Tools, tips, and tricks...

[toastgodsupreme]

So I always feel like I might be missing out on some great tip or some tweak or utility that really makes a server so much easier to manage or run better. So what are some of the more useful things you've found for running, setting up, or managing your server?


Personally, I'm on a Windows 2003 platform (don't hate me Linux users ).
I use Navicat ( http://www.navicat.com/ ) for DB access.
I use Acronis True Image Echo ( http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATICW/ ) for complete backups (OS and all). Scheduled once a month since it's not a high priority issue, but it's nice to have a full system backup in case drive failure.
I use the Windows Scheduled Tasks service plus xcopy for daily gameserver directory backup (to a remote networked drive).
I use the Windows Scheduled Tasks service plus mysqldump for daily database backup (to a remote networked drive).
I use Kerio WinRoute Firewall ( http://www.kerio.com/ ) (not cheap >_> ) for firewall protection and to better manage connection info, restrictions, etc (honestly, while it has a ton more features than what I need and I have a lot of them disabled, it's still an AMAZING firewall for windows servers).
I use Process Explorer ( http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 96653.aspx ) to keep up with system resource usage.

One big thing on my todo list is:
Set up improved drive configuration and symbolic links to store heavily access DB segments on their own drive (right now it's OS+gameserver on 1 drive, DB on it's own, pagefile on another drive).


So what do you guys use for your servers or what have you found that helped out a lot?

I found that the default garbage collector didn't run as well as the CMS GC on my server. I spent a LOT of time reading about garbage collector settings and whatnot. I still need to look into gchisto ( https://gchisto.dev.java.net/ ) to further improve my GC settings.

[_DS_]

IMHO "Another hard drive for database" one of the L2J myths
I have live server with 400-600 online, all logs enabled (chat, items, damage) and can see how hard disc activity lamp flashing during server operation. It flash rarely
Of course my hard drive is fast (barracuda 160Gb) and this is a dedicated server (gameserver and db only, no shit like apache).

[Plague]

ill prefer 3 hd's in raid 5 setup... 1 goes down, just restore by putting in a new one.
if they all go down? meh.. bad luck.

[theonn]

1. id say... use linux? ( not really wanting to have a religous war over it. but for this kind of servers is way better. i use windows for a bunch of things... but my motto is to use the right tool for the job. you wont use a hydraulic hammer to put in a small nail )

2. db in a different disk is a l2j myth? this has nothing to do with L2J is just industry best practice to use a different RAID group for your database ( not even metioning about using a different Raid for transactional logs, other for data... )

I know that most of l2j servers run on fairly "small" servers.

However if you had the money, and could own a SAN and all the fancy tools... ohh, well,,, looks i went on dreaming again....

Of course my hard drive is fast (barracuda 160Gb) and this is a dedicated server (gameserver and db only, no shit like apache).

lol barracuda... a fast disk... ( im not saying is not a good disk. but cmon.... thats a desktop disk...... if you had said a velociraptor i might even buy it. or sas 15k drives. or even better 15k FC drives... then again thats me and my dreaming. (its a really sad thing to be poor))


Your know... in general there is only so far you can go without taking into account IO. ....

but meh.


edit: no need to be mean.

[_DS_]

Peoples who setup big servers usually have brains and sufficient knowledge to measure and check disk io performance.

Performance monitor screenshot attached, green line - disk io queue size. Current online 400+, all logs enabled.

[Vapulabe]

1) I'd say to use Linux too... Remote (SSH) administration with Midnight Commander is very easy to do (well, most of the time, command line will be enough) and you may avoid all the graphical desktop environment on the server (which means more ressources available to L2J and MySQL)

2) if you can do it, RAID 5 with 3 identical HDD for L2J data/DB is a good idea. As said above, if one HDD fails, your server stays online and you can wait until the next server restart to swap the HDD. Raid may also accelerate the data transfert.

3) you never have enough RAM... RAM may be more important than CPU speed. More RAM = more caching for the DB, less risks of swaps, ... Java is known to be memory hungry...

4) a good firewall (hardware) will both protect the computer and avoid useless packets to be managed by the OS network stack.

5) it's better to keep both L2J and MySQL on the same computer. Loopback network device is very efficient and will avoid stuffing your network with DB traffic. Also make sure that the localhost entry is defined in your /etc/hosts and that gethostbyname() host name resolution checks these files BEFORE DNS

[_DS_]

Linux is a good OS (I prefer FreeBSD, in any way), but, as always, it require some knowledge to setup the server. Not for "give me video guide how to install l2j" admins. And experienced linux users usually does not have problems, after they extract DP in the same folder with core and enable networking in mysql

About RAIDs. Normal raid controllers are costly, build-in on desktop motherboards - piece of shit. And they does not give 100% reliability. I know many cases then second hdd fail during rebuild kill entire array.

I thinking about separated hdd for logs.

[Vapulabe]

I'm strongly against that class of "admins" (well, I think "game master" is more accurate than "admin")... If you don't understand what you're doing, you should not be doing it !!! it's really calling for trouble (reminds me some IRC bot which had several "bombs" in his config file... Running it without proper config resulting in bot stopping before even connecting on the network)

I know that hardware RAID is expensive (I mean SCSI or similar), that most MB have basic RAID support (0/1) and that Software RAID may be slow... But nothing is perfect... Linux' software raid is still quite good and if you check your HDD SMART properties, you may avoid having two HDD failing at the same time...

Linux is a little more user friendly than *BSD... *BSD on the other hand are a little more secure... Your mileage may vary... I use to prefer to use Linux on all my computers so I can develop on one computer and host on the second one...