The requirements of running a server.
 

Greetings,
I've created this post to ask of those whom have experience (little or great) on running a server. I would greatly appreciate it if i could get an tips and good info on what they highly suggest.
My brother and i have decided to actually build a comp from scratch, almost specifically for doing this.
Any suggestions would be great from the computer itself, programs/connections, or just anything at all that you could suggest to help make this server one of, or the best.
I want to learn from those of you with first hand experience.
Thank you,
-Slayden.
^

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Bump :?

Zone servers need lots of ram... LOTS of ram. Fast CPU is okay, but LOTS of ram.

Did I mention that you should focus on ram for your zone server?

Thats why i use a "Real" server with 32GB RAM ,-)

The first bottleneck is probably ram. Each zone handler for me consumed up to 20-25 mb of ram. So to have 20 zones up, you would require ~450mb ram.

The next bottleneck for me was CPU. One of my servers is a p4 1.6ghz. With all faction turned OFF, it could handle about 25 or so users before things began to get laggy. This is just a pure zone handler machine, with the database and world server on a different machine. My p3 500 could handle about 15 users before things got laggy.

The final suspected bottleneck for me was bandwidth - although I'm not entirely convinced. I use comcast broadband, so I'm told it is 256k upstream. At about 40 total users, things would start to get laggy.

ah
 

awsome thanks guys

So each user requires about 6.4 kbps of a server's upload bandwidth? Just curious how many users I can get connected on a cable modem connection. :)

Appears to be the case - roughly speaking.

But there are many factors that contribute to a laggy server, and I could be wrong in thinking the lagginess was due to lack of bandwidth. How does one measure bandwidth usage in real time?

Holy crap, you mean I CAN run a decent server even with a 256kbps upload cap? I was under the impression that only a very small handful of people could play on the server because of that cap.

Wow, I might just start working on my database again.

If I could get the Athlon 1900+ to run without requiring an air conditioner to prevent it's continous overheating, I could split the zone servers up between the P4 1.6 and the Athlon (both have 512 RAM).

I should move the MySQL database from the old Linux machine over to the newer FreeBSD machine though (PII-266, IDE harddrive). I bet that old SCSI-1, two 5-1/4 bay high, half the case deep harddrive that beast of a Linux machine is running is slowing down the SQL results :)

I am running 2003 server, Dual Pentium III 1.2Ghz processors and 1gig of ram.

So does that mean with a pentium 3.06 GHz (with hyper threading)
1GB 333Mhz DDR Ram, etc, etc I could host anywhere from 20 - 40 people? (Btw I have a cable connection, roadrunner, don't know what the cap is though or if it is capped.)

err
 

Supr- how smoothly does your server run with that? :roll:

with Supr, the only bottleneck would then be bandwidth...

t
 

whats a good bandwidth?

I'd say that at least 7kbs upload capable for each user connecting...