Hi,

I would prefer to buy some blade server and have all on "bare-metal" ;)
But I work for a well known hardware vendor ;)

-----Original Message-----
From: Valtteri Kiviniemi [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Freitag, 28. August 2009 23:25
To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list
Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] srcds virtualized

Hi,

Easily? Just assign couple of physical cpu cores to the gameserver 
virtuals and run other virtualservers for the others. I have 4 gamserver 

virtuals which each one has own physical cpu core assigned. Each run 
different kind of gamservers with different kernel configuration for 
optimal fps/performance.

Then i have web/database/mailserver running on the other 4 physical 
cores. No performance problems at all, stable 1000fps with srcds.

Virtualization rocks because you can easily max out your server. It 
would be very hard to run all of those services with bare-metal and have 

  a kernel that would be optimal for all of those.

I even have a FreeBSD domU for CS 1.6 servers because they seem to 
perform much better on FreeBSD than on linux.


- Valtteri Kiviniemi

Midnight kirjoitti:
> Hmm, I'm not sure how you are running stable servers on a platform 
under 
> medium to heavy load from other VMs.  I guess if you are running low 
end 
> servers it would be ok, but most people these days seem to want 
1000fps 
> stable servers.  Anyway seems you are very happy with your XEN setup 
for 
> what you are using it for so to each his own.
> 
> 
> Valtteri Kiviniemi wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Disk I/O is the most important thing on virtualized environments. You 

>> have multiple operating systems using the same storage so its 
important 
>> that your storage is fast. If you have slow storage, then your 
virtual 
>> servers are "sticky" and slow because of the slow disk speed. You 
might 
>> have fast cpu and a lots of ram, but you have to remember that you 
have 
>> multiple operating systems with different workloads using the same 
>> storage and that will need to be fast if you want to run a reasonable 

>> ammount of virtualservers. Ofc. im not directly speaking on srcds's 
>> hosting, so it might mabe a little offtopic, but im just making out 
the 
>> differences between VMWare and Xen.
>>
>> I had almos 200MB/s of raw disk troughput with Xen and only 60MB/s 
with 
>> VMWare measured from inside the VPS. That is a huge difference. That 
was 
>> tested via Areca raid array, but I also tested the disk speed with no 

>> raid, only single sata-disk and it was still better on Xen.
>>
>> - Valtteri Kiviniemi
>>
>> Midnight kirjoitti:
>>   
>>> Disk I/O is not the main factor for running game servers anyway, so 
>>> that's not really a reason to choose one option over the other in 
this case.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Valtteri Kiviniemi wrote:
>>>     
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> You are correct. But I'm just saying my opinion here, and I think 
that 
>>>> Xen is better.
>>>>
>>>> VMWare ESXi is maybe a bit more user friendly than XenServer 5.5, 
but I 
>>>> don't still understand why ESXi is so much slower. I'am using both 
of 
>>>> them because my company sell's virtual servers and some customers 
want 
>>>> VMWare ones.
>>>>
>>>> I have identical hardware on all machines but im still seeing 
30-40% 
>>>> more performance on Xen virtual servers than on VMWare. Dont know 
why, 
>>>> but disk i/o is way better on Xen than VMWare.
>>>>
>>>> - Valtteri Kiviniemi
>>>>
>>>> Eric Greer kirjoitti:
>>>>   
>>>>       
>>>>> If everyone wants to get technical with all of this nonsense... 
you can run
>>>>> srcds just fine on a VPS - as long as there is enough power.
>>>>> Xen Quite simply adds another layer hardware layer that data must 
pass
>>>>> through.  However, we're talking nanoseconds here people.  Not 
like another
>>>>> hop on your way to chicago - another *virtual* device on the way 
to the
>>>>> hardware and back.  It's like nothing.  VMWare ESXi adds a few 
more layers
>>>>> as it passes through more virtual devices... but it still does not 
matter.
>>>>>
>>>>> A VM can be provisioned with plenty enough power to do any source 
server
>>>>> just fine. You just have to give it plenty of dedicated resources.
>>>>>
>>>>> I feel like people start taking emotions into computing at some 
point.
>>>>>  There aren't any - its all benchmarks and numbers.  If the system 
can CPU
>>>>> bench some number has memory available and bandwidth... it can run 
the
>>>>> server - simple as that.
>>>>>
>>>>> A VPS is generally considered 'weaker' because it can share 
resources with
>>>>> other VMs - but it doesn't have to.  If for some reason you wanted 
to give
>>>>> root shell access to a game server customer, you could VM them.  
Yes, theres
>>>>> a good 100Mb of memory overhead for the hypervisor, but it can be 
worth it.
>>>>>
>>>>> Eric
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 12:05 PM, Valtteri Kiviniemi <
>>>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>     
>>>>>         
>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> You should probably read the facts before posting. Ofc. its not 
exactly
>>>>>> the same, but if you know nothing about Xen you would know that 
the
>>>>>> performance difference between (for example 2.6.18-xen and 2.6.18
>>>>>> kernels) are so small, that you cant even notice it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Maybe with ESXi you have greater performance difference compared 
to
>>>>>> bare-metl but not with xen.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> - Valtteri Kiviniemi
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Kveri kirjoitti:
>>>>>>       
>>>>>>           
>>>>>>> believe me, if you have paravirtualized enviroment you don't 
have
>>>>>>> equal performance than on bare-metal. Paravirtualization adds 
another
>>>>>>> layer, so does overhead. Maybe performance in CSS, but I doubt 
about it.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'm using full VT on 4x quad core xeons with 16gb ram and 
providing
>>>>>>> 1000fps 1.6 servers (yes, stable 1000fps, kernel self-pached 
with RT
>>>>>>> and some HZ tweaks), CSS servers with 100 ticrate and and some 
tf2
>>>>>>> servers without any problems.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Kveri
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 25.8.2009, at 20:52, Valtteri Kiviniemi wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>         
>>>>>>>             
>>>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> We are running multiple TF2 servers with Xen 3.4.1 
paravirtualized.
>>>>>>>> Performance is exactly the same as bare-metal, maybe even 
better. Only
>>>>>>>> downside is that you need xen-patched kernel so to get most 
stable and
>>>>>>>> working environment you have to use the default 2.6.18.8-xen 
kernel.
>>>>>>>> Ofc. you can compile a 1000hz domU kernel like we have.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> There is also pv_ops kernels which are included in the 
xen-unstable
>>>>>>>> tree. They are the normal kernel.org kernel with patches that 
make it
>>>>>>>> suitable for Xen hypervisor.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> In my opinion Xen is the best solution for gameserver 
virtualization
>>>>>>>> because it is the fastest. ESXi virtuals are not 
paravirtualized so
>>>>>>>> they
>>>>>>>> have slower disk i/o and network performance. They also use 
more
>>>>>>>> resources.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> If you want same performance as bare-metal you need 
paravirtualized
>>>>>>>> guest operating systems and Xen is the best solution for that.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> We have a physical 2 x 2.5GHz Quad-core Xeon machine with 16 GB 
ram
>>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>>> a ARECA ARC-1220 raid controller with RAID10 array.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> We are also running many other virtuals on the same machine 
without
>>>>>>>> them
>>>>>>>> affecting the gameserver virtual performance.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> With Xen you can for example assign 4 physical cores to the 
gameserver
>>>>>>>> virtual and use the other 4 for other virtuals.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> - Valtteri Kiviniemi
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Daniel Worley kirjoitti:
>>>>>>>>           
>>>>>>>>               
>>>>>>>>> I don't have exact numbers, but I've run srcds both natively 
and
>>>>>>>>> under ESXi
>>>>>>>>> on a PowerEdge server.  Under both I was able to run multiple
>>>>>>>>> instances, no
>>>>>>>>> issues.  I saw no difference in performance playing on the 
servers,
>>>>>>>>> but once
>>>>>>>>> again I don't have numbers to back it up.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 11:07 AM, Claudio Beretta <
>>>>>>>>>             
>>>>>>>>>                 
>>>>>> [email protected]
>>>>>>       
>>>>>>           
>>>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> HiI'd like to know your experiences with running srcds in a
>>>>>>>>>> virtualized
>>>>>>>>>> environment. Searching mail-archive for past discussions 
about
>>>>>>>>>> this subject
>>>>>>>>>> didn't provide a reliable conclusion to this topic.
>>>>>>>>>> From what i understand, only hypervisors such as ESXi, XEN 
(and
>>>>>>>>>> maybe
>>>>>>>>>> Hyper-V) are suitable to be used for game servers because 
they
>>>>>>>>>> should be
>>>>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>>>> ones that introduce the lower overhead and response delay.
>>>>>>>>>> Having a minor performance loss is fine, as long as no 
noticeable
>>>>>>>>>> jitter is
>>>>>>>>>> introduced or ping is increased.Has anyone had a chance to 
test
>>>>>>>>>> these
>>>>>>>>>> products and compare srcds performance on the same machine 
when
>>>>>>>>>> virtualized
>>>>>>>>>> and when running on the bare metal?
>>>>>>>>>> Provided that the machine can handle it, do you know if it is
>>>>>>>>>> possible to
>>>>>>>>>> virtualize tickrate100, 1000fps CSS servers? Not that i want 
to do
>>>>>>>>>> that,
>>>>>>>>>> but
>>>>>>>>>> if it can be done.. anything can be done :-)
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> best regards,
>>>>>>>>>> Claudio
>>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>               
>>>>>>>>>>                   
>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>>>>>             
>>>>>>>>>                 
>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>           
>>>>>>>>               
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>>>>>>
>>>>>>       
>>>>>>           
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>>>>>     
>>>>>         
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>>>>   
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