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Just checking the east server (domains only, not subdomains), we found that 22 domains had outdated versions of WordPress (earlier than 3.7.1 where the exploit was supposedly fixed).

This is just on the EAST server.  We will be suspended all sites that contain outdated scripts.  Many of these had WordPress on their root folder vs a subfolder, but either way, if we find an old version on your site, it will be taken down.

We can no longer tolerate this and since some users don't seem to think they need to keep updated scripts, those users will no longer be using our service.

We were threatened to have our server disconnected again today due to these spam incidents.  If this continues we will be forced to remove all mail functionality as well as remove users that do not update their scripts.  From this point forward if your site is suspended for any reason, we will be unable to reactivate it.

DO NOT setup a script and leave it abandoned on your site.  Be sure you either remove the scripts you are no longer using or keep them up to date if you are using them.  We will be checking for outdated scripts later in the week.  If your site is found to be running outdated scripts such as WordPress (earlier than 3.7.1), your site will be suspended.

Just a reminder, outdated scripts cannot be tolerated, especially when there are exploits against those scripts, such as older WordPress versions.  If we find an outdated script, your site will be suspended.  Always keep your scripts up to date.

West server - A users site was causing excessive I/O load on 3 Mar 2014 - 4 Mar 2014.  That site has been disabled.

Our goals for this year...

-Further consolidate customers on the remaining DA server (West1).
-Investigate why I/O performance is so mediocre on West server.  Possibly migrate more over to LAX and/or upgrade LAX to 1000Mbit ethernet.

We have accomplished:

-Removal of all older hardware running older Plesk versions capable of only PHP 5.2
-All new servers (with the exception of WEST) give performance of at least twice the previous hardware.
-Better hardware and network performance than we have ever been able to offer to our EU region clients.

[root@east ~]# ./bench2.sh    ##100Mbit Ethernet
CPU model :  Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU    Q6600  @ 2.40GHz
Number of cores : 4
CPU frequency :  2400.121 MHz
Total amount of ram : 7861 MB
Total amount of swap : 2047 MB
System uptime :   1 day, 9:57,
Download speed from Coloat, Atlanta GA: 10.9MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Dallas, TX: 10.7MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Seattle, WA: 8.02MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, San Jose, CA: 7.35MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Washington, DC: 11.0MB/s
I/O speed :  105 MB/s


[root@eu ~]# ./bench.sh
CPU model :  Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1270 v3 @ 3.50GHz
Number of cores : 4
CPU frequency :  3492.254 MHz
Total amount of ram : 4096 MB
Total amount of swap : 4096 MB
System uptime :   1 day, 9:54,
Download speed from CacheFly: 72.1MB/s
Download speed from Coloat, Atlanta GA: 13.2MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Dallas, TX: 10.8MB/s
Download speed from Linode, Tokyo, JP: 1.45MB/s
Download speed from i3d.net, Rotterdam, NL: 106MB/s
Download speed from Leaseweb, Haarlem, NL: 103MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Singapore: 4.11MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Seattle, WA: 8.64MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, San Jose, CA: 10.3MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Washington, DC: 18.4MB/s
I/O speed :  237 MB/s


[root@eur ~]# ./bench.sh
CPU model :  Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1230 V2 @ 3.30GHz
Number of cores : 4
CPU frequency :  3300.030 MHz
Total amount of ram : 4096 MB
Total amount of swap : 4096 MB
System uptime :   1 day, 9:55,
Download speed from CacheFly: 71.8MB/s
Download speed from Coloat, Atlanta GA: 12.6MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Dallas, TX: 27.4MB/s
Download speed from Linode, Tokyo, JP: 9.24MB/s
Download speed from i3d.net, Rotterdam, NL: 101MB/s
Download speed from Leaseweb, Haarlem, NL: 98.8MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Singapore: 13.4MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Seattle, WA: 21.9MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, San Jose, CA: 17.6MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Washington, DC: 37.1MB/s
I/O speed :  715 MB/s



[root@lax ~]# ./bench.sh     ##100Mbit Ethernet
CPU model :  QEMU Virtual CPU version (cpu64-rhel6)
Number of cores : 2
CPU frequency :  1999.999 MHz
Total amount of ram : 3828 MB
Total amount of swap : 1023 MB
System uptime :   1 day, 9:48,
Download speed from CacheFly: 11.8MB/s
Download speed from Coloat, Atlanta GA: 2.67MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Dallas, TX: 11.2MB/s
Download speed from Linode, Tokyo, JP: 8.68MB/s
Download speed from i3d.net, Rotterdam, NL: 4.33MB/s
Download speed from Leaseweb, Haarlem, NL: 4.55MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Singapore: 7.49MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Seattle, WA: 11.0MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, San Jose, CA: 11.6MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Washington, DC: 10.6MB/s
I/O speed :  107 MB/s



[root@west ~]# ./bench.sh      ##100Mbit Ethernet
CPU model :  Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3450 CPU @ 3.10GHz
Number of cores : 4
CPU frequency :  1600.000 MHz
Total amount of ram : 3727 MB
Total amount of swap : 1999 MB
System uptime :   1 day, 9:53,
Download speed from CacheFly: 7.23MB/s
Download speed from Coloat, Atlanta GA: 3.92MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Dallas, TX: 10.1MB/s
Download speed from Linode, Tokyo, JP: 7.98MB/s
Download speed from i3d.net, Rotterdam, NL: 7.40MB/s
Download speed from Leaseweb, Haarlem, NL: 8.21MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Singapore: 3.82MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Seattle, WA: 7.24MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, San Jose, CA: 9.18MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Washington, DC: 10.5MB/s
I/O speed :  43.3 MB/s



[root@west1 ~]# ./bench.sh
CPU model :  Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           E5520  @ 2.27GHz
Number of cores : 4
CPU frequency :  2261.075 MHz
Total amount of ram : 2048 MB
Total amount of swap : 0 MB
System uptime :   69 days, 4:43,
Download speed from CacheFly: 102MB/s
Download speed from Coloat, Atlanta GA: 6.34MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Dallas, TX: 36.6MB/s
Download speed from Linode, Tokyo, JP: 12.6MB/s
Download speed from i3d.net, Rotterdam, NL: 5.44MB/s
Download speed from Leaseweb, Haarlem, NL: 7.64MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Singapore: 7.15MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Seattle, WA: 38.1MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, San Jose, CA: 66.1MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Washington, DC: 18.5MB/s
I/O speed :  17.2 MB/s

For comparison purposes, here is a bench result for WEST1
This is an older non-SSD VPS used for the DirectAdmin test server

CPU model :  Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           E5520  @ 2.27GHz
Number of cores : 4
CPU frequency :  2261.075 MHz
Total amount of ram : 2048 MB
Total amount of swap : 0 MB
System uptime :   67 days, 19:43,
Download speed from CacheFly: 103MB/s
Download speed from Coloat, Atlanta GA: 2.29MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Dallas, TX: 33.6MB/s
Download speed from Linode, Tokyo, JP: 12.1MB/s
Download speed from i3d.net, Rotterdam, NL: 7.21MB/s
Download speed from Leaseweb, Haarlem, NL: 7.43MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Singapore: 7.42MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Seattle, WA: 42.6MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, San Jose, CA: 86.9MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Washington, DC: 18.7MB/s
I/O speed :  17.2 MB/s

Is removal of mail a permanent change?

I noticed my settings for unknown messages changed recently (EU) and I am currently unable to send to Hotmail/Outlook addresses. I'm guessing this is related to the recent spammer issues?

Is there any way to request email services again following this change or should I look at moving my mail to a different host?

Your inability to send to hotmail users is probably a result of the spam outbreak.  No mail would work if the mail function was disabled.

Please create a support ticket or email plesk at lvcs dot net so we can check your account.

Also, it is best to create accounts that you wish to accept mail (even if those accounts are forwarded) vs. using the options to accept all mail.

Also, I do not see any queued mails for hotmail servers.  We did have to enable a few blacklists so messages could be blocked that way , or you may check to see if they are getting delivered to your spam folder.  (Hotmail could also be accepting the messages and silently dropping them.)

We are close to disabling the mail function globally since it seems there are many outdated/insecure scripts on these servers.  A few new ones are being exploited every day causing us to be blacklisted over and over again.  A few of these and everyone will have us blocked.

We have already started rate limiting messages on our EU server.  We will most likely need to carry that over to the other machines as well.

5.4.25 has replaced 5.4.24
5.5.9 has replaced 5.5.8

We were able to get this turned back on about 20 minutes ago. I see one users file in queue at around the time of the suspension, so we will disable that users script.

Also, be sure if you are a user on this machine, that you don't send 1000's of messages per day (or at once in any single transaction/short duration).

It was taken offline a few minutes from the post again.  When it is brought back online, we will be going through all crontabs and checking them to see if there is still a cron entry lying around that is triggering this.  (It would seem so since this happens at around the same time each day.)

It has been 14 hours without incident, so hopefully this issue is solved.

Now that the spam issues are believed to be resolved, please let us know if you would like to move your site from EAST or WEST to the EU or EUR server.  The number of requests we receive will be the deciding factor.  We will not move all sites unless we have to.

We already setup Plesk but haven't purchased an SSL certificate or compiled the custom PHP versions for this new machine yet.  We will wait until we are sure this server will be kept before performing these actions.