ax_peq db converted to innoDB

[Angelox]

I went ahead and converted the ax_peq DB as per suggestion of WidcardX. I've been testing it all week, and it seems much. much faster than with the old MyISAM method.
This is not recommended for anyone with anything under MySql 5x. I hope who ever trys this out, will post results.

[number6]

I converted my server (The Village) over to your new DB yesterday, and so far everything is working fine. Then again I never have that many people on it - the peak was yesterday evening with 5 :)

I haven't forgotten about fixing up the tome handins in PoK by the way Angelo, I am just very busy at the moment!

Paul.

[cavedude]

Smaller servers won't notice a difference at all, and for several reasons you may even want to stick with MyISAM.

Larger servers, however MUST convert to InnoDB.

Also, if you wish to use InnoDB, please make sure you have the engine installed and enabled. Otherwise, you'll just be using MyISAM.

[Angelox]

I beg to differ :)
Beginning with MySQL 4.0, InnoDB engine is enabled by default (unless you disable it, it's there, waiting). MySql 5x has general InnoDB default settings which usually suit most users.
Although InnoDB is more effective with larger volumes of users - it does provide benefits for everyone.

Edit;
for anyone who wants to convert what they have, here's a good tutorial
http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorial/MySQL-Migration-MyISAM-to-InnoDB/15557

[cavedude]

InnoDB uses 2 to 8 times the storage space, memory, and has increased CPU usage over MyISAM regardless of configuration. This is a fact that nobody can argue, and in my mind would be bad for small servers or especially those who wish to run minilogin and the client on the same machine.

And the reason I mentioned the second part is because I recently installed Gentoo on a test machine and the version of MySQL 5 it grabbed did not have the InnoDB engine with it, I had to dig up another package.

[wize_one]

in your make.conf file in the USE section if you have innodb there mysql builds with it

[Angelox]

Not that I want to have the last word here , put I'll finalize by saying "you'll never know tell you try". I tried it on my little hole-in-the-wall operation here, noticed improvement, didn't see any problems after a few days ( still running) , so I decided to post what I had for download, mostly so people can try it out and see if anything is different - for better or for worse. This way, if there is any problems, we can always revert, but we'll know better.
With todays CPU's and hard disks, a few more megs of space is nothing. and I really haven't noticed any problems with CPU usage.

[cavedude]

It was weird, Wize. The original package was half as large as the one I downloaded to get InnoDB. Somebody must have created a stripped down version without InnoDB's source. That's the problem with Linux, often times you are getting altered packages and not the original.

I agree, everybody should try it out. But, I just wanted to put it out there that if you find yourself having performance issues going back to MyISAM may be an option. I was really speaking about the minilogin folks who run the client and server on the same machine. We all know the EQ client can be a bit of a hog and all the extra memory and CPU power MyISAM would save could be a big help.

[Angelox]

I haven't tested Minilogin, eqemu, mysql on the same machine - I made a seperate Mysql server a long time ago, as it was stalling my other applications on my webserver even with MyISAM (when run all together with the minilogin and eqemu).
I can test that too , I have a small windows machine with all of it together - just need to load and test.
Probably a lot of people run Minilogin, eqemu, mysql, and on top of it all, the everquest client, which also needs some pretty hefty resources. So I would imagine anyone who attempts it all on one machine, had an impressive powerhouse for a pc.
Also, here's something else i noticed just by montoring CPU usage on the zones; CPU usage rises drastically with more npc's spawned per zone. Example;
cauldron has under 100 npc's in the spawn2 table - cpu usage: .03%. griegsend has 700+ npc's 25 -35% CPU usage, ssratemple has about 450 , 25-35%, Gunthak around 425, 25-35%. Probably an average number for spawned zones would be about 200. Tutoriab has 243 npc's and has 10% CPU usage. this numbers are with one player (me) logged in the zone. If i recall, any static zone empty, idles at .03%

[Angelox]

I still have my original EqEmu machine which is a WinXP, pentium III 500 with 500meg of ram, 30 gig hard disk. I downloaded/installed the newest binaries (EQEmu-0.7.0-974) and my latest ax_peq with innoDB conversion and I used a MySql5x.
Also, I used a Titanium client off the same machine; logged in fine, played (just me alone), zoned with no problems. This should give you an idea of what can be done.
Only problem I had is, and I get with this with any machine I try; sometimes when I first try to use the minilogin, the client hangs: all I do is ctrl-alt-del to the windows task manager, kill the eqgame.exe and restart minilogin only. After that, it doesn't happen anymore.
But so you know, this xp machine is running as a "dedicated" machine. by this I mean i have no messengers, av's, or other programs polling in the background.
I'm also sure I have no spyware, malware, etc, running. I do not use new character models with my client (saves a lot of memory, and workload).
and finally I have run the system configuration utility (msconfig) and disabled everthing possible, so windows os demands little resources. If you follow back though my posts, you will see where i explained and posted links on how to do things like disable stuff in msconfig, or tweak your internet connection.

[cavedude]

Well, I have to admit if you're running fine with a P3 500 and 500MB RAM, then most should be able to run the server with an innodb db, and the client at the same time. I take back my previous statement about only larger servers should switch, based on performance. Though, I still say choice is very important.

I get that minilogin bug too, though I don't normally need to kill the client. Usually for me, it just says the server could not be found or whatever. I close the client and get in on the second attempt. *shrugs* not a huge priority.

[Angelox]

I never waited it out on the Minilogin , thought it was just dead, and killed it all. Believe it or not, it hardly does this with wine and Linux. but does a lot with windows.
I bet the problem most people have when it comes to EqEmu, is their machine is not tweaked and full of other stuff running in the background.
I'm a "cyber-dumpster diver". My old crap has to be tweaked, else nothing works right.