 8GB of RAM server over your current 4GB RAM server at the same price point you have now.  I understand the frustration of getting so late of notice on this, and trust me you are not alone in missing the notifications. I am personally working with over 40 customers in the same boat and there are over 500+ in total that have still not moved off. That is why they are giving the two free months on replacement instances. The downside is that you would  have to move all the data over to the new device on your end. Its not going to be able to be imaged out of the box, no. You can try to take an image of the current device and then load that image on the new device but since this device is a little older, I am not sure if that image will be compatible to load onto the new instance.  Please navigate to the ManageTab->Billing and Usage-> Device Quotes. You will see the new quote there. Please let me know what other questions you have. I am here to help as much as I can. I can also look into getting an extension on this old device if you are not wanting to outright cancel it off because of this. Thanks!
Joseph Cornejo
Global CSM Manager
IBM Watson and Cloud Platform

[Draugr]

Could all current games just be put on pause until everything is sorted? I would hate to have some sort of half the player got orders in and others did not type of thing. From UMs post seems we are on thin ice chancing when it will actually shut down

[Ry Vor]

Could all current games just be put on pause until everything is sorted?   I would hate to have some sort of half the player got orders in and others did not type of thing.   From UMs post seems we are on thin ice chancing when it will actually shut down

I am getting the impression from IBM support they may realize they have to back off this.

But, what do I know?  In any case, establishing a new device especially with everything we have in place for security is a big deal.  Just think what you have to do when you buy a new computer, if you have a thousand files.    its more intensive for Alamaze and of course it is a code that depends on things like my not moving from Rackspace to GoDaddy email, and other matters arcane. 

Right now I think we are still running the existing games.

Ultimately I think IBM wants to get rid of a ton of legacy customers like me that they have acquired through aggressive acquisitions.  When I call support, it is somewhere in India and we have major communication problems, like they don't know I am a customer, they just know I don't have their hosted server product ID on hand.

[Ry Vor]

Its still not clear what is going on or when with IBM.  In the meantime, keep entering orders in all games. 

IBM just sent me an invoice this morning for the server rental for November, while just having told me yesterday the server was going away.

[unclemike]

Its still not clear what is going on or when with IBM.  In the meantime, keep entering orders in all games. 

IBM just sent me an invoice this morning for the server rental for November, while just having told me yesterday the server was going away.

In today's IBM email, it mentions that the Dallas datacenter (including our Alamaze server) WILL be shutdown on Monday though they don't mention the time but if specially requested, may be turned back on for another two weeks until Nov 15. We have until then to move everything over to the new server.

[Ry Vor]

Its still not clear what is going on or when with IBM.  In the meantime, keep entering orders in all games. 

IBM just sent me an invoice this morning for the server rental for November, while just having told me yesterday the server was going away.

In today's IBM email, it mentions that the Dallas datacenter (including our Alamaze server) WILL be shutdown on Monday though they don't mention the time but if specially requested, may be turned back on for another two weeks until Nov 15. We have until then to move everything over to the new server.

Yes, that message was coming in about the time I wrote the above.  So I have already confirmed we will want the server up as long as possible (at least November 15), and other instructions to migrate to the new server.  So current expectation is we will possibly have some interruption on Monday, but then should have service through November 15, and God and Mike willing, will be up on their new device on the 15th. 

There is no need for players to do anything as of now and everything should be the same as always until at least November 15.

[VballMichael]

Thanks for the updates

[Brekk]

Thanks for th hard work guys!,

[Acererak]

+1 for the thanks for all you both do