caen1944 10 Posted November 15, 2010 Hi folks, I want to mess around with the dedicated linux server on the amazon ec2 system. If I need to upload the ARMA2/OA game files from my home PC to the ec2 server, it will take forever. However if there is some high bandwidth location on the internet that has the OA game files, and I can download them directly, that would be really helpful. Does anyone know if such a source exists? I apologize if this has been asked before a bunch of times, I am new to the MP server thing. Thanks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rogue246 10 Posted November 15, 2010 Yes, Uploading everything is a pain but it's considered illegal to share files so that's pretty much the only option I'm afraid. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
caen1944 10 Posted November 15, 2010 Ah, that makes sense. It would be nice if BI stripped out the stuff that the server doesn't actually need and packaged that up into an archive or something that could be shared. It's not as if that is going to make the game any more easy to steal. But, yeah I can see how just sending other people your game files might be illegal, if they have no way to verify that you actually own the game. Looks like I just need to let the thing upload overnight. I sure hope that they don't release another update too soon and make me do it all over again. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rogue246 10 Posted November 15, 2010 I'm guessing you don't have RDP desktop access for your machine? That would make it much easier to download directly to the box. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
byteslam 10 Posted November 16, 2010 Hi folks,I want to mess around with the dedicated linux server on the amazon ec2 system. If I need to upload the ARMA2/OA game files from my home PC to the ec2 server, it will take forever. However if there is some high bandwidth location on the internet that has the OA game files, and I can download them directly, that would be really helpful. Does anyone know if such a source exists? I apologize if this has been asked before a bunch of times, I am new to the MP server thing. Thanks. This topic always pops up when an update is released, unfortunately BI is unable to provide a solution. The upgrade from 154 to 155 is only about 60MB difference. You can use rsync with the fuzzy switch and you are done in about one hour. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
caen1944 10 Posted November 17, 2010 I'm guessing you don't have RDP desktop access for your machine? That would make it much easier to download directly to the box. Well, I usually run the virtual linux server from amazon's ec2 system anytime I have any need for a remote server, so I don't really need RDP, I just connect with ssh. Basically, I am limited upstream bandwidth to about 900kpbs from my home PC, so 7 gigs or so is a lot. Amazon also was windows servers available (accessible via RDP). I might be able to launch on of those, install steam, then ARMA/OA directly from Steam, and then copy the files to Amazon's persistent storage system. I don't usually use the windows servers because I don't know how to do anything other than play games in windows, particularly server type stuff. However, the idea that it might not actually be legal to load these files up amazon storage has got me thinking that this whole enterprise might not be a good idea anyway. I don't want to pay for a month of 24/7 uptime with a game server hosting company, when I might only use the server for a 10 hours per week or so. Amazon virtual servers are extremely cheap for part time stuff and they have impressive bandwidth and latency. But it's probably too much trouble to get going. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
edwood 10 Posted May 9, 2011 Caen - did you ever get any traction with this? I want to do exactly the same thing as you, and 'm keen to see if anyone has had any joy playing with server setup on EC2. i'm a bit of a linux nub, so i'm just going to see if I can do an install on the free micro version for now. (I realize i won't have the grunt to actually run the server properly). I get the impression you can download the linux build from here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=110793 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Defunkt 431 Posted May 9, 2011 I have setup a CO server on an EC2 instance and it appeared to work very well in limited testing with just me on the server, the mission I selected ran just as well as it does on a Dual Xeon box I also administer closer to home. I did all the setup on a micro instance and used an m2.2xlarge to run the server as this combined High-I/O with the most computing power per virtual-core (ArmA not being a great user of additional cores). I did have some issues with GameSpy and the routers around US West but these were mostly obviated after they added a 3rd zone to that region and I specified this so I think it was a data center/hardware specific issue. Not having any real use for it (I am the Pacific Ocean away from the nearest region) I discarded it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
doonbugie 10 Posted May 9, 2011 Yes, Uploading everything is a pain but it's considered illegal to share files so that's pretty much the only option I'm afraid. Depends where you live and if BIS is willing to go after you. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
edwood 10 Posted May 9, 2011 Defunkt... Sorry your world keeps shakin man! You are running on Windows presumably? I'm guessing it runs better on linux, but i'm playing with both atm... I'm 2 steps behind you, but set up a micro instance last night - intending to do exactly the same thing. Also, do you go by another name? I know a few ChCh Arma lads... Am I correct in saying that the you are allowed to set up a dedicated server on a separate machine - as long as you own the game? If this is the case, then I could legitimately take a copy of Defunkts image and save myself the hassle of uploading the gamefiles over my DSL connection. ( Orcon, NZ :) ) The alternative I've been contemplating is to install steam... but I suspect I'd then need to run steam in order to run the server - meaning I couldn't play from my home machine. I'm assuming BI intends to let you install a dedicated server without having to buy a 2nd instance of the game. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
doonbugie 10 Posted May 10, 2011 Defunkt... Sorry your world keeps shakin man!You are running on Windows presumably? I'm guessing it runs better on linux, but i'm playing with both atm... I'm 2 steps behind you, but set up a micro instance last night - intending to do exactly the same thing. Also, do you go by another name? I know a few ChCh Arma lads... Am I correct in saying that the you are allowed to set up a dedicated server on a separate machine - as long as you own the game? If this is the case, then I could legitimately take a copy of Defunkts image and save myself the hassle of uploading the gamefiles over my DSL connection. ( Orcon, NZ :) ) The alternative I've been contemplating is to install steam... but I suspect I'd then need to run steam in order to run the server - meaning I couldn't play from my home machine. I'm assuming BI intends to let you install a dedicated server without having to buy a 2nd instance of the game. Arma 2 on steam is independent of Steam. You can do it, just run the a2 exe. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Defunkt 431 Posted May 10, 2011 Defunkt... Your nick is familiar to me but I don't know why. I don't go by any other names, I'm generally to be found HERE. AFAIK the dedicated server executables are not bound to Steam or any sort of protection and I don't believe you're expected to buy the game again to run a dedicated server. So you could use Steam to download the data files and then run the dedicated binary (arma2oaserver.exe) without starting Steam though my ArmA is not the Steam version so that's not something I've proven, just my assumption, suggest you test this yourself. I used Amazon's Linux. The CO install is larger than the EC2 free storage quota and I'm afraid I discarded the volume rather than get micro-charged every month for something I wasn't very likely to use. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
edwood 10 Posted May 10, 2011 Arma 2 on steam is independent of Steam. You can do it, just run the a2 exe. Hmmm... Whenever I run A2, Steam also runs. However, I am using a batch file that runs the program via Steam... i'll have to test it out. Defunkt, I'll come and track you down at http://arma.anzins.net/ edwood - aka. EdwoodScissorsHands... and we've probably just bumped into each other in some other random south pacific theater :). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
eddieck 10 Posted May 11, 2011 I'm currently running a few ArmA servers under EC2. I simply started a small Windows instance, and used that to download Steam and the game. I then used WinSCP to transfer the files over to my other Ubuntu instance. (You will need to create an EBS volume of around 10 GiB for OA and 25 GiB for CO if you intend on using Linux instances. The default EBS volume for each instance is 7 or 8 GiB IIRC, and that's not enough for the OS + the game.) I see no reason why this method would be illegal, as you're not putting the files up publicly - just transferring them between your instances. (And presumably, if you're using Steam, you paid for the game in the first place.) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
doonbugie 10 Posted May 11, 2011 Has anybody ever tried setting up X and vnc on their linux ds and then running steam from wine and downloading the files that way? Then removing X of coarse, GUI's are no good for server OS'. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
edwood 10 Posted May 12, 2011 eddieck - i'm part way through the process you've described. I had to start again when i decided to move my stuff to California... <mutter mutter stupid EC2 mutter lack of regional transfer support grumble mutter...>. I've got a 40G EBS volume that I'm sticking all the game files on. (i'll also put ACE and a few gigs of mods). I'll be using Centos (as opposed to Ubuntu), but that shouldn't make any diff. I'm a linux nub, so i'm going to have some fun working out how to do stuff... I had another thought... Assuming linux is more than happy with NTFS, I can just mount the EBS volume from the linux instance, and i don't have to copy anything anywhere! <-- am i missing something here, or am i brilliant? :) I'm really looking forward to having a play this weekend and seeing if I can get a linux server up and running! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
edwood 10 Posted May 12, 2011 (edited) Hmmm... The good news is that I managed to mount the NTFS EBS volume, and thats all going swimmingly! The bad news is that I can't get my server to start up :( I've used a few configs, but I'm currenly using the default server.cfg from the wiki here and I've edited arma2oaserver as follows: ARMA_DIR=.CONFIG=server.cfg PORT=2302 PIDFILE=${ARMA_DIR}/${PORT}.pid RUNFILE=${ARMA_DIR}/${PORT}.run LOGFILE=${ARMA_DIR}/log.${PORT}.txt SERVER=${ARMA_DIR}/server PROFILE=${ARMA_DIR}/player/player.armaprofile #OTHERPARAMS=-cpucount=2 I've created ./player/player.armaprofile which contains my profile info from my home machine. ...but when I run ./server I'm inundated with errors. here's the first 20 lines... Warning Message: No entry '.profilePathDefault'.Warning Message: '/' is not a value Warning Message: No entry '.profilePathCommon'. Warning Message: '/' is not a value Warning Message: No entry '.extensionSave'. Warning Message: '/' is not a value Warning Message: No entry '.extensionProfile'. Warning Message: '/' is not a value Warning Message: No entry '.extensionWizardMission'. Warning Message: '/' is not a value Warning Message: No entry '.extensionAddon'. Warning Message: '/' is not a value Cannot register string STR_SUNDAY - global stringtable not found Cannot register string STR_MONDAY - global stringtable not found Cannot register string STR_TUESDAY - global stringtable not found Cannot register string STR_WEDNESDAY - global stringtable not found Cannot register string STR_THURSDAY - global stringtable not found Cannot register string STR_FRIDAY - global stringtable not found Cannot register string STR_SATURDAY - global stringtable not found Cannot register string STR_JANUARY - global stringtable not found Anybody have any clues!??! ---------- Post added at 01:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:28 AM ---------- OK, I solved my own problem, but I figure its good to leave my errors and posts in the thread so someone else can find it... To cut a long story short, the Expansion folder, and all the subsequent folders seem to be a little resistent to tolower. I had to do some jiggery pokery with copying and moving files, but now I have my expansion directory, and all the child directories and files renamed to lower case. My server now runs! (I can't see it in the list, but thats for another day) ---------- Post added at 01:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:23 AM ---------- ...and I've solved that one too! Somehow I had the wrong secirty group set on my linux box. I've updated the firewall rules in the security group to include 2302 - 2305 on UDP, and now it appears in the list! These are happy days! Edited May 12, 2011 by edwood Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
eddieck 10 Posted May 13, 2011 I personally wouldn't use an NTFS EBS volume under Linux, but I'm glad that worked for you. For the security group, you should only need port 2302 (UDP) open unless you're running multiple servers. Also, you will not be able to see the ping in the server browser - it'll just say 2500. I can't figure out how to fix that. I tried temporarily opening up all traffic (ICMP/TCP/UDP) but that didn't change anything unfortunately. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
edwood 10 Posted May 13, 2011 I personally wouldn't use an NTFS EBS volume under Linux, but I'm glad that worked for you. I'm a noob remember... I figured that NTFS may well be sub-optimal, but I couldn't find anything to back up my theory... I've had another quick look now, and found this table which clearly shows that I will get only 20% of the disk access speeds using the free NTFS drivers... Fine, I will move it over to an EXT3 filesystem when i'm finished setting up. ...I wonder if I can 'mount' the EXT3 drive in windows... For the security group, you should only need port 2302 (UDP)... Kellys Heroes had a nice guide that included this information: port 2302 UDP ArmA2 game network communication. port+1 2303 UDP Gamespy public server reporting. port+3 2305 UDP Voice Over Net transmission. I vaguely recall I had the ping reporting correctly too... I'll re-confirm (if i remember). Thanks :) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
edwood 10 Posted May 14, 2011 Gaaarrrrr! I been foiled! I finally got everything working pretty sweet... However, I have one final issue that I may find unreconcileable.... I cant get the server run Combined Ops / Combined Arms. I've reverted to windows to try and get it going, but obviously I can't do a 1st time run of the actual game Arma 2 (no decent graphics card on the server)... so whatever registry entries / env variables get created at first time run, don't get created. Long story short, I've tried everything I can think of, and I can't get the server to run any of the combined ops missions and/or what I really want, which is custom content that requires ca. I've tried -mod=<full path to Arma 2>;ca;expansion; I've tried numerous combinations of the above. I've tried merging the entire OA and Arma2 directories into a new one. (This later proved to have worked) I haven't tried going back to linux and just hoping for the best yet... I figure if I can't get it to run ca on windows, linux aint gonna be much better. At the end of the day, i think my problem boils down to this. Ive used Steam to get all the game files on the server, and I can't run the dedicated server in combined arms. :( ---------- Post added at 12:22 AM ---------- Previous post was Yesterday at 10:52 PM ---------- <sigh> - ultimately I copied the Arma2 and OA directories together, and its now working! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
.kju 3244 Posted May 14, 2011 Yep. You can also use absolute path, like -mod=x:\arma2;expansion Note NO semicolon at the end. Also you need to escape semicolons on linux servers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
edwood 10 Posted May 15, 2011 Yeah, I had another issue that was masking some of my fix attempts... However, I did try using the absolute path to Arma2, and it wouldn't work. At some point I may try again. I would rather keep the two directories separate as it makes it easier for updates. Re: linux \; tip - thanks, I'll keep that in mind! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
doonbugie 10 Posted May 18, 2011 (edited) I wish I had a better internet connection* Im really starting to hate BIS, WHY DO I HAVE TO SPEND 3 DAYS UPLOADING SHIT. Edited May 18, 2011 by doonbugie Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
