What is a Good Server Hosting Provider For ArmA 3 Co-Op?

[phronk 895]

I'm looking for a good server hosting provider that can run large scale ArmA 3 co-op style missions (Occupation, our own weekend operation missions, etc.) at the best possible performance possible, for the best price. Don't want to just find a provider that says they have the best servers out there, like every other provider, and then the server chokes up when we have 10-20 people on and/or crashes a lot. I understand ArmA 3 is currently in its BETA phase, but I've seen videos of large scale co-op missions running perfectly smooth (or very close to it, at least).

The unit I am in is pretty small, and we intend to stay small, but also have interest in doing joint style operations with other units possibly in the future. The overall player count we'd expect from such a joint mission would be from 16 to 24 players, maximum; don't want to set our expectations too high.

I am currently looking at Blue Fang Solutions for game server hosting, but they give no legitimate details on the specifications of their servers are (such as motherboard, processor, etc.) and that makes me slightly uncertain if they are a good choice. What mainly makes me interested in them is the cheap cost for server hosting: it'd basically cost us about $29.95 a month if we wanted a 24 slot server, or $49.95 for a 65 slot server (if it will run better than a 24 slot server, we'll go for the 64 slot).

Performance equals quality, in my eyes. But I'm not entirely sure what to look for with server hosting. With that said, this thread's purpose is to hopefully get some helpful feedback on what a good decision would be to get a great quality server for a good price. Money isn't necessarily an issue, but it's also not something I want to throw away just because I can...

Anyway, thanks for reading and hope some of you can offer some suggestions. :)

[phronk 895]

A slight bump, but I read from a post in April that ArmA 3 servers only use two processing cores, even if you had four or eight cores. Not sure if that has changed now, but if not, then would it be wise to seek a dual-core server with very high CPU clocks? Also, if that is the case, then would 8 or 16 GB of RAM be enough? Or would it be better to invest in 32GB of RAM for the dual-core server? Seems like it'd be overkill, but I'm not too savvy on server setups.

Thanks in advance!

[eddieck 10]

The best option is to avoid GSPs, buy a dedicated server from any reputable server provider (WHT is a good resource for that) and run the server yourself. Most GSPs oversell and it shows in their service quality. In addition, when you control the box, you can run whatever servers you want (Arma and/or other games) and additional services like TeamSpeak, within the limits of your hardware of course.

AI does run on a single thread and depending on your mission types, that will probably be your bottleneck. You can offload AI to headless clients (additional processes) to solve that, but there are some caveats to that (which you'll have to look into further if you want). The mission also has to explicitly support that. (I've wished for awhile that they'd just add multithreaded AI to the server binary, and Suma even said awhile ago that they were considering it, but who knows...)

The server is a 32-bit process just like the client, so it can only address 4 GiB of RAM maximum, and it will probably use a lot less than that. 8 GiB will be at least enough to run a server or two (or three, honestly). 16 GiB would help if you also want to load the game data into a RAM disk, which could increase performance.

Also when the Linux DS comes out, you can use that and save some money on an overpriced monthly OS license. (I know it's possible to use Wine, and there's a thread about that, but I don't know if that's something you want to get into.)

[SavageCDN 231]

Go with the highest CPU clock you can get - as eddieck mentioned it will only use 2 cores anyway. With regards to RAM I've only seen the server .exe use more than 2GB of RAM a few times (usually with large MSO-style persistent missions).

Also as mentioned having your own server rather than a slot server will give you much more flexibility. A bit more $$$ but worth it if you can afford it.

[eddieck 10]

Also as mentioned having your own server rather than a slot server will give you much more flexibility. A bit more $$$ but worth it if you can afford it.

Is that really the case though? For the same price as a 64 slot A3 server from the GSP the OP listed, you can get an i5 (SB) quad-core dedicated box from OVH (in Quebec; their DC is about 8ms from NYC). Sure, it's desktop hardware but if we were to compare a $50 A3 instance to that box, I would choose that box.

I don't know what the OP's budget is, but there are a few other good options at the $100/mo. range. Besides OVH which also has some servers in that range ($89/mo. for an E3-1245v2), there's also SecuredServers with an E3-1230 (v1 presumably) for $98/mo. in Phoenix or Ashburn. I have used SecuredServers in the past and didn't have any problems; I haven't used OVH but they seem to be well-liked for the most part (they're a massive operation too). I will try them out in the near future though, as they're going to be offering DDoS mitigation for free on all their servers soon.

And of course, a quad-core server could run 2 servers.

[SavageCDN 231]

Well his link has a 64 slot server for $50 (USD?). The OVH box you linked...not sure about that one probably as you said desktop board and controller... SATA2 drives, etc.... damn cheap though I'll give you that.

We used to have a slot server (arma2) but went with our own dedicated box a while back (Hetzner - $100/month for i7 2600, 32GB RAM, 4 cores, 100mbit). The caveat being you should know something about admining a server before going this route as you are responsible for problems on the box including OS

[eddieck 10]

Well his link has a 64 slot server for $50 (USD?). The OVH box you linked...not sure about that one probably as you said desktop board and controller... SATA2 drives, etc.... damn cheap though I'll give you that.

We used to have a slot server (arma2) but went with our own dedicated box a while back (Hetzner - $100/month for i7 2600, 32GB RAM, 4 cores, 100mbit). The caveat being you should know something about admining a server before going this route as you are responsible for problems on the box including OS

That 64 slot server is the $50 instance I quoted. Since the OP said he would go with that if it would run better, it's safe to say $50 is within his budget.

It is desktop hardware (not only is it an i5 and not a Xeon, but no ECC RAM either), but so are Hetzner's i7s. Hetzner is quite awesome as well (I do have experience with them) and they also have a line with server-grade hardware (Xeon + ECC, not sure if they still use desktop boards for that though?).

[SavageCDN 231]

Yeah TBH I have no idea what board is in that machine :) Disk system is much better though.. and I have zero complaints about the performance (we are running 3 x Arma servers plus other game services on that one box).

[eddieck 10]

Yeah TBH I have no idea what board is in that machine :) Disk system is much better though.. and I have zero complaints about the performance (we are running 3 x Arma servers plus other game services on that one box).

On a Hetzner i7-3770 (they were selling these as 2600s but the newer ones were actually 3770):

Base Board Information
       Manufacturer: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
       Product Name: P8H77-M PRO

Their older stock (presumably the stock used in actual 2600 boxes) would probably be a similar H67 model.

Their disks are desktop-grade (Toshiba DT01ACA300 in the box I have access to; they probably use a few models, whatever's cheapest at the time they buy them) but at least are reasonable. They are awesome compared to Internap's Seagate HDs, at least - _those_ are horrible and make you want to burn down Seagate's factory. (SSDs FTW.)

[SavageCDN 231]

Ours is definitely a 2600 (we've had it about a year.. it was the old EX4S). Our mobo is the H67 model as you mentioned (I got curious lol)

Drives however are 2 x Seagate Barracudas ST30000DM001 SATA3

[ric 1]

interesting thread, i have a ASUS MAXIMUS ( the first one) with a intel core 2 duo extreme QX9650 a stock speeds for our server but lack the bandwidth at the moment for more that 16 players :( I am not sure how far this old work horse could take us compared to newer CPU's.

[phronk 895]

Thanks for all of the feedback guys! My unit still hasn't made a decision with what the server specifications will be for the server we get for ArmA 3. It seems like we're leaning more towards either buying our own pre-built server box or perhaps even building it ourselves; which I'd imagine would cost at least $1,000 for the motherboard, SSD, processor, and gigs of RAM. The reason renting a server from a server hosting website seems out of the question is because their servers tend to be less reliable and less accessible than if you were to build your own box.

Also, here's a quote from a European ArmA 3 community's website regarding servers posted in April. Not sure if servers are handled any different now than they used to be in April, but it should give a pretty good idea:

Posted by: BRIGHTCANDLE | Published: APRIL 2, 2013

For a long time Tier1Ops has run on a Linux server with an 8 core Opteron machine from the 18th century as donated by one of our wonderful admins. While it did the job admirably Arma 3 Alpha was released without Linux support. New Servers however are inbound.

We did extensive testing with our rented virtual server and a 2600k desktop and come to the conclusion new hardware was definitely necessary to get the most out of Arma 3. Our testing showed that Arma 3 uses 2 cores fully on a server, but no more than that. The highest clock speed and single core performance was therefore necessary to get the most players and AI possible.

Our members have clubbed together and bought an excellent machine and we are expecting our new box online in the next couple of days. We will have 2 machines both built with the same components and put into a single chassis.

Processor: 3570 3.4Ghz Intel Ivy Bridge

_____________________________________________________________________

Chipset: Z77

_____________________________________________________________________

Memory: 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair Vengeance 1866Mhz DDR3 CL9

_____________________________________________________________________

SSD: 120GB Samsung 840

_____________________________________________________________________

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77N-Wifi Z77 MITX

_____________________________________________________________________

Cooler: Dynatron 1U blower

_____________________________________________________________________

OS: Windows 8

_____________________________________________________________________

The obligatory pile of boxes.

The Servers are all housed inside of Travla T1200 Dual Mini-ITX Chassis. You can see below this is quite a compact case. It houses two mini itx motherboards as well as supporting up to 4 x 2.5″ hard drives.

The cabling ends up quiet messy as with all PSUs there are more cables than you use. You need cable ties to get the motherboard bound cables into a bundle around the motherboard. Airflow however is excellent where it needs to be, which is through the power supplies to the motherboards and out the sides of the case.

The machine was built twice. Initially we used an Akasa 1U blower for the CPU cooler but it turns out the cooler does not fit in a 1U chassis despite its name. The Akasa was 42mm high and the internal space in the case from bottom to top is 40mm.

Each machine pulls 0.39A with a 100% used CPU in LINX bringing a total usage just under 0.8A. At idle the machine pulls 0.17A making it very efficient and depending on average load it could run on a 1U 0.5A average colo deal. With 8 real high clock speed Ivy Bridge cores, 16GB of total RAM and 2 SSDs its no slouch.

So... any thoughts? :)

[eddieck 10]

Thanks for all of the feedback guys! My unit still hasn't made a decision with what the server specifications will be for the server we get for ArmA 3. It seems like we're leaning more towards either buying our own pre-built server box or perhaps even building it ourselves; which I'd imagine would cost at least $1,000 for the motherboard, SSD, processor, and gigs of RAM. The reason renting a server from a server hosting website seems out of the question is because their servers tend to be less reliable and less accessible than if you were to build your own box.

Colocation only makes sense in certain situations. This is not one of them.

There is nothing about dedicated servers that make them inherently unreliable. The quality of hardware can vary, but there are a great many providers that use server-grade (usually Supermicro, which is among the best) hardware. The OVH box I linked is desktop-grade hardware, but once you start getting into the $100+/mo. range most offerings will be server-grade.

Furthermore, in this case, renting will provide you better reliability than colocation. The reason for that is simple: dedicated server providers rent hundreds of those same boxes so they will have spare inventory available. If _their_ hardware fails, it's also their responsibility to replace it (and they will do so for free). If your hardware fails, it's your responsibility to arrange for that replacement - both for the replacement hardware and for someone to perform that replacement. To get the same level of reliability as a dedicated server, you'd need to have a spare server available, and you'll either need to arrange for yourself to be available to perform that replacement (if you're close to the DC) or for someone else to do that. Not only do the parts cost money, if you want to use DC remote hands for this then you'll probably need to pay for the storage of them, and the remote hands service itself will cost money.

If downtime of a week or two isn't a big deal (and it certainly may not be in this case; after all, nobody is losing millions of dollars from their Arma server being down for a bit), you could go through the warranty process to save some money. But it's just not worth it - you can find a good dedicated server that costs _less_ than a comparable (datacenter and bandwidth-wise, that is) single-server colocation offer, and not have to worry about any of this. It's odd, I know, but the actual savings from colocation come when you've got a rack (or more) full of servers and can rent by the rack, not by U.

edit: Actually, if you're OK with paying a large upfront cost, you might want to look around (or maybe contact a few providers; look on WHT) for any "pay down a dedicated server" offers. I think I've seen them around before, although I don't remember where.

[ric 1]

building it ourselves; which I'd imagine would cost at least $1,000 for the motherboard, SSD, processor, and gigs of RAM.

not really, you might be able a headless box together for about $600 :)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157303

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104131

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171667

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231193

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154094

im not sure about this last bit as i have never used "server" software before :(

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416443

Edited August 9, 2013 by ric

[sn1permike 10]

If anyone is still looking for an Arma 3 server hosting provider. I would first check out http://comparegamehosting.com/game/arma-3/ which lists 19 current providers for Arma 3, they also have hosts the offer epoch, Altis life and now Exile mod, so its worth a look if your want to find a GPS.

 

Hope this helps other people, despite this post being ancient.

[fathersarge 46]

Helped me out man, thanks

[vampire12 10]

@sn1permike

Dude if you looking for arma 3 hosting comparison look at nazeboo. Right now they have provider at $0.50/ slot - TCadmin. That means just $10 (without coupon) for 20 slots (good for starters and small clans) http://nazeboo.com/server-hosting/arma-3-server-hosting/

[danleon91@gmail.com 0]

STAY AWAY FROM VILAYER.. FAR AWAY   THEY WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY THEY WILL NOT REPLY TO YOUR TICKETS TILL A FEW DAYS HAVE PASSED.. THEN WHEN THEY DO.. THEY WILL TELL YOU THAT THEY ARE HAVING ISSUES..

THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW. I BOUGHT A SERVER 3 DAYS DOWN. I WANT MY REFUND AND IM TELLING THE BBB .. THERE IS NO SUPPORT AT ALL GUYS.. IM JUST WARNING YOU.

STAY CLEAR OF THEM. THEY ARE THE NEXT MONEY GRABBIN HOST

[Jackal326 1158]

STAY AWAY FROM VILAYER.. FAR AWAY   THEY WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY THEY WILL NOT REPLY TO YOUR TICKETS TILL A FEW DAYS HAVE PASSED.. THEN WHEN THEY DO.. THEY WILL TELL YOU THAT THEY ARE HAVING ISSUES..

THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW. I BOUGHT A SERVER 3 DAYS DOWN. I WANT MY REFUND AND IM TELLING THE BBB .. THERE IS NO SUPPORT AT ALL GUYS.. IM JUST WARNING YOU.

STAY CLEAR OF THEM. THEY ARE THE NEXT MONEY GRABBIN HOST

Has your caps-lock key broken?