SRCDS hard drive use

[hellrazer333]

What sort of strain does running a dedicated CS:S server put on the hard drive. Does anybody know what the break down is of time spent reading vs writing? Does a server primarily just read the hard drive or is it constantly writing as well?

Thanks,
-Hellrazer

[css]

hellrazer333 Wrote:What sort of strain does running a dedicated CS:S server put on the hard drive. Does anybody know what the break down is of time spent reading vs writing? Does a server primarily just read the hard drive or is it constantly writing as well?

There's very little I/O to both directions, I guess. That's because it seems that the server reads all the stuff during a map change or in restart. The I/O writes come from log files and auto-recorded SourceTV files (if you've got them enabled). Also the server writes players' spray tags to the download/ directory, but that's like about 2 kilobytes every fifteen minutes at the best.

Why do you care? Are you setting up some experimental CS:S server on a DAT tape or what?

[hellrazer333]

I have been thinking for some time now of running a server (OS & SRCDS) on a solid state flash drive. The cutting edge of solid state drives is really starting to beat the pants off magnet based hard drives in terms of speed and bandwidth.

I can't afford super wize solid state drives. Older/mainstream flash tech has blazing read speeds, but it's Achille's heel is slow write times.

So, if running a SRCDS doesn't demand a high amount of write time it is feasible for me to run a SRCDS on a flash drive I can afford (until the price comes down in a couple years.)

Why would I want to do a silly thing like this?

1. Faster read times could improve server performance (depending on the drive & interface used.)
2. No moving parts & lower power requirement = less heat (enemy of stability & scourge of all overclockers & tweakers). The server wont heat up my study as much & a little less on my electric bill.

Low storage space is not a big issue for someone who wants to run a dedicated CS:S server. All you need is an OS & the server files.

-Hellrazer

[Hazz]

Or...you could forget the solid state HD idea and put the money towards some all singing and dancing processor

[css]

The idea is totally cool because of the technical side. It's like having state-of-the-art server system. It's quite little use performance-wise, but otherwise it's extremely cool. You would have server without *moving* parts. You could have passive cooling too. Nothing would move - except the electrons of course.

Write time won't be an issue. Those SSD drives do have I/O write capability too, right?

Somewhat more advanced system would be to run the whole system on a RAM memory partition, or use the SSD drive as a base for some of the memory partition stuff. I've written about the possibility of RAM memory based servers at http://forums.srcds.com/viewtopic/7335. Japje posted reply about quake server experience - and he also mentioned SSD. You could sort out something together - keep me CC'd in your conversations (...damn, this board doesn't support CC's in PMs, PhpBB3 does...) .

RAM partitions could be also used as temporary medium between direct log writes and long term SSD storage. For example /logs/ directory could be RAM partition and you would then periodically copy everything from there to /logs_stored/ on a SSD partition. Similarly the SourceTV recordings could be first stored on a RAM partition and then periodically stored to a SSD disk.

I like the idea of "real computer" without moving parts. Those stupid mechanical devices tend to break and stuff like that. Electrons don't wear out, so they're reliable. These servers could go on forever (except maybe the power source) .

[hellrazer333]

"Somewhat more advanced system would be to run the whole system on a RAM memory partition"

Its already been done. Freak'n burly fast, near instant everything using a RAM hard drive. HyperOS has done this:

http://www.hyperossystems.co.uk/

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hyperos-dram-hard-drive-block,1186.html

The drawback of a RAM hard drive is that when power is lost all the info is lost too because RAM is volatile. The way around this is to pair a RAM drive w/ a built in non-volatile SSD backup drive & battery. So that when power is lost the entire RAM drive is backed up on SSD. Crazy, stupid expensive though.

I'll let you know how it goes if I get around to building a SSD based server.

Cheers,
-Hellrazer

ps- thx 4 the input