My sites are hosted by Media Temple. Generally I’ve been pretty happy with them, but the last few days have been a giant pain in the ass.
On Monday I migrated my Grid Service account from the MySQL SmartPool, to the dedicated MySQL GridContainer. One is a shared version of MySQL server, and the other is a dedicated version with double the resources. In theory, the GridContainer is supposed to be “better” than the SmartPool, as you’re not competing for resources with neighboring sites. But so far that hasn’t exactly been the case.
Even though my site has been running fine under the SmartPool, from the moment I migrated to the GridContainer the MySQL server has been crashing every 8-10 hours. You may have noticed the site keeps going up and down. Media Temple can offer no explanation for this.
I’m still trying to troubleshoot, and things seem a little more stable now, but so far I’m not terribly impressed. I may opt to go back into the SmartPool. I’ll be writing up some thoughts on this whole thing once I get through it.
Until this is resolved, I’m waiting to publish new posts, as I’ve already had to roll the database back once.
Update: I cancelled the Grid-Container. Read more, here.
Bummer. I’m in the process of evaluating hosting providers (the annual headache). Media Temple is tempting, but for the price, I need to make sure the value is there.
I’ve run all my client sites on a single Dreamhost account for several years now, but recently have been encountering many database issues, and the speed is moderate, but not great.
Keep us posted on this latest issue. I’ve seen a lot of issues with the Grid setup at Media Temple.
Eleven2 here in Houston is another option, but I’ve seen mixed reviews there as well. Hard to find REAL reviews of hosting providers. Know any?
@Brian – I’ll be writing up a full post about this, but I just put in the order to cancel the GridContainer. I was extremely unimpressed.
I’ve been a fan of mt for a long time, and recommended them to many others, but my faith has been a little wobbly for a while now.
Their (dv) accounts seem to get more favorable reviews, but how well things work on (gs) accounts seem to involve a certain amount of luck (might be good, might be bad).
I don’t have a good source for reviews, but I did come across a very accurate review of Media Temple’s (gs) accounts. In my opinion, the author pretty much nails the current situation.
Thanks for the post. I read the current one and the other that you wrote about MySQL GridContainer’s. I have entire business built on WordPress landing pages, with S2Member and NOW – on Mediatemple. I was hoping a MySQL GridContainer would speed up my load times and such, but it does not appear that they will.
If you move to a DV will you write a post and let us know?
cheers – Ryan