View Full Version : Server Hardware Upgrade
Many of our players will remember an announcement made on the old forum about plans for a significant upgrade in the hardware used by the game server. The forums went offline shortly after this announcement was made, so we will make it again here.
What and why?
The internet connection the server uses is the best on offer in the UK and runs brilliantly. However, the spec of the server itself is just above the recommended spec for running NWN as a dedicated server. With a module the size of ours, which is constantly growing, a much more powerful processing capability is needed.
You may notice occasional 'lag' in the game - this is actually processing lag. We know this, because players are still able to communicate in real-time with each other.
The module is taking an increasingly long time to load.
After up to 12 hours online, the worlds NPC's begin to delay their actions
Upgrading to a more powerful processor will eliminate these issues and ensure that we will be able to run all future versions of the world with ease.
With the current server spec, we will be required to purchase other components too. All parts have been found with the assistance of Wireplay and are listed below (To view hardware details, follow the Hardware Upgrade link on our website):
- CPU: AMD Athlon "Barton" XP2800+ - £88
- Motherboard: Abit NF7 v2.0 nForce2 - £45
- RAM: *GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit - £146
Total Price: £279
We plan to purchase this hardware as soon as possible and have it installed during the summer. Although resources are tight for our community, we can afford this upgrade and as it is a one off, there is no concern of future purchases to be made.
Voluntary donations to help pay for this upgrade are welcomed, but are purely that - voluntary. There is no pressure to donate whatsoever. A number of players mentioned their interest to do so but never got the chance to see the details we posted up in the old forum. Although we have already received 1 donation.
So here they are again for those players, and any others who wish to help us: (If you are not from the UK, please get in touch with DM Kev and we will try to arrange something)
Sign out a cheque payable to:
Mr K A Balmer
Address the envelope to:
Mr K A Balmer
55 John o' Gaunt Road
Kenilworth
Warwickshire
CV8 1DY
Please provide a covering letter with your cheque, as I wish to send correspondence to you on receipt of your donation.
This upgrade will make an enormous improvement in the game quality and provide us with the best setup we will ever need. Thanks to all those who support and assist with this upgrade.
I am going to be taking a weeks holiday in three weeks time. I would like to be seriously thinking about buying this new hardware once I am back.
Those of you who informed me of your intention to help with covering the cost for this hardware should make sure that these donations are mailed ASAP.
If you did not plan on making a donation before, but would now like to do so, the details are given in the post above, along with a full explanation on what your donation will be spent on.
Again, it is purely a voulantary donation and you are in no way being forced to make one.
A few more donations have now been recieved, thanks.
I'll be off on my holiday during the next week and I have decided to get the hardware ordered almost immediately after I return.
So those of you who wish to make a donation should ensure that it is sent off between now and the end of next week. The details for mailing donations are given above.
Thanks for your support!
I will be ordering the new hardware at the beginning of next week.
Over the time spent collecting donations, I have been able to find us some better deals for the upgrade; more power for less money!
Thanks to all those who have made donations, it made getting this hardware much easier.
Here is what we will be buying:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP3200 400FSB 512Cache Barton, Inc Heatsink & Fan with 3year Warranty - £105
RAM: 1Gb ddr 3200 - £88
Motherboard: Abit NF7 v2.0 nForce 2 - £55.85
Total Cost: £248.85
What can we expect with this?
- Server resets in under 2 minutes
- No more processing lag for NPCs
- Enough processing power for 64 players
- More players means more interaction and less players stuck on their own!
- The whole continent of Middle Earth will finally be able to be completed, from coast to coast!
Thanks again to all those who have supported this upgrade. All players will now be able to experience the world in its full glory, and yet more good players will be able to join our community and make it a greater success.
If all goes to plan, the new hardware could be installed by early-mid August.
i small warning, allowing 64 players with those reqs might be a tad too high, 56 would be a better number imo.
64 is the max, we probably wont go that high anyway.
maybe not at first, but i seriously think that you might get up that high later on. And everyone will hate it if the amount of players allowed on the server is reduced....increases on the other hand is always welcome. So if the cpu is having no trouble keeping up feel free to increase it then, i just wouldn't begin by putting it on 64.
ps
read your pms!
The plan is to begin at 45 then keep increasing until we reach our capacity or the 64 max.
Kail Cadarn
23-07-2004, 13:18
but, if we eliminate these lags that everyone hates, and you increase the players so high that lags start appearing again, people aren't going to be happy.
better a server running at opimum for less than moderatly for more
Thatr wont happen because we will stop increasing once we reach our capacity.
Capacity being an amount of players we can support without any of the current problems.
server shouldnt be more than 50 player... well you can try but you might be disapointed.... If you go have a look on the nwn forums you will clearly see that this isnt a hardware problem but a software one... nwn engine cant support more than that.... I think they made the max to 64 player just to follow all other games player limit
server shouldnt be more than 50 player... well you can try but you might be disapointed.... If you go have a look on the nwn forums you will clearly see that this isnt a hardware problem but a software one... nwn engine cant support more than that.... I think they made the max to 64 player just to follow all other games player limit
Kind of answered that issue:
That wont happen because we will stop increasing once we reach our capacity.
yea yea of course... I was just warning you about this... but an interesting thing is that big server attract tons of players so maintening it to 64 during some hours can bring a fresh generation of new playerand it would be good since the server often go downs(when i play(Canada)) to 5-6 player...
I'm pleased to announce that the hardware has now been ordered! :D
Our server will be getting upgraded along with another server at the same time, so we can expect the installation to take place very soon indeed, hopefully within the next fortnight.
I will be keeping us updated here on developments as I get them.
Once again, a big thankyou to all those who helped out - this would have taken a lot longer without your kind support.
The beginning of truly great things will be coming with this new hardware, so let us prepare the ground well :)
Cheers guys.
looking forward to it...hope the higher capacity of players does not attract to many "Phat lewt hunters"...
no matter, this has rapidly become my favourite server and i will stay until the lights go out...
A server I used to visit (Anphillia) ran 68 players with practically no lag...man, they must have brilliant hardware.
looking forward to it...hope the higher capacity of players does not attract to many "Phat lewt hunters"...
Do not be concerned about these players. As soon as they show up and make an impact, we boot them out fast.
Thats if they dont quit before we get to them, as is often the case - the world is designed in such a way that such players don't enjoy it, as their style of play will never succeed.
Once we have installed the hardware and jacked up the player count, we will be putting in a script to run a check when players join. This script will contain a list of IP's and CD keys we have banned. If a banned IP or key logs in, it immediately boots them out.
(We are a linux server, so the regular nw server ban features dont work)
Good players like yourselves who have helped us develop the world and make it so successful deserve the best security from those who have no regard for the gameworld we are running. You will get it :)
Coldbayne
08-08-2004, 12:00
How's the order / installation of new server hardware and software coming along?
Last word I got was the parts had actually been ordered and were being sent on to Wireplay. (3-4 days ago)
Ok, here's an update:
Parts have arrived and are now being sent on for installation.
Coldbayne
14-08-2004, 22:00
Any update?
They were due to be sent off to Wireplay yesterday. But i have unfortunately been informed by LieutLaww who helped us find a good deal and order the parts, that the motherboard components packaging had been tampered with.
Basically the electrostatic bag the component came in had been slit open, and it was clear that some attempt had been made to carefully re-seal it without us knowing! LieutLaww said there was no way he was accepting the part, so it was sent back and a new one will be recieved on Wednesday.
The parts will then be sent to Wireplay for installation immediately.
Although a small delay, it's best not to risk a potentially faulty component. My thanks go to LieutLaww for his attention and time to ensure everything goes smoothly.
Good news!
All the parts were returned in the end just to be on the safe side. Replacements have arrived today, a day early and are in perfect order :)
They are about to be sent off and should arrive at Wireplay by Saturday. Then an installation date needs to be arranged, but hopefully the upgreade should be complete by September :)
OneRedEye
19-08-2004, 12:58
Roll on server upgrade.
Roll on Barad-Dur and all those loverly shops in Mordor.
If we never had to wait for anything, we would never know true desire... :)
'Thinks about his own wait for his new PC and remembers the day it arrived'
LieutLaww
25-08-2004, 17:56
/me keeps the server upgrade for a bit longer then :P
/me runs
Galdor_Niphredil
25-08-2004, 18:26
:confused:
san~raal
25-08-2004, 22:54
Originally posted by LieutLaww
/me keeps the server upgrade for a bit longer then :P
LieutLaww runs
*shakes fist at LieutLaww* :curse:
Kail Cadarn
26-08-2004, 11:25
*goes futher than merely shaking his fist at lieutlaww*
The package has been delivered!
All it needs now is to be installed. Time must be booked at the harbour exchange for this to be done, but I will have a date for this in a matter of days.
Some of you may think 'why the delay?' - In many respects, this is more than a hardware upgrade, it is more or less a whole new server. A new case and other small accessories were needed, which Wireplay have provided.
Also a number of other server admins for the other supported games here have been upgrading/buying new servers too. So theres a lot of installation work to be done at the same time as ours.
I'll be keeping you all informed.
When they upgrade the server - tell them not to delete the module - ok Kev...
Don't you worry about that - its impossible :)
The module is safely stored on the Wireplay FTP server. The box simply calls the module from the FTP.
On top of that, I have my own module copy with me at all times on the development server (my machine), and countless copies on CD.
If we were to ever have the loss of a module, I could have another uploaded in 4 hours :)
I now have the parts with me... once i've made a trip to the office to get a case and a few other bits i'll be building and installing it. I'm hoping to get down to London in the middle of this month to install this box along with the other new ones.
There, the chief has spoken :)
*looks stupid* --- yeah Kev, I knew that... *ahem*
LieutLaww
05-09-2004, 17:57
Bow down before me for sorting the server stuff out (even if it take a while to send it off :P )
Here's how the server upgrade should go (crosses fingers). Once the new server is installed in the racks at Harbour Exchange I will stop the current server and copy the game to the new box. This *should* only take a few minutes to do. Once everything is checked we will put the game back online, however it will be on a new IP. This shouldn't matter unless you connect to the game via Gamespy or All Seeing Eye.
Cheers Breath. If you could give me a reasonable advance warning of date/time so I can have backups, etc ready incase anything goes pear shaped :)
in regards to new IP, i usually connect directly...
i did not know untold tales was on lamespy...where is it located?
thanks..
Galdor_Niphredil
13-09-2004, 18:50
under Roleplay servers
I cannot seem to keep 'MERP UK' as a favourite on gs . In fact the only way i can get the description of it to come up is to direct connect.
After this though if i disc then reconnect it disappears from my favourites list.
Galdor!
You need to format your hard drive immediately! :)
Galdor_Niphredil
13-09-2004, 19:21
hmm.....that's not what it says in the Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu!
:farmer:
Galdor_Niphredil
16-09-2004, 20:58
This must be close now?
It's close.. i'm getting the cases next week
Blackwind
17-09-2004, 12:23
No sticking AQ2 running in the back ground :}
bah rumbled
/me notices DM Kev and the MERP community heading towards him
:legit:
Galdor_Niphredil
22-09-2004, 19:57
Breath,
Just hoping you got those lovely new cases ... :)
Still not quite there yet folks. Were having to wait on another CL to send his stuff off for installation. Hopefully this will speed along very soon.
However, some very very good news. When the new server goes up, instead of the old server being taken away, we will be allowed to keep it to do what we want with it!
My intention is to use it for several purposes:
- As a testing server; UTT2 will benefit greatly from this as we can host live tests of specificf region with the community able to attend using their server characters.
- To host smaller modules at some point in the future; totally undetermined yet, but we could consider small campaign style modules, or other middle earth 'spin offs'.
Anyway, the boost this gives the NWN community is immense and I hope we can make good use of what will become our second server! :D
As Kev said we are waiting on a CL who shall remain nameless to send me his server parts. In the mean time I have hired a crack team of tieflings to guard over the server parts so to stop the CS community from stealing them :E
Hopefully wont be waiting too long before I can get the servers built and setup in HEX
Blackwind
03-10-2004, 17:52
Better be good guards!!
You what there Ratbotts are like
:bomb:
*begins to march towards Nameless CL, Breath, and then to Harbour Exchange, intent on destruction*
I hope the hardwares in before i get arthritus in my fingers from old age and cant play anymore.
Blackwind
03-11-2004, 13:39
Hes nicked the parts for an Rq3 server some where :}
Coldbayne
29-11-2004, 18:11
So has the new server been abandoned and the parts sequestered for another wireplay server instead?
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