RKS Server Upgrade Expected! Downtime!

[PY004]

In an effort to keep RKS servers up to date with the latest servers, we will be performing some hardware upgrades in the next few weeks. Please note the following are set to be changed. These are tentative plans at this moment, and no date has been set. RKS will announce a date once this upgrade process has been started. Also note that during this transition, we estimate a downtime of 3-5 days for MSC game servers and 3 days for the FN server.

Server Upgrades
Daedalus (Chicago Game Server) - Upgrade to E3-1230v2
Odyssey (Chicago Web Server) - Upgrade to E5-2620
Phoenix (NYC Multipurpose Server) - Upgrade to E5-2620

New Server
Prometheus (Dallas Multipurpose Server) - E3-1230v2

Unchanged Servers
Apollo (PA Web Server)

Discontinued Servers
Beliskner (EU Multipurpose Server)

Server Specifications
E5-2620
32GB RAM
1Gbps Uplink

E3-1230v2
E5-2620
16GB RAM
1Gbps Uplink


Why the Changes?
Our servers are getting outdated. The Dual E5620 setup we have been using as our main platform the past few years are becoming increasingly inadequate at meeting the needs of RKS and the players who play on them, particularly in single threaded performance. Furthermore, these outdated setups are costing more and more each month to maintain, and RKS gaming division as a whole is currently using around 1100 USD per month just maintaining these servers. This is a huge expense for a division that only has around 50 members. As such, the board of directors and the management of RKS has decided to curb our expenses to 800 dollars per month, and at the same time modernize our servers. These changes will result in 312 dollars of savings for RKS and at the same time offer a better experience.

Regarding the EU Server
We are terribly sorry that we are dropping support for the EU servers. It is an unfortunate necessity as the RKS board has determined this server to be a waste of resources. We are putting in approximately 150 USD into this server every month. However, the contents provided by this server has been decreasing the past few years and now, it just hosts MSC game servers, and a private Space Station 13 server. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Aren't the E5-2620 slower than the E5620 in terms of single threaded performance?
The E5620 was rarely able to turbo to its maximum boost bin of 2.66GHz. Most of the time it was running at 2.4GHz. The E5-2620 turbos up to 2.5GHz and has a base turbo of 2.3GHz. The improvements in architecture between the two processors should help bridge the gap and similar performance is expected for single threaded software. With an extra four cores per processor and increased memory, we should be able to do more than before.

What about the new server?
The new server was picked solely for its single threaded performance. By splitting one of our more expensive servers into two cheaper servers, we can get more performance paying less. These two high single threaded performance servers should help significantly with MSC.

I have more questions
Feel free to reply below or pm me.

I hate you for taking away my EU Server!
I apologize, but the decision has already been made. We just couldn't pay for something we were not using.

 

[PY004]

NYC Server is down? What do I do? The world is ending!!!
I have just found out that there was a security breach into Phoenix, our NYC server. The server was found to have been breached since at least Feb 26 and was sending out bulk spam mails. I have initiated contingency protocols and the server has been secured. However, to be sure the server is perfectly safe, it requires a complete OS re-install. Given how this server was to be replaced during the upgrade with a new hardware, it seems unnecessary to re-install the OS on this server. As such, this server is from this point forward considered to be shut down permanently. A new upgraded NYC server will be up sometime around March 18th +/- 3 days.

 

[PY004]

Dates Servers will go Offline
NYC - Already Offline
Chicago - March 25th
FN - March 27th
EU - March 31st

Estimated Restoration Date
FN - March 27th
Everything else - March 27th


FN Downtime?
To reduce the downtime, FN server will move to another RKS server temporarily in a few days. Those using the FN hostname to connect should experience a downtime no longer than 30 minutes. Those using the IP address will have to update to either the hostname or to the new IP. The 27th date given above is simply the date we expect to move FN to its primary server.

 

[PY004]

Update

So far, three of the four RKS dedicated servers has been completely setup. However, the master server has been acting up to the point it was unusable. After numerous attempts to fix, I have decided to completely re-install the OS on that machine. The OS was successfully re-installed last night, and the server is now being setup again. So far, things are looking good and all the software that needs to be installed as been installed properly. We expect to be fully operational within 24 hours.

Please note FN server move has been delayed to the 27th to ensure there are minimal disruptions to service. It is not unusual for these servers to be restarted frequently the first few days of operation due to various reconfiguration tasks.

 

[PY004]

FN has been successfully moved to a new server.

Those using DNS name should update to the new server automatically within the next 30 minutes if it didn't happen yet already. Check the individual FN forums for additional information.

 

[Red Cell]

 

[PY004]

Step 1: Provide free servers
Step 2: Provide great customer service
Step 3: Find my angle.
Step 4: ???
Step 5: Profit!


Yeah I know, lame. But I coudlnt think of anything else.

 

[MS:C community]

Edit: Nevermind, it works now...

 

[Borya]

FN doesn't appear to be updating changes to characters at the time? Like, it loads the chars at join, but upon mapchange anything that happened between loading and mapchange gets undone.

 

[PY004]

Looking into this issue now. It's difficult because I don't have MSC installed on this laptop, but I will try my best. I think it may be because of a permission issue. Can anyone else confirm this problem exists?

EDIT: What's your SteamID?

 

[PY004]

I have attempted a fix. Permissions were properly set. However, I cannot verify this until someone checks first.

If FN is still not working, please send me an e-mail (in my sig). I would greatly appreciate the help.

Thank you guys.

 

[Thothie]

Tricky to test, given that none of the RKS servers are up, and mine no longer works for multi-player... But I'll see what I can do. Not seeing a lot of access in the logs yet - save the usual barrage of dated BS from Hell's Diner.

edit:
Seems to work on my HLDS at least... (Connected, dropped item, changed maps - item still gone.)

Granted, it needs updating, and my client's Half-Life is rolled back as well, so gods only knows what having it all properly updated would do...

edit2:
Well, this is annoying - I can't seem to figure out how to get an up to date HLDS... >_> HLDS update tool, and even the GUI version, fail to update to whatever version it is the Master Servers want.

 

[Borya]

Everything seems fine now, thanks! :3

Steam ID is 1 STEAM_0:0:4030452 if ya still needed to know, by the way

 

[PY004]

Everything seems fine now, thanks! :3

Steam ID is 1 STEAM_0:0:4030452 if ya still needed to know, by the way

Thank you for confirming. I just wanted your STEAM_ID to correlate with logs. But since the permissions fix attempt actually fixed the problem, I don't need it anymore.

If there's any future problem with FN, please feel free to send me (and or thothie) a message. I'll try my best to fix it as soon as possible.

 

[Thothie]

Any idea on the RKS server downtime? Shame they had to all go at once...

I wish I had some idea about how to update a server to work with the Master Servers as well... Nothing I do seems to work, and yet, somehow, that otherwise broken Anitalink server is still there and visible, unlike all the others.

 

[PY004]

Any idea on the RKS server downtime? Shame they had to all go at once...

I wish I had some idea about how to update a server to work with the Master Servers as well... Nothing I do seems to work, and yet, somehow, that otherwise broken Anitalink server is still there and visible, unlike all the others.

All RKS MSC servers are coming back online tomorrow evening.

These are the currently planned IP Addresses.

US Dallas TX
64.120.76.126:27015
64.120.76.126:27016
64.120.76.126:27017
64.120.76.126:27018

US Chicago TX
174.34.157.134:27015
174.34.157.134:27016
174.34.157.134:27017
174.34.157.134:27018

US NYC NY
64.120.44.78:27015
64.120.44.78:27016
64.120.44.78:27017
64.120.44.78:27018

 

[Thothie]

I've been chatting with some other devs, and it seems they've entirely changed the way you have to install the HLDS, to get it to register with the master servers...

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD

I've not had much luck with this extraordinarily cumbersome process myself, thus far... Still hacking at it.

edit:
Okay...

I think I got it...

However, it's so incredibly difficult, I think I may need to make a self-installer, or some such. (Protip: Use app_update "90 -beta beta" validate in the SteamCMD program.)

I can actually see my server in the browser again... Whether anyone can actually connect to it, well, that's another issue. But at least I can connect to it with no new issues.

I updated the How to make an HLDS instructions to include the new SteamCMD BS...

If you're trying to update an existing server with it, beware of a few things:
- You're going to have to delete all your non-mod folders from your HLDS (including valve/, platform/, appcache/, bin/, config/ - and everything in your HLDS root - basically, just leave MSC/ and delete everything else first)
- SteamCMD.exe cannot be in the root of your HLDS folder - suggest making a subfolder for it
- It is going to make a mess of folders, including some unique ID folders, and the like
- It will download some extra mods - including Counter Strike. I do not know if they are needed for operation.

 

[PY004]

TCAdmin fully supports SteamCMD. RKS has been using it for some of the servers. I guess I have to use it for MSC now.

 

[Thothie]

Meh, I'm a bit worried though... It seems you cannot connect to such properly updated servers with a rolled-back Half-Life client...

It seems to be working for some people, but on all the systems I have here, MSC is unplayable under the current Half-Life client.

Dunno what do.

 

[PY004]

SteamCMD is only for games that have moved over to the Steampipe or whatever it was called system. i don't know if half life itself moved already.

You could try using 70 instead of 90? I don't know if it will even download with 70, but if it does, then it should hopefully only have hlds stuff and not cs stuff. In either case, I guess I'll have to setup all the servers the old way, and then start to experiment SteamCMD one or two servers.

 

[Thothie]

Hrmmm... It seems to take 70... Give me a bit to clear it out and re-download from scratch, do the same for my client, and roll it back, and see what happens...

 

[Thothie]

Grrr... Almost works - but it just downloads the valve folder... Not platform nor the hlds.exe. :\

I think maybe 70 is just Half-Life (sans DS), and 90 is for the HLDS.

edit: Starting with 90, then doing 70, results in CTD for the HLDS.

Be nice if it would be honest about which dll was actually failing to match, then maybe I could mix and match, but alas...

 

[PY004]

Oh yeah you're right Thothie. I wasn't thinking properly. 70 is the client, 90 is the server files but it includes CS. There is no version on steamcmd without CS if I remember correctly (Except 5 from what I heard, but I haven't really tested it out ).

 

[PY004]

Four servers in NYC and four servers in Dallas online as of now. Expect another four in Chicago tomorrow evening.

 

[Thothie]

SteamCMD is only for games that have moved over to the Steampipe or whatever it was called system. i don't know if half life itself moved already.

As HLDM has moved to Steampipe - so have all the Goldsrc mods, apparently - no other way to get servers to register in the browser.

None of the current RKS servers show up, unless manually added to favorites.