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Dedicated game servers?

McRackin

McRackin

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
284
I'm just wondering what goes into creating a dedicated game server for a game like BF3. Websites like Multiplay offer 64 player servers for around $70/month which seems pretty cheap.

Is it possible to make your own desktop server build for around $1000, upgrade your line to a 100MB connection and create your own 64 player server? How complicated is it to do yourself?
 
McRackin said:
Is it possible to make your own desktop server build for around $1000, upgrade your line to a 100MB connection and create your own 64 player server? How complicated is it to do yourself?
Click to expand...
A bit simplistic but yes in a way. As for complication, really depends on your level of knowledge of servers and networking.
 
Danny Bui said:
A bit simplistic but yes in a way. As for complication, really depends on your level of knowledge of servers and networking.
Click to expand...

depends on hardware too, you buy shit stuff your server won't last or be able to handle the load, over build it and should be good..
 
It's easy to build a system to serve as a game server for under $1000. The hard part is ensuring that you have the right software (and a good enough network connection) to run the game.

For the physical system, you don't have to go overboard. Simply put, all that you need is (for example):

Intel Core i5 2400
Intel H61 or H67-based motherboard
8-16GB DDR3 RAM
At least a 1TB HDD
(optional, a second drive for RAID 1)
Video card good enough to simply run the game(s) (the server doesn't need a high-end card)

It's been a while since I've last heard of a request for a game server build, so I don't know what software, in addition to a copy of BF3, you would need to run the server. Also, the connection is the key; a 100MB line may or may not be enough (and I can't imagine how much more it would cost compared to the average 5-6MB line).
 
A few months ago I looked into it and if EA releases the public server files, I highly doubt it will be a ranked server.

Though I thought I saw something about BF3 Beta server files being leaked recently?
 
I'll agree about the network connection LOL. Spent about 1500 on a server for minecraft, now having serious issues with players not staying connected because my internet isn't fast enough.
 
Hmm so only companies like Multiplay (that have contracts with EA) will be allowed to have ranked servers?
 
Not to mention that 100MB line with a static IP (will have to be something like fiber or metro-e for low ping) is going to cost A LOT more then $70 a month (try adding a 0 then doubling it).

Also as Danny Bui mentioned EA isn't releasing the dedicated client to anyone other then their official partners. Hell it took BC2 to launch before they put out a ranked dedicated client out (though you could run an unranked from day 1). Pretty much this is how EA keeps cracked servers from leaking their way into the server browser. What will be interesting to see is if MW3 has the server client on the disk (they have announced LAN play and I hope it isn't listen servers only).
 
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Do a search...there are several threads in these forums which got quite detailed about doing your own gaming servers. I typed a lot in them....as I did a quite a bit of building and running public gaming servers.

As for BF3..I don't believe it's possible, last I knew you could only do those at EA certified game server sites...meaning, you literally cannot build/run your own from home.

I used to build and co-lo them at data centers and ISPs....the performance of that bandwidth is superior to your home connection. It's not all about just pure speed of your connection..it's about latency, and the power of the router/firewall you host your server behind. And the closeness of your server to the ISPs gateway so that people from all around the country enjoy a low ping.

Server grade hard drives work better with some games
Server grade network cards handle heavy traffic better than desktop grade cards
Leaning out the OS...to secure it properly, and get it running leaning, only run services you need.

Things like that.
 
Hmm so what are the top gameserver hosts out there? I've been taking a look at Multiplay, Gameservers, and End of Reality. Are there any other respectable hosts out there?
 
We had a great experience with http://www.ultimategameserver.com/

You can rent theirs, you can ship them your own and co-locate that (we did both)
Support was great too.
Several locations to choose from around the country, to optimize your latency for your core players.
 
Sorry, didn't mention that I'm looking at official servers that can host ranked BF3 servers
 
The hardware needed to run most game servers really can be pretty modest.

Each instance of Source game servers we currently run (Counter Strike, Team Fortress 2, and Left4Dead2) run in a single core VM with 768MB of ram. If running the game server is the only thing its doing it does not have to be a beefy machine at all.

The UT3 we run is the same, but 1GB of ram.

Crysis Wars is 1GB ram but two cores, as I'm pretty sure the server is multi threaded.

Most of the servers are single threaded. Meaning if you have some super awesome 8 core cpu it will never be utilized and you're just wasting resources. Nothing like seeing an i7 stuck at 12% cpu usage becuase the server is only single threaded.

Faster hard drives could be nice, but spending the extra money to me isnt worth it. The only time the server will access the hard drives is when it loads up initially and when it switches levels. Even then we're not talking gigs of information. How big are the map files? Not large at all. Most Source maps are well under 50MB.

You have to keep in mind that the servers themselves are nowhere near as intensive as the game themselves.

The internet connection as others have said are important. If you have something crappy like DSL, or if you're using that connection to do other things like netflix etc.. you wont get good performance. I run our servers on a fios connection and get great pings all the way out to the west coast.

As others have said YES, the BF3 servers you will not be able to host yourself. Its a direction that the entire game server community is going. I have my own theories about kickbacks from the hosting providers, and being able to peddle DLC among other things. Make sure to support the games that offer you the server files. Brink and Red Orchestra 2 were mediocre but they offered the files and they got my money because of it. I'm currently setting up an RO2 server. Keep in mind that (even with the heavy distain on this forum) that Modern Warfare 3 comes out next month and WILL offer community hosted servers like MW1. It may be what gets me back into the CoD franchise.

Hope all this helps. :D
 
jadams said:
The hardware needed to run most game servers really can be pretty modest.

Each instance of Source game servers we currently run (Counter Strike, Team Fortress 2, and Left4Dead2) run in a single core VM with 768MB of ram. If running the game server is the only thing its doing it does not have to be a beefy machine at all.
Click to expand...

Can't make blanket statements like that without knowing the purpose of the server....such as what game(s) it will be hosting.

The public gaming servers I built going way back to the NT 4 server days, old Quake, Quake 2, Quake 3 (and all sorts of mods/variations), call of duty, castle wolf, tons and tons of Unreal Tournament servers (my server sat in the top 20 of NGStats global top server list for over a year), and of course many of the Battlefield games...Desert Combat, Vietnam...several servers running at the same time. I had one Battlefield server that would pump over 20 megs up and down constant during peak evening hours.

Some of those games...if you want a busy packed server that performs well, you will want more than modest desktop hardware. I've seen the differences a server grade network card can make in the same exact server we used for LAN parties ..big LAN parties where we rented out hotel conference rooms and had guests from all over the US..and even Canada. Those same servers we used for those LAN parties we'd throw, I've seen the differences that going to server grade hard drives would make. Yes on some games...as you noted, they don't "load" much...and they won't make a difference. Yet...other games will load larger files. And what if you're running several different game servers at the same time. That hard drive can get busy. I'd often format and fresh install a server for big LAN parties...same motherboard, different NIC, different drives, same CPU(s)/RAM...and in heavier load conditions and games I clearly, without question, saw a night and day difference in performance (as did our many guests).

I'm a firm believer in server grade quality components in a public game server. If you're doing to run just some 20x man server from your home...yeah, sure, any el cheapo $599 special Presario tower from your local BestBuy will do fine. But if you're go shoot for some big popular server that you want to pack with over 100 guests each night....do it right, invest in some hardware. Another reason to use server grade components, reliability. If you're going to box up and deliver you server to be co-located in some data center...that is far away, you want a reliable box. One that will last for a while. If it has problems, you don't want to spend the time (or expense..since it costs money to call support at a co-lo spot and have them <so something> to your server) all the time.

All moot though, OP heading in direction of a hosted virtual BF3 box.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Can't make blanket statements like that without knowing the purpose of the server....such as what game(s) it will be hosting.
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I pretty much can. You're talking about servers from the early 2000's. Theres a huge gap in performance of todays hardware vs the actual requirements of the game servers. A 24 person Counter Strike server will not even max out a 3Ghz Pentium 4. Source Servers (like many other servers) are single threaded. Even if you have the latest and greatest hardware it all goes to waste. Remember the Minecraft Server thread in here a month or so ago? Prime example of his i7 Extreme (Xeon w/ out ECC RAM) was lagging when the cpu was spiking at 12%.

I was mistaken though, the most resource intensive game server we have is our new Red Orchestra 2 which runs in a quad core 1GB ram system. Which perplexes me because the UT3 server we run is only single core. RO2 and UT3 are based off the same engine. But RO2 wouldnt even start when I was only using a single core VM.

I can run 3 instances of a CoD4 server (vanilla, promod, and gungame) in a dual core 1.5GB system as well. Truth be told... the systems do not need to be beefy. They arent running the game. The game itself is magnitudes more intensive than the server is.

As far as the network connection? I echoed what other have said in this thread. I need to setup my servers to pump out some bandwidth usage reports. I havent payed much attention. I've never had my internet connection maxed out before though.

Network cards? I have used 10/100 Intels, as well as RealCraps. I couldnt tell a difference. Theres a limited amount of connections the server is making. You gotta have a truly craptastic NIC if it cannot handle a game server. I'd be far more concerned about my internet connection than I would about which NIC's I was using.

The point may be moot from the OP's position, but discussion never is. This thread could be searched by someone in the future as the title is Dedicated Game Server, and not BF3.
 
jadams said:
I pretty much can. You're talking about servers from the early 2000's. Theres a huge gap in performance of todays hardware vs the actual requirements of the game servers. A 24 person Counter Strike server will not even max out a 3Ghz Pentium 4. Source Servers (like many other servers) are single threaded. Even if you have the latest and greatest hardware it all goes to waste. Remember the Minecraft Server thread in here a month or so ago? Prime example of his i7 Extreme (Xeon w/ out ECC RAM) was lagging when the cpu was spiking at 12%.
Click to expand...

It makes sense to go multi-core and stuff if you run a lot of servers on the same machine (and be sure to give them dedicated cores with set affinity if you wanna insure no lag).

To the OP don't even try running servers from home unless you have FIOS. Its the only residential connection that is worth using for game-servers from home. Also even if you don't rape your connection that much you probably want a dedicated internet connection for the game-servers to insure they don't lag.
 
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