We're Going Dedicated -- Very Soon™
Posted: 15 Nov 2009, 00:15
-- The Story
While we've kept this in secret for a while now, we've been secretly planning to go to a dedicated server. We've wanted to wait on Verizon FiOS Fiber Optic Internet to get about 10Mbit upload, but we've waited for almost half a year now. But looking at what FiOS would offer, how much it costs compared to a dedicated server and what we can really get from that. We've changed our mind.
On the MaNGOS forums I spoke with a few people in various threads about how many people MaNGOS can hold based on specs, and Internet speed. I asked, where are people were getting these servers. Phelpsben replied to one of my posts discussing PacificRack.com and how their servers have amazing support, uptime, and affordable prices. I looked them up, and to be true, they looked really affordable and nice. I began planning a customized server I would possibly want to build. Well, I got one configured the way I would like it; however, there came the option --- Operating System. When we first started Smolderforge we were suppose to be running on Ubuntu Linux. However, our first server was so bad we resorted to Windows --- but... did I still want to run on Windows?
Windows would cost about $15 a month, whereas Linux is free and can process faster and preform far greater tasks. The only good side to staying with Windows was simplicity and that it was easier to compile in Windows than Linux --- which, is true.
I've spent a while getting MaNGOS to compile in Ubuntu Linux 8.10 64-bit with the Smolderforge custom changes and ScriptDev2 and I've finally reached a success---and learned a lot in the process!
Phelpsben was amazingly kind to set me up a Virtual Private Server on one of his many dedicated servers to get a taste of that I would want to expect with the one I purchased. The server was running very well and performing great so I've pretty much made my decision. What do I do next? -- I need to start planning ways to prevent over crowding in large areas right away.
-- How Will This Happen?
As you might recall a little over one year ago we accidentally messed up the character database from reverting from an unstable core. Unlike we do now, we did not have character backups and something happened and we lost them all. I spent about 5 hours getting them to restore to an SQL file that had to be reimported. Do you remember how long that took? About 4 days --- I know now how to prevent that, thanks to phelpsben. I imported about 90,000 characters at that time and all their data (we have 200,000 now) and it took a very long time. I learned that because I was importing them through a program instead of running through command prompt(which I've never used to handle databases), running through the program causes it to load into RAM, then reprocessed back out again. Instead of actually being able to go DIRECTLY into the database.
We're still going to write and run the prune script to make the file smaller to transfer to the dedicated server, but we'll have almost no problem reimporting into the dedicated server--with it's processors, it will take very little time.
So because of this, we're raising the inactivity timer period to 8 months, up from 5.
-- Tell Me About the Server!
So, we'll be trying to get a 2 Intel XEON 2.8 Ghz processors (XEON are extremely powerful). 4GB of RAM (if we can right off the bat), 100Mbit up and down speeds. 2TB of bandwidth a month, 120GB hard drive.
So, that's some really great stuff there! While we're not going to reach 2TB of bandwidth, just in case we're moving a lot of stuff that normally would take internet into processing. For example, data sent will be compressed and sent to you much smaller at the compression rate. This sounds confusing, but it's just the way it sends the data. It's being compressed by 2 godly cores which we have the power to do, to preserve more RAM. It's also less bandwidth on your end.
-- What Can I Do?
We need 2 very important things from our community--your activeness on the forums by posting suggestions, and lots of feedback. Secondly, donations--not all from one person, but distributed. I'm sure with the server we will make more money; however, considering what I make now with purchasing this server I'll profit ~10 to 20 dollars a month. So these need to increase; I shouldn't have to pay for the server, it should pay for itself!
While we've kept this in secret for a while now, we've been secretly planning to go to a dedicated server. We've wanted to wait on Verizon FiOS Fiber Optic Internet to get about 10Mbit upload, but we've waited for almost half a year now. But looking at what FiOS would offer, how much it costs compared to a dedicated server and what we can really get from that. We've changed our mind.
On the MaNGOS forums I spoke with a few people in various threads about how many people MaNGOS can hold based on specs, and Internet speed. I asked, where are people were getting these servers. Phelpsben replied to one of my posts discussing PacificRack.com and how their servers have amazing support, uptime, and affordable prices. I looked them up, and to be true, they looked really affordable and nice. I began planning a customized server I would possibly want to build. Well, I got one configured the way I would like it; however, there came the option --- Operating System. When we first started Smolderforge we were suppose to be running on Ubuntu Linux. However, our first server was so bad we resorted to Windows --- but... did I still want to run on Windows?
Windows would cost about $15 a month, whereas Linux is free and can process faster and preform far greater tasks. The only good side to staying with Windows was simplicity and that it was easier to compile in Windows than Linux --- which, is true.
I've spent a while getting MaNGOS to compile in Ubuntu Linux 8.10 64-bit with the Smolderforge custom changes and ScriptDev2 and I've finally reached a success---and learned a lot in the process!
Phelpsben was amazingly kind to set me up a Virtual Private Server on one of his many dedicated servers to get a taste of that I would want to expect with the one I purchased. The server was running very well and performing great so I've pretty much made my decision. What do I do next? -- I need to start planning ways to prevent over crowding in large areas right away.
-- How Will This Happen?
As you might recall a little over one year ago we accidentally messed up the character database from reverting from an unstable core. Unlike we do now, we did not have character backups and something happened and we lost them all. I spent about 5 hours getting them to restore to an SQL file that had to be reimported. Do you remember how long that took? About 4 days --- I know now how to prevent that, thanks to phelpsben. I imported about 90,000 characters at that time and all their data (we have 200,000 now) and it took a very long time. I learned that because I was importing them through a program instead of running through command prompt(which I've never used to handle databases), running through the program causes it to load into RAM, then reprocessed back out again. Instead of actually being able to go DIRECTLY into the database.
We're still going to write and run the prune script to make the file smaller to transfer to the dedicated server, but we'll have almost no problem reimporting into the dedicated server--with it's processors, it will take very little time.
So because of this, we're raising the inactivity timer period to 8 months, up from 5.
-- Tell Me About the Server!
So, we'll be trying to get a 2 Intel XEON 2.8 Ghz processors (XEON are extremely powerful). 4GB of RAM (if we can right off the bat), 100Mbit up and down speeds. 2TB of bandwidth a month, 120GB hard drive.
So, that's some really great stuff there! While we're not going to reach 2TB of bandwidth, just in case we're moving a lot of stuff that normally would take internet into processing. For example, data sent will be compressed and sent to you much smaller at the compression rate. This sounds confusing, but it's just the way it sends the data. It's being compressed by 2 godly cores which we have the power to do, to preserve more RAM. It's also less bandwidth on your end.
-- What Can I Do?
We need 2 very important things from our community--your activeness on the forums by posting suggestions, and lots of feedback. Secondly, donations--not all from one person, but distributed. I'm sure with the server we will make more money; however, considering what I make now with purchasing this server I'll profit ~10 to 20 dollars a month. So these need to increase; I shouldn't have to pay for the server, it should pay for itself!