Managed Hosting Support White Paper

Managed Hosting, just like a building, is only as strong as its foundation. A structure without a sound, solid foundation will quickly crumble and fall. Similarly, the stability of your server depends on quality infrastructure, hardware and support.

At ServerWise, we provide the most solid foundation possible, with redundant Cisco networking equipment, multiple top tier 1 bandwidth providers, exceptional IBM, Intel and Sun hardware and more.

ServerWise provides several layers of support services. Building on a foundation of our managed network and hardware infrastructure, we add managed hosting services that encompass both free based and fee based support layers.

This document describes our support philosophy. We do not run circles around our customers. We simply provide the best and most clearly defined solid support in the industry.

TICKET SYSTEM AND LIVE SUPPORT

ServerWise offers a winning combination of price, quality, and excellent technical support, coordinated through our Ticketsystem (Ticketsystem link is included in your Welcome package and email). The system's archive of problems and solutions enables us to provide better service and we strongly encourage you to use it whenever possible, so that all your server problems are documented. Our technicians are available 24/7 to assist you in case you have difficulty reaching or using the ticket system, or if you wish one of our professional technicians to follow up your ticket with a phone call.

ServerWise strives to acknowledge all tickets in 24 hours or less. For expedited service, click the 'emergency' checkbox on the ticket, which will place it in the priority queue. We encourage you to click 'emergency' on network emergencies and reboots, which incur no charges at any time, so that they stand out. Otherwise, emergency service will incur charges even if the service is normally provided free, to pay for the expedited processing.

Many support options are included with your monthly server fees and don't incur additional costs. Services requiring a fee are billed in half-hour increments, currently at a rate of $45 per half hour.

NETWORK

Free Support

Uptime: ServerWise maintains multiple high-speed links to diverse premium bandwidth providers. We guarantee 99.9% network uptime excluding scheduled maintenance. If your server is inaccessible to the Internet from all of our bandwidth providers for more than 43 minutes a month, you will receive 5% of your monthly server fee for each additional hour of downtime. Please view the details of our Network Service Level Agreement at http://www.serverwise.com/hosting/dedicated/serverwise_advantage/sla.shtml.

Troubleshooting: If you are experiencing any difficulties reaching your server from your local ISP, enter a ticket with the topic "Network Issues", and flag it as an emergency. There will be no charges assessed for network issues. We will determine if the problem is in the control of ServerWise or its providers, or local to your ISP, or at some intermediary point; and we will attempt to contact the entities involved for resolution of the problem. You may also be able to troubleshoot some problems yourself, using tools such as those provided at http://www.tracert.com and http://www.traceroute.org.

HARDWARE

Free Support

Maintenance and Replacement: ServerWise dedicated servers are made with the highest quality components available, and come with a 100% hardware warranty. If your hard drive fails we will provide you with a clean new drive (data restoration will be charged separately unless you are signed up for full backups) immediately at no charge. If your dedicated server fails, we will replace it immediately with a brand new equal or better server at no charge. Furthermore, our SLA specifies that you will be compensated for any failed-hardware related downtime beyond two hours at a rate of 5% of your monthly fee for each hour, up to the full monthly payment for the failed server. See our Service Level Agreement (http://www.serverwise.com/hosting/dedicated/serverwise_advantage/sla.shtml) for current details.

Paid Support

Upgrades: ServerWise allows you to start with a lower cost, minimal configuration solution, and as your business grows upgrade your hard drive, memory, bandwidth, and other options. Contact your account executive for current pricing, or order directly from the forms on our web site. We will install your hardware as quickly as possible and have you back online with your upgraded server. Or, you may upgrade your entire system to a higher-end server or high-availability cluster system.

Data Restoration: In case of hard drive corruption or failure, customers who are signed up for our Back Up service would have their data restored from their most recent backup at no charge. Customers without full backups may request data restoration. This service would require at least 3 hours to remove and analyze the drive and attempt to restore some or all of the data. There is no guarantee that the data can be restored fully or partially, and the data retrieval process may result in further damage to the drive and its contents.

OPERATING SYSTEMS

Free Support

Advice: ServerWise will gladly share its years of web server experience with you. For advice on any aspect of server operation or additional functionality, please open a ticket or call our technicians.
Troubleshooting: If you experience problems with your operating system, let us know through a support ticket. If the problem is due to failure of a ServerWise-installed operating system, we will resolve the issue free of charge. If the problem is due to custom or third party software obtained elsewhere, or its interactions with the operating system, we will attempt to locate and report to you the source of the problem. This will let you resolve it yourself, contact the vendor of your custom software or another third party for support, or contract a ServerWise technician at our hourly rate.

Applying standard patches: when security upgrades become available for your operating system, you may open a ticket requesting installation of the updated packages. ServerWise will then install the update free of charge within 30 days from the date the update was released on ServerWise's Updates site (See the Security updates on the ServerWise Dedicated HelpDesk System).

Paid Support

Custom Kernels: functional upgrade to kernels, or a modified compile of the current kernel, will be provided at our standard fee. Please specify precisely the differences from the default kernel options, or alternatively the exact options you want in the new kernel, if that would make for a shorter list! Upgrades and customizations ordinarily take two hours or more. If the upgrade is supplied as a standard package by a vendor it ordinarily takes much less time than a custom compile, usually 1/2 hour to an hour.

Re-installation of Entire System: If your operating system and/or the included distribution of standard software has become corrupted or damaged beyond (cost effective) repair, ServerWise can reinstall the system for you at our standard rates. If the damage is due to hardware failure, the re-installation will be done charge free. Data restoration is not included with the re-installation unless you have full backups, in which case we can restore the last full backup prior to the corruption. If you have partial backups, you can restore needed data after the system rescue is complete, or we can do this at your request at our standard rates.

Non-standard System Options: ServerWise installs its Red Hat Linux (UNIX Compatible) based distribution, Windows 2000, NT4, and FreeBSD systems with a standard partitioning. If you need a different operating system, you must specify this at the time of purchase, and we will follow your exact instructions at our hourly rate. Installation time is entirely dependent on the options requested. Any licensed software must be accompanied by proof of license ownership by the customer.

HOSTING SERVICES AND APPLICATIONS

ServerWise servers come pre-installed with tools required for running Internet Servers. On Linux systems (including Cobalt), you have BIND providing DNS service, Apache for World Wide Web, Sendmail and Qpopper for email, and Wu-FTPd or Pro-FTPd for FTP service. Both also come with server interfaces, which give you point- and-click access to server configuration.

Windows 2000 servers come pre-installed with Microsoft DNS Manager, IIS for WWW and FTP services, and MailMax (on a 30 day evaluation license) providing both SMTP and POP component services of email. Windows NT includes all of these except for email.
ServerWise provides basic support for all these services at no charge, and specialized configuration and customization at our low hourly rates.

Free Support

Walkthrough: ServerWise staff will, by request, schedule a single server walkthrough for each new customer. To schedule the walkthrough, enter your preferred day and time and your phone number into the ticket system. Make sure to select "System Walkthrough" topic in the ticket. Walkthrough are available during regular business hours (M-F, 9 AM - 5 PM), and require a 24-hour advance notice.

Configuration of 1st Five Domains: We will help you install and configure your first five domains through the interface that comes with the server (including DNS, WWW, Email, and FTP services). This service includes help with creating the virtual site, creating users for the site (both FTP and email), and setting up DNS records.

Troubleshooting: Should you experience a failure of your DNS, WWW, FTP, or email services, we will diagnose the problem free of charge. If the failure is due to our installed software, we will reinstall it. If the problem is due to custom or third party software (or to its interaction with provided services) we will attempt to locate and report to you the source of the incompatibility. This will let you resolve it yourself, contact the vendor of your custom software for support, or contract a ServerWise technician at our low hourly rate.

Security Updates: ServerWise posts critical updates necessary for the security of your server at ServerWise's bugfix pages found in the HelpDesk. We will update the appropriate server packages by request.

Service-specific support

Apache: Some modules are pre-supplied for Apache but not enabled by default. Any such module, such as mod_perl or mod_php4, which does not require customization or recompiling, can be enabled at no charge. Note that these modules will cause Apache to use more resources (both RAM and CPU), so you may wish to have us review your hardware first and offer advice on needed upgrades. This is also free of charge.

DNS: Reverse DNS is included in the control panels of both Cobalt and ServerWise servers, but we do not actually delegate reverse DNS to customers; instead we ourselves host the reverse DNS at no charge, and update it twice daily with your new PTR records.

IP Numbers: ServerWise provides all the IPs you need for Sphera Vhosts, SSL services, virtual DNS servers, and anonymous FTP services at no charge. Contact ServerWise Support via the HelpDesk to request anywhere from 5 to 25 IP's at one time. This is a service for which ServerWise has chosen not to charge our dedicated hosting customers for though most of our competitors do charge for IP Addresses with ServerWise you may use as many as you require free of charge.

Paid Support

Custom Configuration: If you wish to customize your DNS, WWW, FTP, or Email services to non-default settings, our technical staff will assist you at our low hourly rate. These customizations can include recompiling the daemons for very large web hosting operations (Linux and FreeBSD only!), adding modules, specialized configuration and branding, to name a few.

Functional Updates: If new versions of the software become available, you can have our technicians install them at our hourly rate. Please specify the exact URL and name of the package you wish to have installed. Be aware that new versions of software may break dependencies with the interface which came with your server, as well as with any custom software you may have installed. It is strongly recommended that you purchase our backup service before attempting any such upgrade.