DBA Kevlar is BACK!! :)

So back at the end of the EM CAB, I’d received an email stating I had an over-sized database and too many hits to continue on Go Daddy as the host for my website.  I called into tech support to understand what options I had, but was never told that I had any option but leaving Go Daddy as my hosting service.  I was told I had two weeks per the email, but asked for three and was told on the phone that wasn’t a problem.  I then did some research and decided that Blue Host had done well supporting RMOUG’s site, had no limit on size and had a high traffic plan.  I set everything up and proceeded to start working with them to migrate the site over, but really not a lot of demanding interaction was requested last week when I did all this.

Come May 20th, the original 2 week cut off date and I’m informed by followers that my site is down.  Yes, the agreement to give me an extra week wasn’t known by tech support and I now have a site completely down.  I have a WordPress export of my site, I have a separate backup, but I had paid to have my site transferred for me as I was busy with a number of tasks.  I contacted my new providers at Blue Host and they didn’t see any problem.  I had spoke to Go Daddy about putting the database back to the agreed cut off date, but my tech support guy couldn’t get the folks higher up to agree.  He was able to get them to put another full backup out on the FTP site for us to use for restoration.

After about 6 emails back and forth over the business day, it became apparent that the Blue Host guy wasn’t getting very far with the migration.  He couldn’t seem to connect successfully to Go Daddy with FileZilla even though I was able to with no problem.  It appeared the tech had a special software program that should have “mirrored” the site and since the database was down, it wouldn’t work with my site.

Jeff Smith had experienced great success with WP Engine and I’d contacted this hosting company in frustration, ready to jump again, (I just wanted my website up and darn it, wanted it done!)  I was put in touch with WP Valet, a company that specializes in website migrations.  When I explained to Kenan from WP Valet what had occurred, he realized why the Blue Host tech was having such a hard time.  I didn’t need a website migration, I needed a website RECOVERY.  He quickly assessed that I had done everything right and due to my multiple backups and different exports, they would be able to recover my website in a very short period of time to the Blue Host.

Two hours later I had DBAkevlar.com back up and transitioned over to Blue Host.  I’m going to stick with Blue Host and they have refunded my money for the failed migration attempt.  I’ll be having a long conversation with Go Daddy tomorrow in regards to how you take care of customers.  This was ridiculous.

Thank you to everyone at WP Valet, the recommendation from WP Engine and for those that attempted to assist me from Go Daddy and Blue Host.  For anyone migrating from Go Daddy, definitely have your own backups and make sure you have your cut off date in writing-  that’s all I’m going to say!