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Cron issues at InMotion Hosting
Posted by trop, 01-12-2016, 03:11 PM On one of my client's VPSs at InMotion Hosting the cron jobs I've scheduled keep rescheduling themselves. I consistently put them back to run at 12:01 and 12:06 am, but after a run or two at that time they'll magically move themselves to random times again, for example with one at around 9:05am and the other at 5:40. I've opened a couple of tickets, but IMH hasn't responded for a week now. I've found a public post on their site that indicated a couple of other IMH customers have had this problem, but there's no resolution listed in the public post, and the techs I've worked with at IMH weren't able to open their ticket to see if/how it was fixed for those other people. So anybody else have cron jobs move on them at IMH or anywhere else? Any idea how to stop it?
Posted by BigWillyStyle42, 01-12-2016, 04:47 PM Move to a host that doesn't change them.
Posted by LVPSHosting, 01-13-2016, 04:45 AM Which virtualization does this VPS use? If you are on a KVM, XEN or vmware for example they you be able to change it, if you are on OpenVZ they have access to the VPS are are able to change it. How ever I see another bigger problem here, which is a host that does not respond to their tickets for 1 week...
Posted by weirdfella, 01-13-2016, 10:52 AM is that a managed vps? does that cron runs once a day? do you have root access on the server? if so, you may be able to figure out if there's a script or something that plays with it, could be possible normally on shared environments but weird if it plays with your cron that runs once a day at a particular time on a vps.
Posted by linux7802, 01-13-2016, 04:17 PM Try to check /var/log/cron log file for time when cron actually changed and provide logs to InMotion , so that they can troubleshoot the issue, if they won't able to do it then its time to move to other hosting provider because ur server is not secure , today only cron file changed tomorrow whole server can be hacked , so be careful
Posted by bear, 01-13-2016, 04:44 PM The only time I had that was with a managed provider and them moving the Cpanel backup time. I spoke to them and asked that it remain at the time I'd changed it to and they had no problem with that. If the cron you've set isn't using much resources on the server I can't see why they'd change it, to be honest. Definitely something that would give me pause to consider moving, with or without the mysterious cron change.
Posted by Tim_S, 01-18-2016, 12:42 PM Hi trop, My name is Tim S, the Customer Community Manager here at InMotion Hosting. We're sorry it seems you're having some issues with cron jobs. We'd love the chance to help you out. However, with this being a public forum, we need you to contact our Support Department. Typically, our response time is under 4 hours on email support requests so I'm not sure why you have not received a response accordingly. There's a few methods in which you can reach out to our Support Department (24/7/365). You can call our toll free phone number 1-888-321-4678. You can also email us at support@inmotionhosting.com. And lastly we have live chat which can be accessed by using the link in the upper right corner of the page here: http://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/ If you decide to email us, do me a favor and let me know when you do, so I can follow up. I want make sure it's in the queue and being handled accordingly. If you call, please request a supervisor when you do, that way we can get this resolved for you as quickly as possible. Feel free to mention my name when doing so. Thanks! Tim S Customer Community Manager
Posted by trop, 01-22-2016, 07:42 AM Hi Tim. I updated my ticket last on Jan 15 and copied quality@inmotionhosting.com in that response. I sent information on Jan 6, Jan 8, and Jan 12, prior to that. I'd definitely like to know that someone from your team is watching the quality@inmotionhosting.com address going forward, as it seems to have failed in this case. I've replied to the ticket again this morning, and once again copied quality@, so if you'd like to catch up on the ticket I'd start there. I'm looking forward to hearing what you guys think about the cron problem. I added a note to the ticket this morning that it looks like WHM is moving its own times around, and is catching my scripts in the process. I've never seen WHM touch an unaffiliated script though, so if I were to guess I'd say it's something wonky with the way that's deployed.
Posted by trop, 01-26-2016, 09:10 PM Tim, I've still not gotten a call, email, or response from anyone in your organization since January 6 on this ticket, and your post here was the only inclination that you're aware of it. I've tried 5 times over the last 4 days to use your telephone support, but it always tells me "we're experiencing high call volume" and that that my wait time is over half an hour. At this point I don't need to be waiting another half hour on you.
Posted by linux7802, 01-27-2016, 06:32 PM Is it your cron issue resolved or not?
Posted by trop, 01-27-2016, 09:34 PM It is. I waited on hold for half an hour last night to speak to them, and they were able to solve the problem during the call. The culprit is some in-house software that randomly picks root cron jobs that it changes the time on so they don't have ten million cron jobs running across their nodes. They thought this was a good thing because, in a VPS environment what we end up with is a mom and pop store...[who] will stack up crons that run every minute on the minute and blow out resources for your entire node. Of course I respectfully disagree, paid resources are paid resources, and if mom and pop want to set up cron jobs every minute and buy enough server, it's outright wrong of their host to step in and say they know better after taking the money, but long before mom and pop ever get to the point of causing problems. Until those cron jobs running "every minute on the minute" are actually blowing out more than the resources mom and pop paid for, the host needs to stfu and continue monitoring. This is, however, pretty standard practice at IMH. They do everything differently, document little to none of it, and it's universally at the customer's expense to benefit themselves. But yes, it's fixed. Daniel was top-notch, very probably the best rep I've spoken with at any managed hosting company ever. He and Brett went remarkably out of their way to fix the problem, discuss several additional concerns, and even to restructure the billing on the account to allow my client and I addition time beyond their normal 90 days to continue giving IMH the opportunity to convince us this was a one-time miscommunication. I have 99 problems with IMH, but their people are absolutely not one of them. I could not have asked for two better folks, but it's a shame that they had to keep going to other people to recommend every half solution in the book when it was clear they just wanted to fix the problems. Unfortunately even the financial reconfiguration had the classic IMH spin. While I appreciated the attempt, they couldn't help but tack a $50 cancellation fee on it, and make sure that I knew that if we go six months and fifteen days then we're going to charge you for seven months. After a 90 minute conversation during which I'd pointed out a dozen ways they were unfairly nickel and diming a customer, doing me a favor that tacked on any extra fee just seemed wrong, especially when going the opposite direction risked so little. I abruptly ended the call at that time, because I just generally don't like to work with people who don't trust their own abilities and want me to subsidize that lack of trust. It also became ridiculously clear that I was getting a little bit run around and Brett and I were both becoming frustrated at the impasse. It's ultimately the client's decision as to whether to keep IMH or not. They have access to the ticket and have my input, and will make the right decision for themselves. Their biggest concern, as is mine, is that the server was advertised with 6Gb of RAM and only came with 3Gb, but with another 3Gb of vswap. It's not really even the lack of RAM that's concerning, since SSDs are stupid fast, but everyone knows using SSD storage as swap wears drives out fast (even faster in RAM-strapped environments), and will pretty certainly lead to customer data loss and/or crashing servers. Nobody likes to be set up for failure, especially when the setup is wrapped up in a scam, and especially when we all know how cheap RAM is right now. I'm neutral on a recommendation. The people are awesome and the network is ridiculously fast (indicating that they've spent their money well), but they need to quit lying to drive signups and hire an industry-professional architect to remove some of the crust from their "look what I can do!" sysadmining. They have everything they need to be great, but think they have to play games to get there. I got caught up in their games and it sucked for both of us. The next move is on them, and it goes way beyond appeasing me.
Posted by linux7802, 01-28-2016, 03:34 PM Hey Nice to see finally your issue resolved but not understanding "is that the server was advertised with 6Gb of RAM and only came with 3Gb, but with another 3Gb of vswap." Its really funny they are counting swap memory in your order LOL , I have never saw such hosting provider in my life.
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