Frequently Asked Questions
What information can you share with us regarding the upcoming migration of Slicehost to Rackspace Cloud?
We have put together a Q&A from the most popular questions we received regarding our announcement that Slicehost would migrate to the Rackspace Cloud within the next year. You can read the full FAQ here.
Can I contact support 24×7?
Yes. There are a few ways of getting in touch with us. You can email us directly at support@slicehost.com or you can submit a ticket via the Slicemanager (under the ‘Help’ tab). Both methods will be attended to quickly by our 24/7 support staff.
You can also have a live chat with us at chat.slicehost.com – we’re there 24/7 and will be happy to help. We do not provide phone support at this time.
Which distributions do you offer?
"Choosing a Linux distribution"Currently the following distributions are available for install:
- Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick)
- Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid) LTS
- Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic)
- Ubuntu 8.04.2 (Hardy) LTS
- Debian 5.0 (Lenny)
- Debian 6.0 (Squeeze)
- Gentoo 10.1
- Centos 5.5
- Centos 5.4
- Fedora 15
- Fedora 14
- Fedora 13
- Arch 2010.05
- Red Hat EL 5.5
- Red Hat EL 5.4
A more general overview of your choices can be found in this article on Linux distributions from our article repository.
Can I upgrade down the road?
Sure you can perform a resize in the SliceManager at anytime – you don’t even need to reinstall everything. We take your Slice down, expand the RAM and disk, then start it back up. Simple as pie.
A resize can take 10 minutes, an hour, or longer, depending on how many inodes are used on your slice. The more inodes used, the longer the resize will take.
Tell me about billing
Billing is handled monthly based on the day your account was created. Services added during a billing cycle are prorated for the remainder of the month, services removed are credited back to your account. Credit cards are stored using asymmetric encryption, we take your security and privacy VERY seriously. You can also prepay your account should it be more convenient. We have a 10% prepayment bonus available.
To get it, make a payment that is the greater of 6x your current monthly bill or $240.
Examples:
Monthly bill: $20 – a payment of $240 or more to get the 10% bonus
Monthly bill: $70 – a payment of $420 or more to get the 10% bonus
Do you offer an SLA?
Not for Slices and here’s why: most hosting SLA agreements are just plain silly. They promise things like 99.9% uptime, but downtime excludes: scheduled maintenance, network outages, hardware failures and software trouble. Well what exactly is left to cause downtime? Here’s our SLA: we’ll do our best to keep your machines running smoothly for as long as possible and get them up ASAP should something go wrong.
Do you offer backups?
Yes. First, all storage is RAID10, meaning you get protection from disk failure. Backups are offered as an add on service and priced according to Slice size. They give you the ability to automatically run a backup without disrupting the system. At any given time, you have access to 3 images of your system: a daily (less than 24 hours), a weekly (less than 7 days) and a snapshot (variable). Monthly pricing is $5/$7.50/$10/$12.50/$15/$22.50/$30 for 256/384/512/768/1024/1536/2048 slices. You can also create a new slice from the backup of another slice (cloning).
Can I buy extra storage or bandwidth?
We have no plans to offer add-on storage at this time. If you go over your allocated bandwidth, pricing is at .30/GB (see above for details of the bandwidth allocations).
What if I go over my bandwidth amount?
Our bandwidth limits are soft caps. You’ll receive an email notification when a slice reaches 80% of its limit and again should it exceed the limit. If you trickle over because your site is Dugg or Slashdotted, congratulations! Send us a note with an explanation, we’re reasonable people and we may be able to work something out. Overages are .30/GB. Additionally, consider things such as mod_deflate to serve content more efficiently and maximize bandwidth.
Are there any restrictions on incoming and outgoing bandwidth?
Incoming bandwidth is not capped. Slices have an outgoing bandwidth restriction tied to their size. Our smallest plan, the 256 slice, starts at 10mbps for the public interface and 20mbps for the private interface. These caps increase according to your slice size and the private interface is always 2X the public. For example: a 384slice has a 15mbps public interface cap and a 30mbps private interface cap, a 512slice has a 20mbps public and a 40mbps private cap.
Where are your data centers located?
We currently have two data centers in St. Louis, Missouri (STL-A and STL-B). Additionally, we have DFW1 operating in Dallas, Texas and ORD1 in Chicago, Illinois.
How many users go onto each machine?
It depends on the Slice size each user buys, but there is a fixed limit of resources on each machine. Our current production servers are 32GB quad core servers.
How does the CPU scheduling work?
Each Slice is assigned a fixed weight based on the memory size (256, 512 and 1024 megabytes). So a 1024 has 4x the cycles as a 256 under load. However, if there are free cycles on a machine, all Slices can consume CPU time. This creates a leveraged environment that allows smaller Slices to likely consume cycles as needed, but still protects larger Slices that require higher loads.
Do you have a control panel?
Yes – we have a web based management interface for restarting your slice, starting support discussions, viewing stats and scheduling backups. However, we do not offer a control panel like Plesk or Cpanel. You’re free to install such packages for your own Slice. For screenshots and an overview check out Pickled Onion’s article on SliceManager.
Do you provide Console access?
Yes – via an Ajax web terminal. See this blog post for details and a screenshot. Note: console access is different from SSH and can be used if you lock yourself out.
Can I control my Slices from a phone?
Yes – we offer a mobile portal for slice stats and rebooting. Additionally, free Iphone and Android applications are available for use with our API.
How many domains can I host?
This is a question familiar to those who use shared hosting. There is no limit, since you are in control of everything on your Slice.
Do you host DNS or register domains?
Our SliceManager application has a DNS menu for handling domains, records and reverse DNS for your Slices. We also recommend DNS Made Easy, should you prefer a third party provider. They have a simple interface, excellent network and very low cost. We do not currently register domains, any registrar you choose will suffice.
Can I buy extra IPs?
Yes, IPv4 addresses are $2/per month and require a valid technical justification. To request an additional IPv4 address, you can contact support by creating a ticket through the SliceManager. In your ticket, please provide a proper reasoning for the IPv4 address addition. The scenarios where additional IPv4 addresses will be approved are: High Availability configurations and SSL Certificates (no self-signed certificates). For SSL, please include the SSL certificate in the ticket.
Do you offer private IPs?
Yes, private IPs are included by default on all new accounts. If your existing slice does not have a dedicated private IP assigned, you can submit a request in the SliceManager to have one provisioned. Bandwidth is not metered on private IP interfaces.
I’m kind of new to this, will it be too hard?
Maybe. Our Slices are full distros with root access. Many people coming from shared hosting are used to a cPanel type control system and limited shell access. We’re geared for people who want to start from scratch and tune a system for their purposes. However, everyone has to start somewhere. A 256slice is a great place to cut your teeth on building production boxes from scratch. Tweak, explore, learn. If you screw up, login to SliceManager and restart the box. If you really screw up, login and reinstall ;). You’ll be a Linux guru in no time.
Referral program?
Yes. After 3 months of the new customer’s service, you’ll receive a credit to your account based upon their first Slice size (25%). Have them enter the email address you used to create your personal Slice when they are signing up.
What is your relationship with Rackspace?
In October 2008 we became a wholly owned subsidiary of Rackspace Hosting Inc. We are proud to have the Rackspace name behind our services.
Question List
- What information can you share with us regarding the upcoming migration of Slicehost to Rackspace Cloud?
- Can I contact support 24×7?
- Which distributions do you offer?
- Can I upgrade down the road?
- Tell me about billing
- Do you offer an SLA?
- Do you offer backups?
- Can I buy extra storage or bandwidth?
- What if I go over my bandwidth amount?
- Are there any restrictions on incoming & outgoing bandwidth?
- Where are your data centers located?
- How many users go onto each machine?
- How does the CPU scheduling work?
- Do you have a control panel?
- Do you provide Console access?
- Can I control my Slices from a phone?
- How many domains can I host?
- Do you host DNS or register domains?
- Can I buy extra IPs?
- Do you offer private IPs?
- I’m kind of new to this, will it be too hard?
- Referral program?
- What is your relationship with Rackspace?