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I managed to snag 5 high end servers for pretty much nothing. I have been thinking about what to do with them exactly and I want to explore the idea of starting a GSP.
So I have a few questions. First, is it really worth it? I have the hardware, I have the time and the money to start a company but is there enough room in the GSP market to make it a worthwhile investment? Secondly Would it be best to have all the servers at one location or spread them out and can anyone recommend a company to rent rack space from?
On to the topic of setup, which OS would be best, and webbased control panel for the customers? The next question is one that is asked far too often  ... If I go a head with starting a GSP, how many Source Servers can I run without overloading/overselling the systems? (Connection is not an issue here.)
Server Specs:
Two Intel Xeon Quad-Core E5420 2.5GHz
Tyan Tempest S771 I5100X Mainboard
8GB DDR2 667MHz, 4x2GB (I have more than enough sticks of the same ram to go 16GBs if needed)
1U case with 500watt PSU and 4 hotswapable bays
The servers don't have hard drives but I have about 23 (no joke)74GB Raptors on my shelf.
Last up, would it be smarter to only start with one server up as a trial run in case the whole thing flops?
Any input or advice is appreciated
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03-09-2008, 05:43 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-09-2008, 05:46 PM by Spartanfrog.)
Running a GSP is not a walk in the park. It cant really be your night job. Of course it is worth it.......if you can make a profit. Im a little confused at your specs. So each server has two quad cores in it? If thats the case, your one lucky boy lol. I would say that would get 480 slots 100 tickrate (not TF2). Here are a couple web control panels...
tcadmin.com
brainless.us
gamecp.com
cpanel.com
etc...
Personally I would host on FreeBsd or linux if you know what you are doing. If you dont know every single little detail of the OS then dont use it. Also some panels dont work on specific OS like tcadmin is windows only (which is incredibly annoying). I would just put one server in a location and build up around it. No point in paying the colocation charge for 5 servers. Best gaming colocation would be anywhere that uses Mzima bandwidth or colocrossing.com is awsome. Also you said connection is not an issue but if you are looking for colocation..it is. I would seriously worry about connection speed.
EDIT:
Forgot to say about those Xeons. Not sure if they are the problem Xeons which dont run SRCDS very well sorry :/
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Thanks for the reply.
Let me clear up the server spec confussion, each server has two quadies with 8GB ram etc. As for the 480 slots, is that per server, or all servers combined?
Reason I said the connection is not an issue is because I'm willing to pay the extra for upgraded lines and not use the crappy standard 10Mbit lines everyone seems to default to
That last bit interests me... Xeons having problems with SRCDS? I have been running a few srcds for myself on a Xeon Quadie S775 without problems for sometime now. Which Xeons are having problems?
Once again, thanks for the reply.
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We don't know what bad XEON's are, some just don't work well while some others do the job great.
I'd stick to around 40/50 100 tickrate slots per core, should work.
On to the GSP thingy, there's hardly any profit due to other companies having real low prices and things like that, the margin is real slim. SO you might want to ask yourself is it worth the time you put into it.
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Its worth it if you can make a profit so really dont go in selling $1 100 tickrate slots. Thats just stupid. Also try sticking to a group of games, such as the source games. You also need to know everything inside and out.
@Drocona: 40/50 slots? Doesnt a 2.00gz get 40, so well yeah I guess 60 was too high  but are you sure you would only get 40?
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If you can run about 4 server+ per box you can should be able to make some money. However when you do the math, it's probably going to cost over $150 per server for room in a data center and then more for bandwidth. And then a good price per slot is generally about $3 max (I think?). So if you can put 100+ slots per a box you might be able to make some money. However I have no idea how most space costs so it might cost more then i guessed.
It's very important to have good customer service, so you would probably need to hire a few people to help out with everything. Generally people will pay more for a server if they know they will be given good customer service. If they can call at any time and get questions answered, they will be more likely to stick with you.
If you need server help drop me a line. I've spent WAY too much time recently doing on-the-spot server installation.
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Spartanfrog Wrote:Its worth it if you can make a profit so really dont go in selling $1 100 tickrate slots. Thats just stupid. Also try sticking to a group of games, such as the source games. You also need to know everything inside and out.
@Drocona: 40/50 slots? Doesnt a 2.00gz get 40, so well yeah I guess 60 was too high but are you sure you would only get 40?
The last thing you want to do when being an ISP is overload your box, ther shouldn't even be a slight chance that the CPU goes above 80%. That's why I say a little less slots. If you are having a fun server at your home connection you can push it, who cares about the lag spike every now and then. (you don't, CUSTOMERS DO!!!)
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Drocona Wrote:We don't know what bad XEON's are, some just don't work well while some others do the job great.
I'd stick to around 40/50 100 tickrate slots per core, should work.
On to the GSP thingy, there's hardly any profit due to other companies having real low prices and things like that, the margin is real slim. SO you might want to ask yourself is it worth the time you put into it.
No one has any sort of real reason for some Xeons not working well with SrcDS? Kinda sucks since they are a badass proc.
I have been doing some research on other sites about starting GSPs and all of them seem to say three things over and over again. Low profit margin, very time consuming, and most new GSPs flop.
The more I look into starting a GSP, the more unlikely it seems that one has a chance to compete with the large companies that have drove the price per slot way down.
Thanks for the replies.
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Yeah the XEON's always used to be top of the line for SRCDS, everyone used them, but somehow a fe wmonths ago problems started to arise out of nowhere on random servers running XEONs, we have no idea where it came from.
At least you see it's hard to start now, there are a lot of people "simply starting a GSP" and learn the hard way that it doesn't work like that and they go down with the company, losing a lot of money and eventually their company too. It's hard for starters, you need a good base to start from and you have to have something special, guaranteeing some kind of quality in a way (like I can do since I've been working with SRCDS for years, just an example).
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Drocona Wrote:Yeah the XEON's always used to be top of the line for SRCDS, everyone used them, but somehow a fe wmonths ago problems started to arise out of nowhere on random servers running XEONs, we have no idea where it came from.
At least you see it's hard to start now, there are a lot of people "simply starting a GSP" and learn the hard way that it doesn't work like that and they go down with the company, losing a lot of money and eventually their company too. It's hard for starters, you need a good base to start from and you have to have something special, guaranteeing some kind of quality in a way (like I can do since I've been working with SRCDS for years, just an example).
Somebody should beat the Xeons into submission then...
I know that starting any sort of company is not a walk in the park as I have started a local company here, but GSP seems to be one of the hardest to tap into from what I have heard. As for having a good base, I got 5 servers currently, and another 5 coming next month. Pretty much I have the hardware, the time, the skills and the people. The problem is that it doesn't sound like it is worth the risk.
I'm going to talk to some of my partners about the whole thing. Oh and one more thing, if I do decide to risk it and start up a GSP, in your opinion which type of GSP would most likely do better? One where slots are cheap (Like those $0.99/1.50a slot hosts) but the servers are at capacity, or one where slots cost a pretty penny ($3+ a slot) but there are only a handfull of people per server?
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I'd go for the somewhat more expensive but quality servers. Fact is that people are really not shy of paying a little more, if it's quality they get they will be very happy customers and when you ask them some are even willing to pay more.
I too would prefer a 3$/slot server running great over a 1$/slot budget server hardly reaching the tickrate I want.
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Few more hardware based questions, might as well as them here rather than creating a new thread. With the server specs I have, how many slots could I run (Per Unit) at 100Tick with 250FPS,500FPS, and 1000FPS (I know 1000FPS is such a waste but all the "pros" demand it.) And the how many at 66Tick with 250FPS, and 500FPS?
Also back to the Xeons crapping out on SrcDS, has anyone noticed if it is a certain model or line that seems to be acting up? And on average how badly is the server's capacity compromised?
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Well like I said above, if you run 40/50 slots per core (100tick) it should hold (so if you have 8 cores that would be 320-400 slots).
I'm not sure if I can give you estimates on different FPS', it really differs.
66 tick will run more slots (obviously), I think around 1.6/7x as much as 100tick.
We haven't seen one line of XEON's pop out, some people have had problems at 3% CPU usage already.
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Drocona Wrote:Spartanfrog Wrote:Its worth it if you can make a profit so really dont go in selling $1 100 tickrate slots. Thats just stupid. Also try sticking to a group of games, such as the source games. You also need to know everything inside and out.
@Drocona: 40/50 slots? Doesnt a 2.00gz get 40, so well yeah I guess 60 was too high but are you sure you would only get 40?
The last thing you want to do when being an ISP is overload your box, ther shouldn't even be a slight chance that the CPU goes above 80%. That's why I say a little less slots. If you are having a fun server at your home connection you can push it, who cares about the lag spike every now and then. (you don't, CUSTOMERS DO!!!)
Allright thanks for clearing it up Drocona  If I had the money, servers, and skills I would start a GSP in a heartbeat. Might not be the best idea of course but it looks so damn fun. Starting it up costs quite a bit but I also I really doubt I could fix every problem....
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Spartanfrog Wrote:Drocona Wrote:Spartanfrog Wrote:Its worth it if you can make a profit so really dont go in selling $1 100 tickrate slots. Thats just stupid. Also try sticking to a group of games, such as the source games. You also need to know everything inside and out.
@Drocona: 40/50 slots? Doesnt a 2.00gz get 40, so well yeah I guess 60 was too high but are you sure you would only get 40?
The last thing you want to do when being an ISP is overload your box, ther shouldn't even be a slight chance that the CPU goes above 80%. That's why I say a little less slots. If you are having a fun server at your home connection you can push it, who cares about the lag spike every now and then. (you don't, CUSTOMERS DO!!!)
Allright thanks for clearing it up Drocona If I had the money, servers, and skills I would start a GSP in a heartbeat. Might not be the best idea of course but it looks so damn fun. Starting it up costs quite a bit but I also I really doubt I could fix every problem....
I have to say, if you got contacts you can get high end servers for cheap. I got mine for $700 each which is such a steal because to buy the procs retail its almost $700 5 of these units retail would be between 8-9grand yet I got them at almost a third of the price. I can't say anymore than that. My contacts might try to silence me by force if I give out too many secrets.
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