Server Lag and Upcoming Downtime

Post by **TheClowner** » July 16th, 2016, 5:19 pm

EDIT: This work is now complete.

As many people are beginning to notice, survival is starting to experience quite a lot of tick lag, mainly when there are 20+ players on. We've been aware of this for a little while, and have been trying to remedy it. However, we have now come to the conclusion that the dedicated server we rent just isn't up to the task of running ClownerCraft anymore.

This may get a bit computer sciencey... just to warn you.
The issue we have is with the server's CPU. For most applications we would be perfectly fine. But theres one serious caveat with minecraft/java - it does not make use of multi-core or parallel processing architectures. Virtually any modern CPU will be multi-core - especially with a server. Since servers are intended to serve as many users as it can having multiple processors is really really useful for this. However, minecraft servers will only make use of one core. So in our case, survival is using up all of one core, and reaching the peak the cpu can handle, while the other 7 cores are virtually idle (the other servers on the network will utilise the other cores, hence if you go play on PS, or any of the minigames the lag overall will decrease as the workload will be split across multiple cores).

I do want to note that when selecting this server, we did choose the CPU based on a server network (which is what we are). But we didn't account for one server taking a majority of the load.

TL;DR The servers CPU is too slow.

What this all means, is that we need to change our hosting package - to one with a faster processor. And then we have to transfer all 150GB+ of data from one server to another. As well as setting up some of the software we need on a new server.

To try and reduce the amount of time that our network will be down for, this will be staged.

Stage 1: 18th - 22nd July
Software setup: Installing control panels, and other software that's used to make stuff work on the server.
EDIT: Stage 1 now completed

Stage 2: 23rd - 24th July
Websites: The websites will be copied across to new server, and ready to go live after the transfer process is complete.
EDIT: Stage 2 partially complete

Stage 3: 25th - 28th July
Minigames Servers: Servers which do not require user information to function (SpherePVP, Snipertown, SG, CTF, Spleef, The Hub) will be moved to the new server first. These will be down for hopefully only a few hours, and then can come back online after.
EDIT: Stage 3 now complete

Stage 4: 8th - 10th August
PureSurvival and Creative servers will go offline to be trannsferred. Unlike the minigame servers, these will not come back online until the whole transfer is complete.
EDIT: Stage 4 now complete

Stage 5: 11th - 12th August
ClownerCraft Survival will go offline, as the final pieces are copied over. Any remaining Databases will also be transferred at this point.

Transfer of files/data between servers complete, just testing and checking everything is working fully. Expect the network to be back online this evening (around 7/8 PM GMT).

After all this, the server's domain (clownercraft.net) can be pointed to the new server.

Please be aware, that while these are the planned dates for downtimes - if things go wrong somewhere there may be delays, we may also find we need to spend a while checking everything is in good order after the transfer - which again could mean that the servers will stay offline just a little longer.

The current expected date of completion is 13th August.

Sorry for any inconvenience this downtime may cause.

This post will be updated with any updates.

~Clowner and the Team.

Bainidhe · Post by **Bainidhe** » July 18th, 2016, 12:55 am

Out of curiosity, what is the new CPU spec going to be? Also, is there any hope that the MC server processes will allow for multi-threading in the future?

Post by **TheClowner** » July 18th, 2016, 9:44 am

The new server has an intel Xeon E5 @ 3.6 GHz (Turbo boost up to 3.8 GHz) with 4 cores (instead of 8).

And I think it's unlikely that MC will ever really work multicore.

devjoll · Post by **devjoll** » July 22nd, 2016, 8:09 pm

Is there any chance that we'll be able to disable mob stacking?

Post by **TheClowner** » July 22nd, 2016, 10:26 pm

We will look into it a little while after this transfer is complete...
Can't make any promises I'm afraid.

Post by **TheClowner** » July 25th, 2016, 2:37 pm

Quick Notice:

SG, CTF, Spleef, SpherePVP and Snipertown will be OFFLINE from 10:00 am (GMT) on Tuesday 25th July, until 10:00pm (GMT) on Wednesday 26th July.
It's likely they'll come back online earlier.

devjoll · Post by **devjoll** » August 11th, 2016, 4:52 pm

Is there an ETA on when the networks will be back up?

RafaelroOds · Post by **RafaelroOds** » March 12th, 2017, 10:41 pm

exact same thing show for me server empty on the SAMP app and empty if you check from irc