Couto Solutions' Telligent Community Managed Hosting FAQ

Below are the answers to some of the more frequently asked questions we get concerning our Managed Hosting Packages for Telligent Community. If you have questions that are not listed here, please contact using our "Schedule a Consultation" form. We would love to answer all of your questions regarding our hosting packages.

• Do I have to supply my own Telligent Community License?
• How often are backups done?
• If you are backing up a Web Application, do you backup its database at the same time? (If not, when do you do them and how far apart are they?)
• How long do you keep backups?
• What are your restore procedures and do you have an SLA on how quickly they will be restored?
• Can we request to have only certain files restored, or is all or nothing?
• What is your turn around time on configuration changes to IIS, SQL, Windows, etc?
• Sometimes we have add-ons that need to be installed as services on the server, will we be able to have you install these add-on applications and windows services?
• If I am running 2 virtual machines, one as a web server and another as a MS SQL database server, how do you guarantee the traffic between them is secure (Are they on their own vLan, do encrypt traffic between them, etc)?
• How do we get access to the machines to load our files and to run database scripts against the database servers? More specifically, will we have a way to connect to SQL with our SQL management tools?
• How do we add SSL, Host headers, sub-domains, additional Sites, to IIS in a VM? Can we get IIS Tool Connection to the server?

FAQ

Do I have to supply my own Telligent Community Server License?

Yes. Couto Solutions' Managed Hosting Packages for Telligent Community do not come with any Telligent licenses. If you need a Telligent License, Couto Solutions can assist you in purchasing one.

How often are backup done?

Full backups are done weekly, and differentials are performed daily.

If you are backing up a Web Application, do you backup its database at the same time? (If not, when do you do them and how far apart are they?)

SQL backups are performed independent from file backups. Full backups are done daily. Transaction logs are done 3-4 times a day but can be customized based on usage. Weekly maintenance is performed (Shrink, History Cleanup).

How long do you keep backups?

File level and database level backups are performed daily. File backup archives are kept for 30 days and database backup archives are kept for 2 weeks.

What are your restore procedures and do you have an SLA on how quickly they will be restored?

If data needs to be restored, the first step is to submit a support ticket via IT@CoutoSolutions.com with what needs to be restored, when it needs to be restored from, and level of urgency. A follow up phone call is recommended in service-affecting situations.

Managed servers are treated as mission critical. If there is a service-affecting situation the NOC will escalate directly to engineering and the request is given top priority until resolved.

The time required to restore is dependent upon what is being restored. File restores and full database restores are generally quick and can be handled within an hour of escalation. Database restores are more complex and may require longer time to restore individual items within a database.

**Customer-caused issues are billable items and will appear on their next invoice.

Can we request to have only certain files restored, or is all or nothing?

Files can be restored individually.

What is your turn around time on configuration changes to IIS, SQL, Windows, etc?

Requests submitted are usually completed within 24 hours. Any security or urgent performance related changes will be escalated to engineering and given top priority.

Sometimes, we have add-ons that need to be installed as services on the server, will we be able to have you install these add-on applications and windows services?

Commercially available add-ons can be installed if valid licensing is provided. Any custom scripts or code will need to be reviewed prior to installation/implementation. An NDA can be executed to ensure protection for both parties.

If I am running 2 virtual machines, one as a web server and another as a MS SQL database server, how do you guarantee the traffic between them is secure (Are they on their own vLan, do encrypt traffic between them, etc)?

Managed servers utilize our secure internal management network for internal communication. This can be used for communication between servers such as database connections. You will be given an internal IP to utilize for your connection strings. An additional private vlan can be assigned to any number of VM’s for a nominal fee.

How do we get access to the machines to load our files and to run database scripts against the database servers? More specifically, will we have a way to connect to SQL with our SQL management tools?

SQL management studio access is permitted and logins can be granted to specific databases. We cannot allow SA access for security concerns. We typically set up on ports other than the default 1433 so script kiddies cannot perform dictionary attacks against the SQL server. We also limit access from specific IP’s through ACL’s. FTP can also be setup for file based access to the servers.

How do we add SSL, Host headers, sub-domains, additional Sites, to IIS in a VM? Can we get IIS Tool Connection to the server?

This would be done by us, either through the NOC or escalation to engineering using our standard ticket system (IT@CoutoSolutions.com).