Using the same files for multiple instances of SRCDS...

[3choE]

I bet someone has done the following already, but it is new to me, and I would like to share it, at least with the other newbies.

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* I am just merely talking about my experience, so I am not going to do any benchmarking to prove it.

As I mentioned in my other thread in this forum (link), I have recently tried using SSD for hosting SRCDS, and loving it. Yet consider the following:

- Per box, if not hosting too many instances of SRCDS, SATA 3Gb/s is perfectly fine.
- I primary host TF2, so regarding the above, by "too many" I mean 4+ instances of SRCDS.
- Performance is very good even with just a single SSD, so no need to set up RAID 0.
- Since a SRCDS doesn't hold any critical data, you don't need RAID 1. (A weekly backup to the primary SATA would be fine.)
- Therefore, a single SSD will do.

Each instance of TF2 SRCDS is ~3.5GB (w/o custom map/sound/whatever). My quick test was with 8x TF2, so on the 30GB SSD I tried, I was using ~28GB.

- 30GB, $134.99 @ Newegg.com
- 60GB, $234.00
- 120GB, $399.00

So for me, I would only get the 30GB, which wasn't enough, and therefore wouldn't use SSD.

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So I tried the following (on Linux) to save space, and so far so good:





There isn't anything special, just use a single instance of TF2 SRCDS as parent, and for all the additional TF2 SRCDS, delete their content folders, and replace with a symlink pointing to the parent's content folders.

I still need the child folders like TF2_01, TF2_02, mainly for hosting different instances of configuration (cfg/, maplist, mapcycle, addon/, and etc.).

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I don't know how to do the same thing in Windows, if someone knows how to, please share. Thanks.

Got to get some sleep before school.

[Beaverbeliever]

This is called "Forking" a server, and it is highly discouraged. The problem lies mostly in logging and overlapping configurations. It's easier to just run 2 separate instances on 2 separate directories.

This has some information: http://wiki.alliedmods.net/Multiple_or_Forked_Servers_(SourceMod)

[3choE]

Beaverbeliever,

Thanks for the reply.

I don't know, I am still testing this setup. At home I am using Linux for testing, but my dedi is using Windows, so whether this setup works or not, doesn't help me much.

[Update]
Just checked the link you mentioned, and found about using mklink in Windows.

Nice.

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Back to this setup, as I mentioned in the original post:

Quote:I still need the child folders like TF2_01, TF2_02, mainly for hosting different instances of configuration (cfg/, maplist, mapcycle, addon/, and etc.).

and log/ as well, I think the logging and configurations are OK.

Updating SRCDS is a bit troublesome, as I only make symlink of the folders, but not of the files, so my shell script for updating, also need to overwrite the files of the child folders (TF2_01, TF_02).

I have setup 8x TF2 on my home Ubuntu box now for testing. They are mixed of KOTH, single map, multiple maps, highlander, and so far so good.

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Still, I really want to be able to do the same in Windows, but I can't test it at the moment, until I put my Windows HDD back in my home testing box.