[BlueOnyx:02651] Re: User names

[Chris Gebhardt - VIRTBIZ Internet]

Hey Darrell,

Darrell D. Mobley wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: blueonyx-bounces at blueonyx.it [mailto:blueonyx-bounces at blueonyx.it]
>> On Behalf Of Michael Stauber
>> Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2009 12:34 PM
>> To: BlueOnyx General Mailing List
>> Subject: [BlueOnyx:02646] Re: User names
>>
>> Hi Darrell,
>>
>> There is simply way too many places that need to be updated or changed if
>> the GUI allowed you to change a user name:
>>
>> - OS level user and password database
>> - Sendmail virtusertable
>> - Mailing list usertable (if the user is subscribed to one!)
>> - Home directory of user needs to be renamed
>> - Files and folders of that user need to be chowned to the new username.
>> - If the user is siteAdmin, /web folder needs to be chowned as well.
>> - If the user has FTP and userwebs disabled, access files need update.
> 
> Understandable.  But suppose you are a small company and the schema you used
> in the past for adding new sites/users is changing?  Maybe you've bought out
> a small web host and would like to fold their server into your existing
> naming schema.  Hindsight is great, but my foresight sucks.

I know your question had more to it than this one point, but through the 
years, we have acquired a handful of small hosting providers.  I thought 
I'd share something I have learned.

Think hard (really hard!) before you make the jump on changing usernames 
on the new customers.   The first time we picked up another hosting 
company, they were running on a Cobalt.  We brought them into one of our 
RaQ550's but changed the usernames so that they would better fit with 
our existing customer base.   Big mistake!   Even though we communicated 
in advance with the new customers, for various reasons not all the users 
got the message.  Or were confused by it.  Or ignored it.  So when the 
usernames changed, they were no longer able to get their email.  We lost 
the 2 largest customers from that transaction as a result.

As one of the customers put it to me "we didn't choose to be your 
customer.   We just wound up with you.   And the first thing you do is 
break email for all our people out in the field?"   He had some other 
choice words, as well.   The conversations were unpleasant.  I think he 
really over-reacted but I do see some merit to what he says.

We've since learned from that and now whenever we acquire a provider, we 
set up a new box and import all the existing settings.  That way we 
minimize the trauma for the new customers.  It's a lot easier to make 
friends that way.

>> All in all there is simply too much that can go wrong and that could break
>> things. Hence it was left out of the original RaQ550 code and never added
>> to the BlueQuartz or BlueOnyx code.
> 
> That's too bad, and also not a good reason really to do it, but for the
> price I paid for BQ/BX, how can I complain? ;-)
> 
>> You see: Typically changing a username shouldn't be necessary. If the user
>> doesn't like the email address he has, he can setup an alias. Any other
>> reason and you're almost better off to simply create a new user and to
>> delete the old one.
> 
> Well, except you then have to go back in and do all of the stuff mentioned
> above by hand. <grin> 
> 
> I guess I am spoiled by also doing daily maintenance on a Cpanel server and
> have come to take the myriad of features for granted.

EEK!
We continue to move customers off cpanel.  In fact, the latest brought 
in a couple dozen domains off a cpanel server and we helped them migrate 
to a new BX box.  Her first reaction was that it looked so foreign and 
bizarre.   Then a week later she actually emailed to say how much better 
she likes her new platform.  She finds it much simpler to get around in, 
and the organization of the users under the domains makes far better 
sense.   She has an easier time remembering what she needs to click to 
get a task done.    Well, everybody's got their favorite, I suppose. 
For my money, I keep the license fee in my pocket and let cpanel keep 
their convoluted system.  :)

-- 
Chris Gebhardt
VIRTBIZ Internet Services
Access, Web Hosting, Colocation, Dedicated
www.virtbiz.com | toll-free (866) 4 VIRTBIZ