Hello,

I am looking to buy a dedicated server and run anywhere from 4-10
game servers on it. I'm fairly new to all of this and I do not really know where to begin. I was wondering if anyone could tell me a good site to use, also what type of computer specs/bandwidth will I be needing to run something like this? I dont want to get a dedicated server and then have to pay a lot extra for me going over the bandwidth they allow. Also would this be a better idea to use a colocation service instead?
Any helpful insight of any kind would be much appreciated

Thanks!
wems

What games (names)? Linux, Windows? Managed, Unmanaged? Expected activity (players in the servers? Control panel needed? 10 or 100mbps? CPU/Ram intense? For your own or as a business?

If you use colo you will be saving in the long run. But it really depends.

What games (names)? Linux, Windows? Managed, Unmanaged? Expected activity (players in the servers? Control panel needed? 10 or 100mbps? CPU/Ram intense? For your own or as a business?

Well I dont know much about linux, so I was thinking about linux, and I honestly dont know if I should go with managed or unmanaged. Expected activity I want to run as many 12 player private servers I can, and maybe one public server with 20 slots. The private servers would either be full or empty im guessing and not full constantly. The public server, lets just say full most of the day for something to work with. I want to run Half-Life 2, and counter-strike source. Im thinking of starting a business out of it, so I guess I would need sometype of control pannel so the user can upload files to their server and control the server the best way they can. I dont know how much bandwidth I need honestly. What other gameservers do is run 1.75x to 2 game servers per processor. I believe that its a lot more ram intensive. I would be shooting at 3GB, but 2GB i guess would do. This may be the wrong place to be asking these specific questions, but im kinda lost on what I need to do to get this started. I dont want to drop 200$ for a month and then take a month to figure out how to get it working :D

Thanks,
wems

Do some studies, and I'm sure some experts at WHT will help you out.

Chicago is the best choice for game servers. Search these boards, there are a lot of good providers in that area. I would recommend Server Central.

For a broad spectrum of game servers, use Windows.. especially for newer releases like Call of Duty 4, etc, which really favor Windows.

Also consider consulting Google, there are tons of well written guides available.

order one server man only for u for 1000$ comes with nvidia 8600gt

@Inivisible just posted in another topic about you calling someone a noob, and them I come along this post.

You don't need a Graphics Card on a server that is running Game Servers, 99% of game servers there are no graphical output. For Linux anyway still there is no need for anything more than a on board Graphics card, as all the GPU work is done on the Players Computers.

order one server man only for u for 1000$ comes with nvidia 8600gt
LOL you don't need a graphiccard for servers. Do you know what a dedicated server looks like?

Like this:
http://www.chopshopservers.com/education/images/serverconsole.jpg

If you want to run linux I would recomend going with a managed host, if not I would recomend just going unmanaged. With linux you will most likely have to control it with a text based console/terminal, if you go with Windows you can just RDP to the server and use the GUI to control it. A Core2Quad with 4gb and 2000gb of bandwidth would probably be the best solution for you.

The most important thing I can say on that is you need a very big lot of bandwidth.

so how many servers would I be able to run with the core 2 quad 4gb and 2000gb of bandwidth, also where can I find a good dedicated server with good deals like this?
thx,
wems

I would estimate around 6-10, depending on the size of the servers.

There are many providers around these forums, but look for providers with networks specialized for gaming.

Check out colocrossing.com, they are excellent

Well from my gaming experience... most games will not use over 1000gb a month... and if you buy a pre-installed gaming control panel with the dedi it makes your life that much easier. My friend had a server setup at serverxtreme.com with a gaming control panel that let him setup the games instantly or almost anyhow with just a click of a button... id suggest maybe going with a company that can support your needs and allow you to control your own dedi at the same time.

Goodluck

most times you need less RAM than you do CPU power

like 5 x 32 man cod servers for example at 128mb of ram each would only need a dual 2.0ghz and only 640mb ram assuming your running each game server at stock mode with no alterations

The most important thing I can say on that is you need a very big lot of bandwidth.Game servers don't take up much bandwidth at all.

Game servers don't take up much bandwidth at all.

It really depends on what kind of game server you are running

One 32 slot BF2 server for example can burn through 2.0GB in a hour when full. Extrapolate that to an average monthly use and that server can use upwards of 750GB of bandwidth. (2GB/hr * 12 hour of usage * 30 days)

Take that with a grain of salt, but also remember that BF2 goes to to double the slots (64), and that we often don't run just one of these game servers per dedicated servers.

In this person's situation they are running low slot count HL2 & CS:S servers. I would say that even under moderate to high usage the 2 TB of bandwidth that comes with most servers from most providers would be sufficient.

Not sure why people are laughing here. He's here to get help.

A dedicated server wouldn't need a graphics card like your PC would to run the game or a server of your desktop. It's all CPU/RAM/Connection.

Depending where you are, TX/CA/Chicago are the most popular locations. TC Admin is a good control panel, test it out and it should make your life a lot easier. If not, then I would recommend going for windows ($20 per month more) and then you can remote login to it just like your desktop.

Hope that helps.

so how many servers would I be able to run with the core 2 quad 4gb and 2000gb of bandwidth, also where can I find a good dedicated server with good deals like this?
thx,
wems


You don't need 4GBs Ram on a Single CPU server. You wouldn't use 1/2 that and it would be a waste of your money. 2GBs ram would be more then enough for that platform.

If you were looking to resell game servers I would recommend at minimum a Dual CPU server.

Another thing you must have in mind is the quality of their bandwidth (Premium bandwidth like Internap or the best choice). This will certainly affect your customers and either thank you or complain about the ping they have to their gameservers.

Another thing you must have in mind is the quality of their bandwidth (Premium bandwidth like Internap or the best choice). This will certainly affect your customers and either thank you or complain about the ping they have to their gameservers.

That depends heavily on where your customers/players are connecting from and where their packets are routed through. Also in part, it depends on their own connections.

Usually the better datacenters are already connected to the higher-end bandwidth (like Internap). I know a game server company hosted in Chicago that have said nothing but great things about the stability of the datacenters and bandwidth.

Generally, gameservers don't hog too much bandwidth.

What you will need is a powerful CPU, and RAM to match. You don't want a powerful CPU with 1gb of memory. Nor do you want 8gb of memory and a weak CPU...

Try picking a datacenter located towards the middle of the US, that way both East and West coast players get equal connectivity...

I will confess I did not read through all the posts, but seeing as Game Server's are my specialty ill explain it from what and how I see it.

Bandwidth isn't a concern, games don't use allot surprisingly because the server is just there as a Point, PlayerA connects to Point1 connects to Playerb, Vise Versa. On average a player on Counter Strike Source, uses around 6kb's(don't hold that to me). Some people say the Cpanel Game Server addon is insecure and things, but I have never had a problem with it. Plus it takes allot of work out. For billing I used WHMCS with configurable options, but you can easily make your own order form. I dont like automating a game server because it can be very insecure. I do recommend having a mid range server, around a Core2Duo with upwards of 1.5gb of ram. But game servers from experience hog more CPU then RAM. Then theres the Windows VS Linux discussion, most games offer Linux distro of there servers, so theres no problem there. And if you want to offer ranked servers contact the game publishers for licensing information(usually cheap to free but theres a limited list)

Just my .002 cents.

Brandon

Just abit of help.


Go for a duo core no less.

6 X 32 SLOT COD4 = 3000GIG per month if full 24/7

Per User 6kbtyes

My $.02
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For SRCDS slots, this is the average usage of bandwidth
33 Tickrate- 5 KB/s or 40 kbps
66 Tickrate- 12 KB/s or 96 kbps
100 Tickrate 18 KB/s or 144 kbps
Note those are averages and the bandwidth requirements increase exponentially the more slots in a server that are in use.
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Port Speed. For port speed, a 10 Mb port can only host 50 slots that are running constantly. You can host more then 50 but as soon as more then 50 slots are in use, LAGGGGGGG!
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Now for CPU, a 66 tickrate uses 2.5X the cpu usage of 33 Tickrate. a 100 tickrate slots uses 4X the cpu usage of a 33 tickrate.
Now a 1.8 Ghz processor (doesnt matter if it's AMD or Intel. Intel has bigger l2 cache but AMD has NUMA) can hold about 35 100Tickrate slots. 2.8 Ghz about 50 slots. 3.2 Ghz about 60 slots.
Note this is when the CPU is being used 100%. "Sharing", which causes lag, occurs when the CPU usage goes about 80%. What that means is that you could host 35 slots with 1.8 Ghz processor and be fine but lag would occur when they all become in use.
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For RAM, dont worry about it. 1 GB can support 100 slots if you really need to.
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Control panel, unless you are willing to pay for a custom one, get TCadmin.
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For billing, if you use TCadmin, they have modules that allow automatic account creation. Some, not all, are Modernbill (WHCMS) and Clientexec. Check out their forums clientforums.tcadmin.com. I dont recommend automatic creation because as speed-frag said, its insecure.
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Good Bandwidth providors for gaming are Internap, Level 3, any tier 1 providor, and Mzima. Personally, Mzima is the best. Ask also if your datacenter can peer with GameRail.
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Operating system. Seeing as you said you dont know much about linux, use Windows 2k3. Its pricy but worth it. Also TCadmin only works on windows so if you decide to use TCadmin, you HAVE to use Windows.
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TF2 servers use much more resources then standard SRCDS slots. A 2.4 Ghz processor, with a full 32 slots TF2 server, gets to about 65%. The bandwidth is also much more. A pretty much full 24/7 TF2 server uses about 900 GB per month.
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Last side note. Seriously if you are starting a buisness, get your home work done. I told you all of this but you should really prove this your self

-Spartanfrog

Yes TCADMIN :) go for it.

Yes TCADMIN :) go for it.

Agreed, I highly recommend TCAdmin :)