TF2 performance issues with Debian Squeeze on a 6 x 2.3ghz - 16GB server

[frog]

Just moved from CentOS 5.x to Debian Squeeze on a 6 x 2.3ghz (AMD Opteron 6276), 16GB box provided by Alpha-Networks.

I've not done any tweaking at all yet, but a full 24 slot vanilla TF2 server seems to be wanting to use more than 100% of a single core almost constantly, at least that is what 'top' is telling me.

Is 2.4ghz simply not enough for a 24 slot vanilla TF2 server?

Any advice on performance tweaking a fresh Debian Squeeze install?

[Mike]

I'd suggest you follow this tutorial, it's pretty damn good and does wonders for fps.
http://wiki.fragaholics.de/index.php/EN:Linux_Optimization_Guide

[Mooga]

TF2 has always been a pain to run because it's so processor intensive. Because SRCDS only runs on a single core, you generally need a 3.0GHz proc to handle 24+ slots. However, tweaks could possibly help.

[frog]

(04-06-2012, 09:51 AM)Mike Wrote:  I'd suggest you follow this tutorial, it's pretty damn good and does wonders for fps.
http://wiki.fragaholics.de/index.php/EN:Linux_Optimization_Guide

Just realised that my OP was slightly misleading. I had already added the rescheduling script from the guide that you linked to. I'd also already set fps_max 66.66.

I've subsequently tried assign processor affinity, which didn't seem to make any difference, as the srcds_linux wasn't skipping between cores beforehand, at least that's what atop was really me.

Current kernel version is 2.6.32-5-amd64

I've now set the system clock source to hpet.

I've not tried idler, mainly because I was seeing srcds_linux using (or trying to use) >100% of 1 core for sustained periods.

Maybe I should move on to compile my own or trying something from http://www.ulrich-block.de/?page_id=156

[frog]

Compiled linux-3.3.1.tar.bz2 following the advice in http://wiki.fragaholics.de/index.php/EN:Linux_Kernel_Compilation and http://wiki.fragaholics.de/index.php/EN:Kernel_Configuration_General and then everything in http://wiki.fragaholics.de/index.php/EN:Linux_Optimization_Guide

Still no luck on achieving a smooth running 24 slot TF2 server, it still wants to be using more than 100% of a core for significant periods of time. Much more so than when the same spec was running CentOS 5.8, which after a lot of reading on and via this forum, I really was not expecting.

Anyone have any further ideas?

Anyone running a similarly spec'ed box with 24 slot TF2 server successfully?
(6 x 2.3ghz (AMD Opteron 6276), 16GB RAM, 200GB)

Any suggestions of alternate boxes available for around £120 a month?

[Mike]

I really don't know then, this should work fine, a 24 slotter on my box doesn't even use 20% of the CPU! However, I've got a Intel Xeon E3-1270 @ 3.9GHz (turbo), so it may just be that AMD boxes arent |that| good to host srcds on.

[koz]

I'm currently running a 24 slot TF2 server on a 4 GB Ram Open VPS that has 4 ghz processor dual core and it's running pretty stable, the OS is a linux Centos 6. The link Mike shared will help you out a lot.