Cluster?

[Hydrow]

I'm new to the project and there is all kinds of information that i will read up on but i wanted to get to the meat of it.

I don't care if its windows or Linux but I just bought a Dell 1655MC Blade server with 6 blades. Id like to cluster this server together if possible to run EQemu.

Can someone point me to the info I need to get this started.

PS, what server seams faster/more stable Linux or windows?

Thanks

[Rogean]

Windows has less issues. EQEmu used to be able to be clustered, would take a few fixes to get it to work again

[Kobaz]

With the Dell Blade servers, if you have the Perc raid controller you might have severe issues with disk performance under linux. It varies by the version of the controller. Try googling "perc linux raid performance".

[Hydrow]

Windows has less issues. EQEmu used to be able to be clustered, would take a few fixes to get it to work again

Windows sounds good, ill have to look into this. Thanks!

(can't wait for the server to show up at my door)

[trevius]

Windows has less issues? That is news to me! :P How often do you have to reboot a Windows server completely? Were player ghosts fixed on Windows at some point that I didn't see a changelog entry for?

The only issue I am aware of that Linux has is that it doesn't like it when the Login Server is down for an extended amount of time. Linux will eventually stop trying to connect to the LS if it is down a while and the server (or at least the world server) will have to be restarted for it to reconnect to it. To me, that seems more like an issue with the Login Server, not with Linux. It shouldn't be down more often than my server is :P

When I made the switch from Windows to Linux, the performance difference along was very noticeable. And the fact that the server could last for a week without needing a restart was much better than Windows showing lag issues withing a day or 2 of not being restarted. Maybe it works better now on Windows though. Has been a couple of years since I last tried it.

As for running multiple zone servers over a cluster, I don't see why there would be any issue with it. As long as it is setup properly, it should work fine on a cluster. The problem starts when you try running multiple zone servers from multiple servers on the same LAN, where zone ports can only be sent specifically to one IP or the other. Since a custer should be seen as the same IP, the port issue should not be a problem for your box. I think I have a thread out there somewhere from a couple of years ago that explains the issues with it and should also give an explanation on how to basically set one up.

[blackdragonsdg]

Windows is actually very stable with EqEmu, my server is running on XP x86 and it stays up for 3-4 weeks before it is rebooted and even then it is not necessary to reboot it is done purely for maintence purposes. Player ghosting? What player ghosting?

Windows Xp can generally stay up for about two months before it actually shows signs of becoming unstable but that is highly dependant on OS settings and enviroment. Vista, Windows 7 and Server 2008 can stay up much longer than XP ever hoped to.

[Kobaz]

Err.... a linux machine can stay up for years assuming a ups - 2 months is not a long uptime. I think that eqemu stability is a function of the number of users. My server, which only has 6 users, stays up for months at a time. I'd suggest that you run whichever OS you know best - for myself, managing a NT based server is challenging, whereas a linux based server is simple. Others will see it the other way around.

I believe that remote management is simpler under linux, but that's just because of its heritage, and is also merely an opinion. If you know how to lock down NT, and are happy with point-and-click, or know how to use its arcane command-line interface, then use that. If you want to run eqemu in a chroot jail, manage it through ssh, or push it across your network in a strange way (i.e. across an IP-IP tunnel) you'll find linux easier.