windows and linux

[xxc00lmanxx]

Hello,

I'm running a CS:S server on my 1GHz 256Ram computer with windows as its operating system, i can handle up to 8 players max on it.. if i change the operating system to Linux will my server run better( handle more players)

If so what do you think a good linux operating system would be. and Also if there is a guild on how to create a Linux CS:S Dedicated Server (unless its the same as windows)

Thanks,

[xxc00lmanxx]

its on windows XP forgot to add that

[Spartanfrog]

Debian doesnt have GUI and it runs good. But try using the search button, you never know what could turn up.

[AoS.DeathFromAbove]

I've never seen any real comparisions of srcds performance between XP and Linux when I was looking for the same answer a while back. There are a number of performance benchmarks between various Linux flavors and Windows for application performance like MySQL, Oracle, and the networking stack.

In general, the advantage Linux has (not just for srcds but for any network application server) is that the kernel is completely customizable. You can compile it yourself to optimize performance. If you're not into kernel hacking, then Linux's advantage becomes strictly one of cost. If you aren't familiar with Unix there's no real advantage to teaching yourself Unix system administration just to run srcds, since it runs just fine under Windows.

You can modify the linux kernel to optimize network performance, but you can also tweak XP's "Quality of Service" parameters just the same, and it's probably easier to do under XP. Bandwidth is your real limitation--if you can only get 8 under XP, you may be able to tweak QoS and get up to 10 but you really won't do better than that even with a completely recompiled linux kernel.

So what did I chose? Trick question! Neither! :-) I run my srcds server under Solaris. It's free, it's almost completely crash-proof, and its even more customizable than Linux.

The "Tutorials" Forums on this website have guides for Linux & Windows servers. I wrote one for Solaris, too. They're all very detailed. Read them and see which is right for you. Ubuntu is by far the simplest and easiest Linux to begin with if you want to try one out. Just about every Linux release, and even Solaris, have various "Live CDs" you can boot from and try out without messing up your computer. It's a good way to try a bunch and see which one you like best.

--DFA

[alt-f4]

Hello Everyone,

I found this site along with AoS.DeathFromAbove's How-to install on Solaris. Thanks much for the info AoS, it helped me answer some questions I had.

That leaves me with two more unanswered questions that maybe you guys know the answers to...

1. Can we recompile the DS source to run on natively on Solaris (No BrandZ containers)? I was thinking that would allow it to take further advantage of some of the strengths of the OS (and the new multi-threaded CPU's that Sun boxes offer) and eliminate any overhead running a container might bring.

2. Is there any advantages to running in a Sparc/PPC/CMT box?


It's an interesting thought (at least for me) if the advantanges that (I think) will be there could be utilized for DS ...
Your thoughts on the subject would be greatly appreciated..

Alt

[janne]

With that litle ram you gain a lot running Linux.

[AoS.DeathFromAbove]

I'm glad to hear the tutorials are useful!

alt-f4 Wrote:1. Can we recompile the DS source to run on natively on Solaris (No BrandZ containers)? I was thinking that would allow it to take further advantage of some of the strengths of the OS (and the new multi-threaded CPU's that Sun boxes offer) and eliminate any overhead running a container might bring.

Unfortunately, no. The server is proprietary code in binary only, just like the game client. It's free as in beer instead of free as in freedom.

There really isn't any overhead that I've been able to measure when running in a container, just the benefits of isolating it and using the host OS to monitor and launch it. Even if it were native, I'd still run it in a sandbox just to isolate it.

alt-f4 Wrote:2. Is there any advantages to running in a Sparc/PPC/CMT box?

It's only available as an Intel-only binary, so it won't run on any other architecture of CPU. The only choices are Intel or AMD, on Windows or Linux. Solaris containers are more like virtualizers, not emulators.

Since this thread started as win vs. Linux performance, I will say that I don't see any performance hit between Solaris containers vs. Native Linux.

--DFA

[alt-f4]

Thanks for the info guys.. ..

Sorry if I was kinda off topic there...

[GODJonez]

I have ran srcds on my 1 GHz 128 MB box, running ClarkConnect 4 Linux distribution. I would say it is quite optimal for the task as it is designed to be a server-only Linux distribution. You have almost complete control of the server remotely using just your web browser, i.e. you can create and delete user accounts, start and stop servers and even shut down or reboot the whole system. As it is meant to be remotely controlled, it doesn't really have any user interface stuff (like desktop environment) running in place, so that also saves the memory usage. If you haven't yet decided which Linux / Solaris you are going to get, I recommend giving CC a try.