It is "nicer" on the content delivery system if we only do one download per cluster for the hundreds of machines we run. It is also easier to deal with failures when they occur, since they only occur on the root server (what Fletcher called the master) of each cluster. We also do a bunch of config management and templating from these root servers. The system scales better this way and is more robust than each server doing their own updates. Also, there are complications with running multiple games from a single directory and using -autoupdate. This currently isn't possible to do without breaking your servers. The -autoupdate isn't designed for people running games this way. Maybe it ought to?
With the new content delivery system, we are going to have to revisit the srcds_run script since the new tool doesn't currently behave like the existing hldsupdate tool. M. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Brian Rak Sent: Friday, December 16, 2011 2:11 PM To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] (ATTN: Valve) steam.inf missing and other "incomplete update" problems Why don't you just use hldsupdatetool on all your severs, instead of rsyncing them? On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 4:37 PM, Fletcher Dunn <[email protected]>wrote: > Hm, "masters" don't have the bits, so I probably used the word "master" > too many times in that email. > > The first paragraph was about how we manage our game servers. We do this > using the exact same tools you could use to manage yours, our game servers > do not have any special channel to the content or to the GMS. They are > able to grab it at the same time your servers are. "Master" in that > context meant the server in the datacenter that is responsible for calling > hlds_update and hlding the "master" copy of all the bits we rsync to the > real game servers. > > The "Game master server" is a Steam server (actually a few of them) that > maintains the list of servers and services listing requests. Your game > servers' heartbeats (previously sent directly via UDP, now for TF2 and in > the future for all games through the regular Steam channel, but the same > principle applies) talks to them. Sometimes the GMS is also called the > "master server" --- I think that's QuakeWorld heritage. It really doesn't > have any special status within Steam. > > The content servers are the ones that have the bots and from whence the > super-lengthy download happens. We flip the "mast switch" to make new > depots active after the latest versions of the depots have propagated to > all of our content servers. > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Kyle Sanderson > Sent: Friday, December 16, 2011 1:29 PM > To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list > Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] (ATTN: Valve) steam.inf missing and other > "incomplete update" problems > > Sorry, the 'master switch' is flipped when all masters have the 'bits'? or > after all the slaves have cloned? > > Thanks, > Kyle. > > On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 1:17 PM, Fletcher Dunn > <[email protected]>wrote: > > > For what it's worth, we use -verify_all to sync the master server at > > each data center, then we rsync the contents to all of the slaves. > > > > I don't have any theories what might be different about steam.inf, > > other than failure to update that particular file is so highly > > visible, whereas failure for other files might go undetected. > > > > The game master server (GMS), which does the server listing and also > > is responsible for delivers the message, "Your server is out of date" > > is completely distinct from our content servers, which actually > > deliver the game bits. When we release an update we first send out > > the bits to the content servers. Then, when all of the content > > servers have all of the bits, then we flip the master switch to make > > those depots available for download. After a short delay, this also > > lets the GMS know that there is a new version of the product. > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [email protected] [mailto: > > [email protected]] On Behalf Of PharaohsPaw > > Sent: Friday, December 16, 2011 1:05 PM > > To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list > > Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] (ATTN: Valve) steam.inf missing and other > > "incomplete update" problems > > > > Hi Fletch, > > > > No, it's OK. Thanks for responding. > > > > I do have to wonder if there is something I could, or SHOULD do > > differently. With folks like Steve who posted a few replies back > > mentioning that he updates 145 servers and has never seen this problem > > before - and that he doesn't use -verify_all either, it does make me > > wonder what could possibly be wrong, or at least "fatally different" > > about what our setup does. > > > > The steam.inf file must update properly for some people, since Steve > > has never seen a problem (and he has a lot more servers being updated > also). > > > > Steve how do your servers update? Do you have -autoupdate on the > > command line? Do they just update when the map changes, or are you > > doing something different such as one of the plugins that uses > > steamtools to handle the master request restart? > > > > I'd hate to imagine having to manually restart/update 145 servers. :) > > > > I'm also wondering if maybe what I should do is edit the nemrun script > > to put some kind of a delay in, so that when an update is detected > > (because srcupdatecheck returned a 7 code), it waits a little while > > before it actually begins the update process (calling steam to update > > the tree) -- so that even though we detect an update being released > > really quickly after it hits, and knows it needs to start an update, > > it waits X number of seconds first - to try to give extra time for the > > files to be pushed to the masters before we start that update. If the > > problem has anything to do with waiting long enough for the update > > files to be propagated to any master the steam binary is likely to hit > to begin the update, this would probably help. > > > > Fletch is there any chance at all that the steam.inf file might just > > be one of the last files to get placed onto the masters when update > > files are loaded/replicated? If so, then this could be another > > indicator that nemrun just needs to wait a little longer before it > starts an autoupdate. > > > > Thanks, > > PharaohsPaw > > > > _______________________________________________ > > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > > please visit: > > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > > > > _______________________________________________ > > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > > please visit: > > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > please visit: > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > please visit: > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
