Server Requirements

Mastro · November 2002

<div class="IPBDescription">Half-life/NS Server Requirements</div> Ok I tried to do a search on here but came up null. I might go look at the Counter-Strike site, went to the Half-life one but didn't find much.

I'm trying to get the Server Requirements for running a dedicated NS Server for say 20 or so players.
Are there specs floating around somewhere? Or some type of document?

Also, what is the bandwith utilization on a dedicated server? Would it slow down my web hosting if I had it on same server? Would band width shoot up, to cause me to pay a fee for going over my GB limit at a co-located site?

These are some questions I have, I would like to set up a NS server for my guild. Thanks.

PJJ · November 2002

The NS server hardware requirements are going to far exceed those of any other HL Mod. It is a monster in terms of CPU usage. During a 16 player game, a p4 2ghz was averaging about 90% CPU usage. I'm not sure what the bare minimum to run effectively is.

Bandwidth wise, I don't think it would use a whole lot more than other HL servers.

Mercior · November 2002

Bandwidth usage should be pretty much identical to any other half life server, its not a lot.

For a 20 player server you'll want at least a 2GHZ CPU. I'm experimenting with running apache on the same machine myself, I dont think it slows it down *too* much unless you have lots of people visiting the site + downloading large files etc

haven · November 2002

The game is definately CPU limited - its only using about 120Meg of Memory for a 16 player server. However its maxing out a 1750MHz AMD CPU when full, and quite far into a game. I agree with Mercior Re CPU usage - the more you can throw at it the better (it will use it !).

The limit seems to be the number of entities which are created as the game progresses, you will see your CPU usage start quite low and then gradually rise as things are created within the game.

Network wise - it seems on a par with Counter Strike for Network usage - I would recomend at least a 512/512 connection for 16 players and over.

Hope this helps.

Winkie · November 2002

I'm actually looking for specific bandwidth statistics and controls, IE sv_maxrate, implimented in NS or a half life general thing?

I'd like to control bandwidth to not exceed 700k/second down from the server.

Other admins, what sort of maxplayers you think I could get on a 1800XP? (1/2 gig of ram)

haven · November 2002

With those stats I think you should cap players at 14-16 - try it and see what works for you. Any higher and the quality of your server will depreciate rapidly due to lag.

As for controlling bandwidth - if you are going to do this via the sv_maxrate variable then just do a simple sum.

sv_maxrate = bytes/sec to each individual client, therefore the maximum rate has to be less than 700k (assumably this is bits and not bytes, unless you have a nice fat pipe - in which case why you worrying about it ?) 700kbits is equivalent to approximately 70kbytes ( 70/(8 +20%) assume 20% packet loss - quite a normal percentage in todays internet).

sv_maxrate x maxplayers <= 70,000 kbytes/sec

if you set maxplayers at 16 then assuming they are all broadband users and can handle the max rate you set, then you will want to set it at
70,000/16 = 4375 bytes/sec each. In the real world the likelihood is that you'll get at least a couple (if not more) players who cannot connect at that speed.

I would cap sv_maxrate at 5000, the pings are probably not going to be world shattering at that rate but it'll certainly be playable.

Hope this helps

Winkie · November 2002

Yeah that's roughly what I was estimating at.

I can't believe that one server can completely rape a 1.5ghz box though. Hopefully this will be improved in future patches, possibly move some server side processing to client side if that's possible.

Mellonpopr · November 2002

@ 20 players my upload is anywhere from 350k to 800k max
sv_maxrate 0

EnemyWithin · November 2002

I run a 14 person NS server on my P3-600 <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'> A full server gets the CPU up to 85% under W2K.

DruBo · November 2002

That's pretty cool, EnemyWithin. I've got a similar setup running as a lan server, only with linux as the OS, and a slightly older processor.

One thing I've noticed is that while it doesn't use regular ram very much, it does tend to use all the swapfile it can get its grubby little hands on. Switching my swapfile(2GB) to an independent drive gave me a pretty substantial speed boost. That combined with the 1.02 patch let me host upwards of 28 players on this old pentium 2.

The trick of NS servers seems to be that if you can't fork out the cash for a 2ghz P4, the best way to go is to be creative, and try things just because you can. Odds are it'll help.

And if anyone wants the specs for THE ULTIMATE GAMESERVER for under $1000, pm me or come onto #naturalselection and bug me about it.

James_Crivellone · November 2002

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Mercior @ Nov 29 2002, 05:01 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Bandwidth usage should be pretty much identical to any other half life server, its not a lot.

For a 20 player server you'll want at least a 2GHZ CPU. I'm experimenting with running apache on the same machine myself, I dont think it slows it down *too* much unless you have lots of people visiting the site + downloading large files etc</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
Got a 20 player server + IIS running on a Pentium III 1200mhz 256K box with no issues whatsoever.

Good_Ole_NikeDawg · November 2002

We at <a href='http://www.the-creamery.org' target='_blank'>The-Creamery</a> use a dual PIII 700 linux box w/512Mb RAM. Seems good until too many turrets get set up. Is there a way to limit the autoturrets?

The-Creamery: Where men come... to play NS!
65.19.134.215:27066

~GOND

Winkie · November 2002

In that case it should be fun

Athlon XP 1800+ here, 1/2 gig of ram and a swapfile on a fast (non scsi unfortunately) hard drive

swapfile is 2 gig

I'll start it shortly, don't have an IP though, i've been moved to dyanmic (GRR)

Server Requirements

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