I started it and a lot of folks have significant interest and wisdom on the topic so it might as well have it's own thread.
Observations made yesterday (by folks on this list) of my "16 game server host" indicated the CPU utilization will tend follow the aggregate player count across the servers. E.g.; this host config will not provide good player performance with more than 100 players, etc.
I recall the all-tme peak player count I visually observed in January was 140+ players on a Friday night and nobody was complaining. Shoulda took a picture.... Oh well... But that was back in January and things have changed. (As they do with every major update)
All flames aside, I don't think the host will go for 200+ players in it's current configuration. I don't recall actually stating that it could go that high either. I recall saying I run 16 24-player-slot servers and get good marks by the players who frequent those servers.
Onto the primary discussion topic...
There have been comments made, that I have gone along with, that empty servers pull no weight. This seems to be a wrong assumption since the last update and is of possible interest now.
A few minutes ago I saw there were 50+ players in 8 of 16 servers and the CPU was running around 50%. I turned off 8 empty servers and the CPU is now running at 25%.
Apparently the empty servers are using CPU bandwith after all. A lot of bandwith considering their empty and idling state accounted for 50% of the current CPU utilization.
This observation, if backed up by other multi-server hosting providers, may necessitate some changes in server provisioning strategies. Such observations are likely to be of interest to Alfred as well.
Perhaps some large host admins can check this out and reply with their findings.
--------------------------------- As for the "16 server host" thing....
The primary reason I decided to keep 16 servers running was due to hackers crashing the servers. With 16 servers running, the crashers were never able to get all 16 servers crashed before I busted them and banned them. With the latest update, I have not observed a single crash. Good job Alfred&Team! (But we need to give the jerks a while to come up with more nasty tricks before assuming every loophole has been plugged.)
Thus, the 16 servers are never expected to all be populated at the same time. The extra servers are "back-ups" to keep things going for the players who are good about notifying me of the hacker issues. *This is not something anyone should expect of a game server hosting provider*. Therefore the 16 server configuration is by no means any sort of a standard.
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