New Set up

[nemesis]

I need some expert feedback from you guys.

I am in the process of renting a full T1 circuit which is 1544000 bits/second or 1.544 Mbit/second. This is a full duplex circuit which transmits and receives 1.544 Mbit/s concurrently.

I have a rack server with an HP Proliant DL380 G5, 2 Quad core Intel Xeon E5345 (2.33GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 2x4MB L2) processors, 32GB Fully Buffered DIMM PC2-5300 8x4GB memory, PCI express dual port gigabit server adapters, and 876GB of hard drive space (6 146GB serial SCSI).

The T1 will be connected to a Cisco 2600 series router, and from there over to my Sonicwall Pro 3060 device.

Given the above infrastructure:

1. How many css srcds servers will I be able to sustain decently? Up to how many server slots will be adviceable for this set up?
2. If I am thinking about using Vmware software to virtualize the servers (Windows 2003), is this adviceable? Pros and cons?
3. I will also be running a web server, FTP server, and a Portal. How will this impact the srcds gaming servers?
4. I have the choice of adding additional bandwidth by tying up additional T1 circuit. Is it better to have the circuits separate?

In advance, I thank you much for your help.

Nem

[blik]

You are extremely limitted by that connection. You could hold maybe 24 slots total... Before anything else consumes bandwidth - web server, portal, etc... Which is a complete waste of all that processing power.

You'll need a 100mbit connection or multiple 10mbit lines to put that hardware to it's best potential.

[Spartanfrog]

Blik what tickrate are you talking about when you said 24?

[nemesis]

Thank you for your help on this.

When you said 24 slots total, what exactly are you referring to, a single srcds server holding only 24 players?

I can separate the web, portal, etc to a separate T1 circuit. So on a single T1, how many srcds servers I could run? I am trying to get a based line so I can adjust.

Thanks.

Nem

blik Wrote:You are extremely limitted by that connection. You could hold maybe 24 slots total... Before anything else consumes bandwidth - web server, portal, etc... Which is a complete waste of all that power.

You'll need a 100mbit connection or multiple 10mbit lines to put that hardware to it's best potential.

[blik]

Spartanfrog Wrote:Blik what tickrate are you talking about when you said 24?

66 tick... Even then it's really pushing it, 24 would be an absolute max and would still probably lag.

Nem, I meant 24 total for the whole box.

Work on 10KB per client - you can work out how much bandwidth you need. 10KB is even a bit conservative...

To put this in perspective, on one of our quad core, with 190 slots (66 tick) filled as we speak, it's using 22Mbit. i.e. 15 of your T1 lines.

[nemesis]

Hey Blik

Thank you for the info, and I hope you excuse my ignorance on some of the questions.

So if I wanted to use that single T1, I would only be able to install a single srcds instance for css with 24 slots (or players?)? And it will probably lag.

You said 10kb per client was conservative. What do you consider a good kb per client?

On the 190 slots you have, how many srcds instances you got?

It would seem by the calculations provided that a single T1 would comfortably support about 12 slots. Is that correct?

In advance, I thank you.

J

blik Wrote:

Spartanfrog Wrote:Blik what tickrate are you talking about when you said 24?

66 tick... Even then it's really pushing it, 24 would be an absolute max and would still probably lag.

Nem, I meant 24 total for the whole box.

Work on 10KB per client - you can work out how much bandwidth you need. 10KB is even a bit conservative...

To put this in perspective, on one of our quad core, with 190 slots (66 tick) filled as we speak, it's using 22Mbit. i.e. 15 of your T1 lines.

[Spartanfrog]

Yeah in my opinion, 24 66 tickrate slots is pushing it. A good average for a 66 tickrate server would be 12kbs. But remember, the more slots you have, the bandwidth required goes up exponentially.

[blik]

Spartanfrog Wrote:But remember, the more slots you have, the bandwidth required goes up exponentially.

No, it's not exponential. It's linear.

Nem, around 12KB would be a better idea of bandwidth per slot.

That server I was talking about had 7 srcds instances. Six 32 man servers (4 TF2, 2 DODS) and a 16 man HL2DM.

[Spartanfrog]

Whenever I keep a server running without a restart, the bandwidth practically doubles as more slots are in use. That's why I said exponential.

[nemesis]

Got it. Guys thank you for your feedback on this. I now have an idea of the needs on the connection. I am keeping the current T1 separate and I will start off with a 5mb (bundle of 3 T1's) where I will run a couple of instances, then after a while i will re-evaluate.

Do any of you run Vmware at the server level for virtualization purposes for the srcds instances? or do you run the instances on the same windows 2003 box? I am planning on having a virtual server for each instance but I am not sure which will be more beneficial.

Again, thanks for sharing with others your hard work experiences.

Nem.

blik Wrote:

Spartanfrog Wrote:But remember, the more slots you have, the bandwidth required goes up exponentially.

No, it's not exponential. It's linear.

Nem, around 12KB would be a better idea of bandwidth per slot.

That server I was talking about had 7 srcds instances. Six 32 man servers (4 TF2, 2 DODS) and a 16 man HL2DM.

[Spartanfrog]

VMWare screws up game servers..dont use it.

[nemesis]

Hey Spartanfrog

Thanks for your comment. Could you elaborate a bit more how does it affect it?

I bought VMware ESX Server 3i 3.5.0 and just installed it yesterday night. I have so far four virtual servers built, and two of them have srcds up and running. I would like to hear a bit more about it.

Thanks.

Nem

Spartanfrog Wrote:VMWare screws up game servers..dont use it.

[Mooga]

I've never run a SRCDS on a VPS (Virtual Private Server) but people say you shouldn't.

Now I don't know if this has been tested. And Since Server Virtualization has now become main stream, it's posible that it might work better.

I would say test it. Install a local VM and run SRCDS on it. See if it works well when people join

[Spartanfrog]

Srcds runs fine, but VMware messes up the timing involved with server FPS. You probably will get very unstable FPS as a result.

[nemesis]

Interesting... I will give it a try and will post findings here so we all can learn .

VMware treats each virtual server separate, so I am not sure about the timings. It might be related to the NIC timing but I am planning on having multi NIC bound to the VMware server.

I can post the IP of one of the servers once I am completed, if that is allow on the forum so you guys can check it out and provide additional feedback if you wish.

Thank you guys for the feedback.

Nem