Choosing a kernel?

[unrealized]

Anybody have any suggestions when it comes to choosing a kernel? I am currently using 2.6.26.8-rt16 (the same one as on the fragaholics.de tutorial), this seems to be the most stable, but I am getting fps drops still.

If you could post ones you've had success with it and the settings you used it would be great!

also is there any other tweaks I should make to my server, I already have the idler going, and realtime scheduling.

Currently I am running off of:
Cent OS 5.3
Dual Intel Xeon Quad Core 2.4ghz
8gb DDR2 RAM
73gb SAS 15,000rpm Hard Drive

[BehaartesEtwas]

are you running hlds or srcds? can you post a fps-meter measurement?

also you can try the following (probably only useful for hlds):

Set the kernel HZ to 1000 (if not already set to it). Use the following resched.sh script:

Quote:#!/bin/sh

PIDS=`ps ax | grep sirq-timer | grep -v grep | sed -e "s/^ *//" -e "s/ .*$//"`
for p in $PIDS; do
chrt -f -p 51 $p
done

PIDS=`pidof srcds_i686`
for p in $PIDS; do
chrt -f -p 98 $p
done

PIDS=`pidof srcds_i486`
for p in $PIDS; do
chrt -f -p 98 $p
done

PIDS=`pidof hlds_i686`
for p in $PIDS; do
chrt -f -p 98 $p
done

run the idler 4 times, one for each core:

Code:

nice -n +19 taskset -c 0 screen -AmdS idler1 ./idler
nice -n +19 taskset -c 1 screen -AmdS idler2 ./idler
nice -n +19 taskset -c 2 screen -AmdS idler3 ./idler
nice -n +19 taskset -c 3 screen -AmdS idler4 ./idler

then run each hlds on a separate core:

Code:

taskset -c 0 screen -AmdS cs-server ./hlds_run blablabla
taskset -c 1 screen -AmdS cs-server ./hlds_run blablabla
taskset -c 2 screen -AmdS cs-server ./hlds_run blablabla

etc.

I don't know if this helps, as similar things did not for me, but I have a different cpu (dual core E8200). I have found this in another howto: http://www.howto-cs16-root.de/gen_rest.htm (unfortunately in German). Please give me feed back, if this helps. Maybe I can extend my howto then...

[unrealized]

Yes, all of the above helped drastically! However, the server on core 0 still has fps drops down to 100

and this is for SRCDS.

Thinking about running a 1.6 server, could I do this on the same box, or should I get a separate box for 1.6?

[Peter_Pan123]

normally use for both engines different servers...thats more than important...both engines hate each other :-)

[BehaartesEtwas]

yeah, don't run hlds and srcds on the same machine. this does simply not work well.

EDIT: I have update my howto with this new trick. I hope this helps some people...

[Peter_Pan123]

so far iam going to test it, but no time at the moment ^^

[unrealized]

any other suggestions for more stable performance?

http://people.summit-servers.com/monk/archives/101

anyone know how to make that work?

[BehaartesEtwas]

looks like an incomplete fragment of code...
what have you tried so far?

[unrealized]

I tried adding it to my resched.sh, but it didn't work. I don't really know what to do with it. Also, I am getting random fps drops every 5 or so minutes all the way down from a steady 995.2 to somewhere around 300-250. Any Ideas?

[Peter_Pan123]

thats sounds like sourcetv?

[unrealized]

No this is without sourcetv, with sourcetv it is MUCH MORE unstable. it drops every other second w/ the tv on.

[Peter_Pan123]

which kernel do you use, now? the one of the tut from behartesetwas?
how many gs dou host on the system?
did you use any patches?

[unrealized]

I am using kernel 2.6.26.8-rt16, the same one as on the tut. Currently I am hosting 4 servers, each assigned to their own cpu core.

heres the fpsmeter of whats happening:

[BehaartesEtwas]

I have recently updated the howto (resched.sh and the playing around section), especially regarding quad core cpus. did you already try that? Also at the bottom of my howto there is a link to another similar howto (unfortunately in German) that uses another kernel (the rest should be identical). Maybe that on works better for you (although I am sceptically about that kind of hacking... use at your own risk!).

[unrealized]

Yes, I have already done everything you mentioned, I will take a look at that post though.