Question about the master server

[vredg 0]

If I'm correct the last weeks the master server has been at it's limits causing instability and long waiting times. Is this correct? Are there any plans in that case to upgrade it? Or, if it's a software issue, to optimise it's code?

Anyhow. Thanks for a really great game/mod! One of the very best in years.

[ziellos2k 34]

The database does not break a sweat from handling these connections. Databases are designed to handle 5000 requests a second in proper environments. The box it runs on is extremely powerful' date=' with 8 cores and utilizing SSDs. Website was causing severe issues with it, but this has now been fixed.

The issue is the game servers THEMSELVES and technology involved in connecting.

Game Server admins need to be diligent and restart the connecting app when required, and regularly restart the game server.

Rather than moving to individual databases, the only logical next step would be a cloud database model, but the current configuration can easily handle more than double what we have now. And I highly doubt we will reach 10,000 concurrent connections.

[/quote']

Don't think so. :)

[vredg 0]

Game Server admins need to be diligent and restart the connecting app when required' date=' and regularly restart the game server.

[/quote']

What is the cause of this need?

[Vipeax 318]

It's the Gamespy-query port. Everytime someone tries to join a server, it starts a new connection. They only close after an extremely long time and sometimes not at all. A DayZ server can easily run on <500MB with 50 people in it, but over time all the join-attempt spams cause it to use over 10GB (no joke, let it run long enough and it uses 20 times as much as required to function). Block the Gamespy listening service on a server and have people only connect directly and joining is instant, any time of the day/week.

[fackstah 31]

Game Server admins need to be diligent and restart the connecting app when required' date=' and regularly restart the game server.

[/quote']

What is the cause of this need?

if you hasve ever run a server you would know why lol ,

its because without restart the game server regularlry or the application it can cause severe lag depedning on the hardware the server is using .

hence why game companys always have weekly maint etc to restart theyre servers back up db's fix small bugs

[Intigo 4]

Very few admins are "diligent" though, so the game is near unplayable at any peak time.

[vredg 0]

Ok. I guess there's not workaround then for the Gamespy query-port (other than disabling it / or restarting app/server).

I agree with Intigo. Really problematic to play during peak times on many of the servers.

[vredg 0]

Are there servers that block the Gamespy listening service? And how do you find one in that case?

[survivalist 19]

There's something off about a guy with very few posts asking publically about the master server. If that isn't suspect, I don't know what is. A good reply would have been "why do you want to know?"

[vredg 0]

There's something off about a guy with very few posts asking publically about the master server. If that isn't suspect' date=' I don't know what is. A good reply would have been "why do you want to know?"

[/quote']

I really like this mod and therefore I wanted to know what's the cause behind the problems I've encountered across several different servers. I was told on one of them that the master server was to fault. And therefore I posted about it here.

But now after getting my question answered by the helpful people here I know better.

Not very strange I think?

[mistery 0]

There's something off about a guy with very few posts asking publically about the master server. If that isn't suspect' date=' I don't know what is. A good reply would have been "why do you want to know?"

[/quote']

That new guy may be just like me. Ignorant a bit, noobish a bit, and curious as to why I am looking at different loading screens for 15 minutes at a time, only so I am spawned somewhere in the middle of the woods in some debugging mode I have no idea what to do with.

All this after refreshing the server list aracade buttonmash style to find an open spot.

Well, maybe he is a hacker looking for an opening, but you know, it doesn't hurt to give new people the benefit of a doubt. This in an alpha, it attracted a lot of new people curious to try out this amazing wet dream of all shooter/MP gamer/coop-er/zombie fan/gun loving redneck/FOTM fanboys. It's pretty obvious you are gonna have people who have no idea why it\s so difficult to connect to a server even if that is connected to a central one.

And reading some of the responses actually made some of us less ignorant.

[Lady Kyrah 1109]

That's interesting, so basically spamming to enter the server makes it worse?

Is it why there are servers in my list that are listed as having a giant ping but are perfectly playable?

Would it be better to join servers from the Six Updater then?

[vpope 28]

I think Vipeax explained it just fine, the gamespy query port that allows the servers to be listed in the multilayer list has a drawback in that when people connect it opens a new connection to the game server, it the player then disconnect before they are loaded (or sometimes even when they are) that open connection remains (serverside) for a long time (sometimes it never closes) as a result the iptransit and resource overheads go up experientially. Causing the new connections to take a very long time. The only way to fix it it to restart the server, and when you do that everyone tires to connect all at once causing it to load slowly and them to disconnect and try again causing more back up of sessions. And the problem begins again :)

We could take the listings down from gamespy but them people could not find the servers ideally we need some kind of global server table with all the server IP's in and have players add them manually. That would stop the connections from ebing slow, but it would also cause a lot of headaches for alot of less tech savy players.

[worbat 13]

That's interesting' date=' so basically spamming to enter the server makes it worse?

[/quote']

Esentialy, remember those mass disconnects, then everyone reconnects.

It's probibly like trying to force a triangle block into the circle slot!

[colonel_black 0]

I think Vipeax explained it just fine' date=' the gamespy query port that allows the servers to be listed in the multilayer list has a drawback in that when people connect it opens a new connection to the game server, it the player then disconnect before they are loaded (or sometimes even when they are) that open connection remains (serverside) for a long time (sometimes it never closes) as a result the iptransit and resource overheads go up experientially. Causing the new connections to take a very long time. The only way to fix it it to restart the server, and when you do that everyone tires to connect all at once causing it to load slowly and them to disconnect and try again causing more back up of sessions. And the problem begins again :)

We could take the listings down from gamespy but them people could not find the servers ideally we need some kind of global server table with all the server IP's in and have players add them manually. That would stop the connections from ebing slow, but it would also cause a lot of headaches for alot of less tech savy players.

[/quote']

Always possible to create a official app/launcher for the game that direct connects to servers and provides a server list.

[vredg 0]

Always possible to create a official app/launcher for the game that direct connects to servers and provides a server list.

Sounds like a good solution if it's not too much work. Currently, during peek times, the servers are rarely stable (for more than perhaps max 1h). This is at least my experience (only been playing for a couple of days).

[daedrick 90]

Very interresting topic, I will keep reading it and I hope someone find a miracle solution.

[stevejeon 0]

It's the Gamespy-query port. Everytime someone tries to join a server' date=' it starts a new connection. They only close after an extremely long time and sometimes not at all. A DayZ server can easily run on <500MB with 50 people in it, but over time all the join-attempt spams cause it to use over 10GB (no joke, let it run long enough and it uses 20 times as much as required to function). Block the Gamespy listening service on a server and have people only connect directly and joining is instant, any time of the day/week.

[/quote']

Quick question if you don't mind.

Would it not be possible then to script that particular service to restart after an hour or two, or is it dependant/tied to the arma2OA.exe instance?

Just curious really, I know servers but not game spy's service dependencies and whenever I find that kind of memory lock on a single process I'd kill and restart it ever hour or so if the parent was independent.

Any reading references you could chuck out would be cool too.