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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Chicago, IL
    Posts
    114

    * Team Fortress 2 - Server

    Hello,
    I just wanted to share my experience with a tf2 community I help run and how many tf2 servers can fit on what specs.

    The Server:
    Dual Quad Core Xeon 5410 2.33 Ghz
    6 GB DDR2 RAM
    250 GB SATA2 HDD
    100 mbps Uplink
    Windows Server 2008 Enterprise

    We run 10 x 34 slot TF2 Servers, most of which are full a majority of the day. We use sourceban on a seperate database server that the tf2 servers connect to.

    We seem to have figured out that on this particular box we can put 1x 34 slot full server per core (could be more, but we have other stuff on the box as well). Also you would have to figure that moving the database onto its own servers helps a lot as well.

    I hope this is helpful to someone
    Jeremy Miller - Account Executive
    SingleHop Inc. - Dedicated Servers Exclusive Specials - www.singlehop.com/jeremymiller
    Phone: 1-866-817-2811 ext. 103

  2. #2
    I've recently bought a server with nearly identical specs, except I have 4x500GB hard drives in Raid-5, 12 GB of RAM, and I also run Cent OS instead of Windows.

    But I find that running 8 of the 32 slot Source Engine Servers, and 8 of the 32 slot gldsrc Engine servers, and 3 Left 4 Dead Servers doesn't even fully stress the CPU's, and the RAM seems fine, I haven't tried stressing my machine more than this.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Posts
    612
    Thanks for the info, good to know

  4. #4
    You have a gaming community Jeremy ?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Toronto, Canada
    Posts
    2,570
    Not bad. Are Windows servers better for TF2? I heard that for some other Source based games Linux servers may be better if compatible.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    41
    Source isn't at all optimized for linux (it's compiled using the old gcc etc etc...). But with a lot of tweaking, coding, custom kernels and quite a few mods you can achieve better performance on linux.

  7. #7
    I've tryed both windows 2008 server, and Cent OS 5 (linux) on the same machine, and when I stress tested the machine with a variety of source game servers, I had much better performance using linux. You couldn't tell either way in the actual gameplay of the server, but when I looked through my cpu usage logs, amount of different system resources used by different processes, etc, it was obvious that these servers run better (for me at least) on linux.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Toronto, Canada
    Posts
    2,570
    I know for a fact that Left4Dead servers run better on Linux, at least in terms of buggy performance and random server crashes.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Posts
    1,471
    I used to 4 32man TF2 servers on a Intel Q9300 on CentOS Linux and they definitely used more CPU than on Windows. Typically you can run a 32man per CPU core.

  10. #10
    Do your servers experience any choke/loss?

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Chicago, IL
    Posts
    114
    Hey everyone. The servers are currently running great. Yes I am a leader in a large TF2 Community . I also heard Linux servers are better, and we could probably squeeze more on this server if we were running Linux, but I have no complaints. As of right now we dont experience any choke or loss. Although we did go through a period of attacks that we managed to tackle one by one. So I think we have most of our bases covered now!
    Last edited by SingleHopJeremy; 11-05-2009 at 06:08 PM.
    Jeremy Miller - Account Executive
    SingleHop Inc. - Dedicated Servers Exclusive Specials - www.singlehop.com/jeremymiller
    Phone: 1-866-817-2811 ext. 103

  12. #12
    There is really very little difference between Linux and Windows. Just my experience...
    ColoCrossing - Dedicated to Uptime
    Jon Biloh | jbiloh@colocrossing.com | 1.800.518.9716 | Skype: jbiloh
    DDOS Protected Colo & Dedicated Servers in Buffalo, Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Southampton, NY
    Posts
    232
    Quote Originally Posted by JonBiloh View Post
    There is really very little difference between Linux and Windows. Just my experience...
    While I've used both i perfer linux for running higher quality serveers(1000FPS Plus) and even to run 1000FPS on windows you need to have server 2008.
    "Unix is simple. It just takes a genius to understand its simplicity." – Dennis Ritchie

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by wsuslack View Post
    I've recently bought a server with nearly identical specs, except I have 4x500GB hard drives in Raid-5, 12 GB of RAM, and I also run Cent OS instead of Windows.

    But I find that running 8 of the 32 slot Source Engine Servers, and 8 of the 32 slot gldsrc Engine servers, and 3 Left 4 Dead Servers doesn't even fully stress the CPU's, and the RAM seems fine, I haven't tried stressing my machine more than this.
    Wait to they are using full capacity

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by JMele View Post
    While I've used both i perfer linux for running higher quality serveers(1000FPS Plus) and even to run 1000FPS on windows you need to have server 2008.
    You can still get high fps from windows machines. You either run the srcds fps tool or run windows media player in the background.

    Check the srcds community for more info

  16. #16
    Thanks! I actually had been looking into getting a server like that for game server hosting. Didn't think that you could hold that many servers on one dedi. You have any recommendations on how to get a good dedicated server from very little cash? Been looking into getting one but don't have the cash.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by wolfeater92 View Post
    Thanks! I actually had been looking into getting a server like that for game server hosting. Didn't think that you could hold that many servers on one dedi. You have any recommendations on how to get a good dedicated server from very little cash? Been looking into getting one but don't have the cash.
    You need to budget around 100-120 dollars minimum for a Dual Core dedi server, and the best place to look would be on the dedicated server offers on this site. If you don't have an extensive background on server hosting, I seriously suggest you getting a server with TCAdmin setup which usually costs a little bit more. If not, you would definitely want to get a linux server and install SwiftPanel or something to help you manage multiple servers.

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