Dedicated server suggestions and tips?

[Rewindlabs 10]

Well the title describes my needs pretty well right?

I would like to get a few user accounts of how your dedicated server performs and its specs as well as what you require from it weather that be COOP missions in ArmA 2 or Domination in OA

Is Arma 2/OA very HDD intensive?

I am trying to get an idea on what I would need to run a dedicated server and I am just not decided on a HDD/SSD

[Hud Dorph 22]

The didicated server does not use hdd very much, i would def spend the money on so much cpu-power as poss. My server runs only domi and the cpu needs as much Mhz as poss - it uses only 2 cores, and does it pretty badly. With 32players 1 core is used 100% and the other 3cores only used aprox 5%. My guess is that scripting + ai only uses 1 core, and doomi are a hog on both. I always set affinity to only 2 cores and can run 2 dedi-servers just as well as 1 server using 4 cores. SSD would be the choise for a client, but for server i would say nothing gained. I am very excited too see what xeno can do performance-wise on doomi4.

Edited October 26, 2010 by [HUD]Dorph

[visceralsyn 10]

I've been messin around with my dedicated server in 100Mbps LAN using:

Win2k3

Intel Xeon E3110 @ 3.0Ghz "Wolfdale"

Asus P5BV-C Intel "Bigby" mobo

18GB 15k RPM Seagate cheetah

75GB 10K RPM IBM

Adaptec 29160 SCSI controller

2GB pc-800 DDR²

Mostly with MaxMsgSend really high, like 16384 to 24576. Which does kill the AI stutter when running. Minbandwidth set to 80Mbps, and max at 100Mbps. Oddly enuff when 1 client can go as low as 128k, when I had second client, the out was on average 256K to 384K per client.

I ran Benny's Warfare for a few days, it took the AI a while to beat each other. I would punch in for a few hours to try and help out. FPs got down to mid teens a few times, but mostly in the 30's.

This week mostly testing the 'SuperPowers' Warfare mission, and FPS stays higher, in the 40's with some drops to the 30's.

Next week I'm going to switch to CO, to see how the optimizations produce a benefit. Then harrass my buddies into getting OA.

The dedicated server is not very HDD intensive, it loads up the mission you play at the beginning. the 10K RPM SCSI disk does this fairly quickly. HDD for a game server should not be a major concern, most missions are not multiple megabytes in size. You seriously want CPU crunchin power. While the Dedicated server is multi-threaded, how much percent of cpu usage isn't the measurement, the FPS the server does your chosen mission is.

Concentrate on a seriously fast CPU. If you think more than 4GB of RAM is needed, then also a 64bit OS. I've not seen the dedicated server crack over 640MB so the 2GB I'm using and a 32bit Server OS, trimmed down to its panties( OS idles using 120MB of ram ), is overkill.

...Syn...

Edited October 26, 2010 by VisceralSyn
Typos and other grammatical errors

[Rewindlabs 10]

Thanks you both very much for the detailed responses

Do you guys have any HDDs you would recommend for this job?

I would like to keep this as cheap as possible in case it doesn't end up being used very much BUT I don't want to cheap out and then end up with a server not sufficient enough to handle a tough game of domination

I have this CPU just lying around and its giving me some issues when I try to push it on my gaming rig yet I can't just throw it out so what do you guys think about it for this server?

I see my friends servers doing pretty well with Dual-cores so I assume I will be sitting pretty?

AMD Phenom II X4 945 Engineering Sample - DDR2 or DDR3 and capable of 3.6Ghz easily

From what I can tell the difference between DDR2 and DDR3 won't play too big of a part here and considering the prices I will be leaning towards a cheap DDR3 motherboard and kit for the server

Will it be sufficient just to use the on board sata ports?

I am going to be parting up my gaming rig to build this server so I was wondering if this HDD would serve the gaming server well enough or if it would be in my best interest to keep that for my gaming PC and get a better drive for the server since this is meeting my gaming pc needs

Also can you guys comment on dedicated NICs?

I was consulting my friend about his server and he recommended I pickup a dedicated nic as well as run Cat-6 to my server for best performance

I am questioning this info now though because he was also suggesting a few rather over the top upgrades I could do that would make my server "perfect" and lets be honest I don't need a perfect 64 slot server capable of domination

Again thank you guys for your help :o

---------- Post added at 03:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:50 PM ----------

Can you guys comment on the ArmA 2 linux dedicated server tools?

I am thinking this would be a great opportunity to not only familiarize with a dedicated gaming server but also running it through Linux would be a real treat

My apologies for the double post but due to my lack of grammar and length of message things are obviously getting muddled pretty badly :(

[visceralsyn 10]

Ideally, I would suggest L2 caches for each core to be at least 1MB, but since it has an L3 cache, that might make up for it. So for that CPU's performance you'd need some input on, or just put it altogether and test the crap outta it. I'm not familiar with AMD products.

Again, HDD isn't that major of a factor for serving. SCSI is ideal for servers, SATA is just as good. If, you had a mere IDE, it would suffice as well. The loading speeds are not going to provide major performance boosts for the server. This doesn't mean put in a 5400 RPM IDE drive. ;)

Memory architecture type isn't going to make major differences either, just make sure you are using enough of it. I do suggest memory running at the FSB speed as a bear minimum.

If its going to be on a gigabit connection to the internet, then the gigabit nic would be needed. Or even gigabit LAN gaming. But otherwise, a good 100mbps NIC, even onboard will suffice here.

The server should run better under Linux than Winders. If I didn't need Winders for GTR² / Race 07 serving, I would be on *Nix too.

Edited October 26, 2010 by VisceralSyn
Dang gumbed typos....

[Rewindlabs 10]

Thanks all that is just great to hear

I believe I understand what you are saying about the memory but could you elaborate?

I will probably end up with a 1333Mhz 2X2GB kit to start out with so is that going to be up to par?

Well I guess I will have to seek out a decent spec'd 7200RPM sata drive soon :cool: I was worried I would have to end up investing a raid setup just to get things going smoothly :rolleyes:

So how do you think my server is going to perform give I have an ample net connection?

The current server I played on just does not provide fluid gameplay with the glitching of the AI at even meager rangers and thats what really pushed me to where I am now on getting myself a server setup

Ideally, I would suggest L2 caches for each core to be at least 1MB, but since it has an L3 cache, that might make up for it. So for that CPU's performance you'd need some input on, or just put it altogether and test the crap outta it. I'm not familiar with AMD products.

If someone could chime in on this that would be exceptional

I don't know enough about the process to really come to my own conclusion even though I am pretty familiar with this particular CPU :(

Edited October 26, 2010 by Rewindlabs

[visceralsyn 10]

I believe I understand what you are saying about the memory but could you elaborate?

I will probably end up with a 1333Mhz 2X2GB kit to start out with so is that going to be up to par?

Ideal world, and not just for servers, if your CPU's FSB is at 800Mhz, for the most efficient use of memory, would run at 800Mhz. So with that in mind, since you have a 1333Mhz FSB CPU, you would want to run DDR³@1333Mhz.

For optimal performance you want your server to maintain over 20FPS, 30FPS or more means its running pretty good. According to the readme.txt file, 15FPS or less means the server is overworked. Lots of units, and scripts slows down the server A-LOT. However, a-lot of units and scripts is what makes missions fun!

Good Luck

[Rewindlabs 10]

Thanks yet again :)

Going to have to pick a board and some ram out soon