bit-tech's Multi-Core Gaming Server

Originally Posted by quack
I think someone needs to sweet talk VMware into donating one. ;)

All bit-tech need to do is begin recommending it to all their family and friends! :p

Originally Posted by RTT
That's the reason right there :)

I don't see why there would be a reason for not allowing different servers to run on the same OS. Surely it would be more efficient than using virtualisation? Lots of internet servers can run simultaneously on the same machine. I don't get it.

This should be fun tonight, dunno how my pings are gonna be from the states but I'm looking forward to it none the less.

Originally Posted by DeX
I don't see why there would be a reason for not allowing different servers to run on the same OS. Surely it would be more efficient than using virtualisation? Lots of internet servers can run simultaneously on the same machine. I don't get it.

IPs and ports aren't the problem - I assume that there is some server we intend to run in the future (BF2?) that runs on linux only.

I didn't have anything to do with this so I'm only speculating, but that seems to make the most sense to me.

Good going guys, lets see the days of a bit server full of forum members again.

server seems to be up and running already but it is password protected.
So far I can tell the password is not "bit-tech" nor "12345678".

Lets see ....

Yeah, it is password protected for now. We are just finishing the final configuration on the actual CSS server. Wait til 1800BST (1700GMT/UTC), trust us, it will be worth it.

Originally Posted by plagio
server seems to be up and running already but it is password protected.
So far I can tell the password is not "bit-tech" nor "12345678".

Lets see ....

Read the article :D Opens at 6pm BST (GMT+1)... roughly 15 minutes from now !

Sweet!!!!!!!!!!

The reson to run virtualisation is probely..........

BECOUSE THEY CAN!!!! :D

Damn nice hardware!!!

Originally Posted by RTT
Read the article :D Opens at 6pm BST (GMT+1)... roughly 15 minutes from now !

I know. But I gave it a try anyway.

By the way, 10 mins left.

Will there be a DODS Dedicated Server?

About time I get to pwn some people from the forums. If you ever see me online I will be under the name of Marquee, Marquis, Bunny Hates You, or Toronto Blue Bird.

BOOOM HEAD SHOT.

BTW can I put the Bit> logo on?

It would be sweet if they can run Vent or TeamTalk on the server.

coulda donated a gigabit link for that :p but no worries. looks nice :D

Dam it's full.

No chance of putting a pass for tonight so us forum-users can only use it?

It seems to be pretty full of forum users/staff though.

when you get the BF2 server up and running ill be there.

Run a 1.6 server on there, that only takes a low spec 5 year old machine for dedicated.

Source it poop :P

Originally Posted by Spode
As far as SAS, for running gaming servers - I wasn't convinced the IO was going to be particuarly important as it'll be mainly running from memory? No?

Yep I registered just to moan at you! lol...I'm a regular reader and I work in the high end server field with VM...thought I may as well add my 2p on something I tell everyone at work I know about. XD

Anyway, the reason I mentioned SAS is because in a VM environment the whole OS is typically a single 10GB or more (or split into 2GB chunks) file on disk. If you install all the VM's on your non-base OS volume, lets call it D drive, they all contend for the same spindles. Yes the game server itself is running in RAM, but you only have 8GB so you are going to be using alot of pagefile for each VM since they will have only 2GB ram or so each - hence potentially the whole lot slows down if just one of the VM's starts using disk I/O.

SAS in some tests has proven to be twice as fast (or more) as a standard sata disk due to 3 key features. The scsi protocol/serial interface, the physical size of the platters and the scsi like spindle speeds etc. They also do some clever write caching where they buffer and then write to disk in efficient bursts, rather than constantly moving the disk head...eg it does maybe 2 passes writing data in the order it has determined to be more efficient instead of being all over the place as writes come in.

All that equals a big I/O boost over SATA. Also, remember that every time you load a map, its coming from disk. Think of BF2 lol, its going to want to dump the map in memory then pull hundreds of MB from disk...the same physical disk on which your VM O/S's live and all their applications/game servers.

You could argue whether you'd notice, since clearly it's going to be a fast server whatever the disk setup, but if you want the most out of those multicores you need that I/O performance complementing it. Without it you'll have clock cycles coming out of your ears and a disk queue too long to feed the cpus and mem!

FYI, you can get an eval version of ESX, think it lasts 90 days, might at least be worth a test run if you end up reloading anyway.

Geez, someone stole my aim since I last played

Arhhh ill be in town tonight... but ill be back at 2am guys... n be up n hypered to play then :)

im on my way guys :D

all that bandwidth and server power for a 24 person server :(

now you need one in america, pronto!

374 ping from my dorm room in the States :'(

That was good fun. Great server btw.

No CoD2 server? thats all I have :p

lol that was fun.

Cry Cry, where's 1.6? :p

Nice article though, nice idea too. Always enjoy reading/learning about super-new hardware :D Especially when it's put to its proper use!

Rascal: Some really interesting comments there, buddy :)