New dedicated server questions

mbrick · January 2013

Hey guys, I started playing NS2 about a month ago and liked the game so much I decided to build a dedicated server. Got it up and running but have a few questions. I read through the dedicated server wiki as well as Rothgar's guide and got most things figured out. Intel C202 mobo, Xeon E3-1240, 8GB ECC.

1. Do I need to force the server to run on a specific core/affinity? Or can I launch and it will manage properly?

2. How can I verify turbo boost is working and maxing out on the Xeon?

3. Should I turn off hyper threading, i.e. does it allow it to turbo boost more frequently?

4. Full list of SV_ commands? Or are these all of them? <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/wiki/index.php/Dedicated_Server#Server_Admin_Commands" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/wiki/inde..._Admin_Commands</a>

5. What is the sv_ command to change the map? Aside from 'cyclemap' can it be specified?

6. I am seeing these errors on server startup, what do they mean and do I need to fix them?
Error: Couldn't open file 'models/effects/halo_rounded_blue.model'
Error: Couldn't open file 'models/props/refinery/refinery_fan128_blades.animation_graph'

7. The steamcmd window will be logged in and connected but after 12 hrs or so it says Login Failure: No Connection. Do I need to fix this or does it not matter?

8. Do we expect the server to be multithreaded in the future or probably not?

Thanks!

mbrick · January 2013

Just wanted to add some updates I found from experimentation.

SET POWER OPTIONS TO HIGH PERFORMANCE! Wow, I am shocked that is not default on Server 2008 R2. Currently running a 20 player server and it was dropping to 10-20 ticks end game. Once I opened Argus Monitor I saw the CPU frequency was all over the place, with the multiplier rapidly moving up and down. Realized it was trying to save energy. Clicked high performance, jumped to max cpu speed with turbo. Now it runs 26-30 ticks, usually 30! :-D

1. By setting affinity to cores 1 and 2, the processor remains in the highest turbo boost. With it set to core 1 only, the turbo boost bounces between 2-4. Set to all cores turbo boost varies between 0-4.

2. The official intel utility is not working for me. Not sure if it is Server 2008 or Xeon. I found a program called Argus Monitor that shows Turbo Boost, among many other things. Nice monitor utility too.

Why does the wiki require a separate account to edit?

<b>Bandwidth</b>: 20 player requires steady 500kb/s down - 2500kb/s up according to my firewall.

Vitdom · January 2013

1. Yes, you should force the server process to run in Realtime priority, I don't know about core affinity though. Setting the priority to Realtime instead of High will force it to not wait for other work, something highly recommended when running a game server, esp NS2 since it depends a lot on low execution times hence a high frequency requirement.

2. I do not recommend to have dynamic active-increasing TurboBoost enabled. I've heard that dynamic changes to the clock frequency while the server is running do cause serious performance issues with timings etc. If you have the possibility to set the frequency constant at a higher speed, do it, or your should try to set it to instead use dynamic passive-decreasing TurboBoost, meaning it will always run at the top frequency, except if it can't handle the power throughput due to work load.

3. If you set the priority to Realtime, you shouldn't have to disable HT, in my opinion.

4. Those are all of them.

5. sv_changemap.

6. No, it's normal. Those files belong to the client only.

7. SteamCMD is only needed when you download your server. You don't need it unless you want to update the server.

8. A lot of people do expect it. But I am not so sure. Optimizations in execution time is guaranteed though!

mbrick · January 2013

Thanks for the reply.

1. Yes, I set it to realtime priority.

2. What do the timings effect? I could not find any information online about dynamic passive-decreasing. By setting the affinity to cores 1 & 2 the turbo boost and frequency is constant at the max. When I had it set to core 1 only it was jumping around a bit.

7. Ah, this was not clear in the wiki. It mentioned creating another account so both can be logged in at the same time.

Vitdom · January 2013

You can verify the type of TurboBoost active in Windows 7's advanced power settings. Make sure it is set to initially start at full Turbo frequency, and only lower towards the Standard frequency once there is no other way to cool the CPU (it shouldn't have to reach this phase if your CPU cooling system is able to cope with the set Turbo frequency).

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (matso @ Jan 14 2013, 09:43 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2060352"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>NS2 uses QueryPerformanceCounter/Frequency for its internal timekeeping. It does assume a stable frequency, so if the CPU frequency changes after the game starts, things will go weird.</div>

mbrick · January 2013

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Vitdom @ Jan 26 2013, 12:43 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2067124"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>You can verify the type of TurboBoost active in Windows 7's advanced power settings. Make sure it is set to initially start at full Turbo frequency, and only lower towards the Standard frequency once there is no other way to cool the CPU (it shouldn't have to reach this phase if your CPU cooling system is able to cope with the set Turbo frequency).</div>
I don't see any settings for turbo boost in there. Just minimum, system cooling and maximum. I am running Server 2008 R2 as mentioned above. Can add a screenshot if that would help.

Another question - how do I change number of players while server is running?

mbrick · January 2013

How do I properly set up custom maps? I added the map and see it in the server web admin. However when the client attempts to connect, it disconnects and says File Not Found. Shouldn't the client download the map from the server?

ScardyBob · January 2013

You must add the custom map to the map rotation list before people will be able to play it.

Whosat · January 2013

Not sure if it helps but you can try to add the mod ID on to your -mods argument.

AussieKid · January 2013

1. You don't have to, but if you want to run multiple servers then it is suggested to set affinity to two cores per server. The most graceful method I've found is what is described in Rothgar's server guide.

2. If possible you want to disable turbo boost and set the processor to run constantly at it's highest stable clock rate possible. This can be trickier to configure on Xeons. The reason you want to disable turbo boost is because there have been some strange symptoms reported happening to the game when the clock rate dynamically changes (time sync issues).

3. As Vitdom said, if the process is running at realtime then there's no need to turn off HT.

4. That's them, although sometimes that wiki takes a while to be updated when new commands are added.

5. sv_changemap mapname
i.e. sv_changemap ns2_summit

6. SteamCMD doesn't download the full game client, just the necessary files needed to run a dedicated server. Those files it cannot find belong to the client and I would ignore the error messages for the time being. I suspect they will clean this up eventually.

7. SteamCMD is only run to first initially download the server files and also to update the files when a new build is released. There's no need to run SteamCMD in the background in order for the server to work.

8. We could be waiting some time as I don't believe it's on their priority list due to the potential amount of work and testing which could be involved. Don't hold your breath for it.

New dedicated server questions

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