I was able to get a trace from a Windows server operator that was experiencing a similar problem. The problem in that case was that it was spending all of its time compressing snapshots. The problem was exacerbated by some process affinity settings which were counterproductive and putting all the threads on the same core, while other cores were idle.
Tracking the overall CPU usage can be quite deceiving when investigating "lag". Lower CPU usage is not necessarily better! For example, in this case if the process affinity were not set and more cores were allowed to be used, then the CPU usage on this 4-core system would have gone above 25% for a shorter burst, which would have been preferable to it being pegged at 25% (a single core saturated for a longer period of time). I think it is a reasonable guess that his problem is similar to the one you guys are seeing. (Of course they could be totally unrelated, so take all this with a grain of salt.) But assuming that they are similar problems, there are two things to investigate. First, did something change that is doing something subtly different with process affinity that it wasn't doing before, or is the process affinity thing totally a config issue with one server? (Or if anybody else is tweaking processor affinities, do you fully understand the implications of it?) When you are looking at the CPU usage, is the process pegging a single CPU, or is it pegging at some round fraction like 1/4 or 1/8? The second thing to investigate is, what is happening at the high level that is causing the snapshot data to be so big? Do network activity spikes correlates with the CPU spikes? If that is the case, then we can use -netspike or other tools that you guys are probably more familiar with than I am to track down what the entity data is that is causing all the busywork. We have very powerful performance analysis tools we can use on Windows to track these problems down. I only wish more windows server operators users would get setup with them! Please help us help you! It's not that difficult to get set up. Email me directly and I can get you a CD key. https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3059-RTXB-2672 -----Original Message----- From: hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Essay Tew Phaun Sent: Saturday, May 04, 2013 11:54 AM To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] Huge sv drops and var spikes in net_graph 4. Hmm. We didn't have this problem before Steampipe though. We just use the STV with a couple of slots open on it so that an admin can connect and watch for reported players. On Sat, May 4, 2013 at 2:44 PM, ics <i...@ics-base.net> wrote: > STV is known to cause issues and hogs a lot of memory. That's why > rarely no one uses it on public servers. > > -ics > > Essay Tew Phaun kirjoitti: > > Interesting. We're not hosting a replay, but we do have STV. >> >> >> On Sat, May 4, 2013 at 12:06 PM, Bjorn Wielens <uniac...@yahoo.ca> wrote: >> >> Sounds like the same problem I'm having (see last few posts in 'CPU >>> Increase' thread). >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> ______________________________**__ >>> From: Michael Johansen <michs...@live.no> >>> To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list < >>> hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.**com >>> <hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.com>> >>> Sent: Saturday, May 4, 2013 12:43:59 PM >>> Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] Huge sv drops and var spikes in net_graph 4. >>> >>> >>> We've noticed this as well, no complaints though as the players does >>> not seem to notice it very much. >>> >>> Date: Sat, 4 May 2013 11:40:54 -0400 >>>> From: sc2p...@gmail.com >>>> To: >>>> hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.**com<hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.c >>>> om> >>>> Subject: [hlds_linux] Huge sv drops and var spikes in net_graph 4. >>>> >>>> We never had this issue prior to Steampipe, but we're dealing with >>>> these very random and rare spikes of lag where the server framerate >>>> will >>>> >>> suddenly >>> >>>> drop from 66 to below 20 and var will spike to 20+. We're hosting 6 >>>> 24 >>>> >>> slot >>> >>>> servers on the following: >>>> >>>> E3-1230v2 >>>> 16GB >>>> CentOS 6.4 64bit >>>> >>>> I was able to capture a screenshot of one of the drops but they're >>>> very hard to catch since they appear very very briefly. >>>> >>>> http://i.imgur.com/wxp8P3N.png >>>> >>>> server.cfg >>>> >>>> sv_minrate 35000 >>>> sv_maxrate 200000 >>>> sv_maxupdaterate 67 >>>> sv_minupdaterate 66 >>>> sv_mincmdrate 66 >>>> sv_maxcmdrate 67 >>>> sv_client_cmdrate_difference 100 >>>> >>>> >>>> Thanks >>>> ______________________________**_________________ >>>> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list >>>> archives, >>>> >>> please visit: >>> >>>> https://list.valvesoftware.**com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/**hlds_li >>>> nux<https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_li >>>> nux> >>>> >>> ______________________________**_________________ >>> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list >>> archives, please visit: >>> https://list.valvesoftware.**com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/**hlds_lin >>> ux<https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linu >>> x> ______________________________**_________________ >>> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list >>> archives, please visit: >>> https://list.valvesoftware.**com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/**hlds_lin >>> ux<https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linu >>> x> >>> >>> ______________________________**_________________ >> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list >> archives, please visit: >> https://list.valvesoftware.**com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/**hlds_linu >> x<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 > <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
