Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Specialty Hosting and Markets : Game Servers : Starting a Game Server...

[savigejr]

Hello, I'm a gamer and have been considering starting up my own game server for multiple clans that I am friendly with. Unfortunately I am not exactly up to date on how the game server companies offer up their services and have been wondering the following:

When the service company says "$0.34 per slot", does that mean they're running game servers off a vps based system and give you the mod tools to administrate it?

If I were to rent my own dedicated server using a windows server OS, how many different game servers could I host with something powered by an Intel i7-920 and 12GB of Ram and 1TB of storage based on that "per slot" model?

I understand that if I were to run a teamspeak service along with that, my bandwidth would have the potential of skyrocketing, but is there any way to calculate how much bandwidth one person would use with 60 seconds of constant noise?

I do have other questions but I'll reserve those for later in the thread when I find a good reply.

[quantumphysics]

I understand that if I were to run a teamspeak service along with that, my bandwidth would have the potential of skyrocketing, but is there any way to calculate how much bandwidth one person would use with 60 seconds of constant noise?

--> set by the server, based on quality, quality kbps x number of people hearing it

If I were to rent my own dedicated server using a windows server OS, how many different game servers could I host with something powered by an Intel i7-920 and 12GB of Ram and 1TB of storage based on that "per slot" model?

--> everything is different, if you were to mix and match some gameservers use 100% cpu and <100mb ram, some gameservers use as much ram as possible but not much cpu, some pound disk io, etc

[Ramon - i3D]

The per slot pricing is simply a calculation that said provider made at which point their service is profitable.

Different games use different numbers of resources. For instance: Call of Duty games are high on RAM, Battlefield is high on CPU, source is somewhere in between. As a provider you base your pricing on a combination of resources needed + costs of server + average occupancy + additional services = slot price.

At the end of the equation you need a positive number or reevaluate your pricing.

How many slots you can host largely depends on a combination of the game(s) you're hosting, the slotcounts and the occupancy.

As for your hardware: Unless you only run Minecraft and Call of Duty I'd recommend getting an E3 CPU in combination with 12 GB RAM.

Your bandwidth depends on how much your provider will give you. These days it's common to get 5+ TB of bandwidth, you normally won't get anywhere near that amount with game hosting.

[savigejr]

Originally Posted by quantumphysics

I understand that if I were to run a teamspeak service along with that, my bandwidth would have the potential of skyrocketing, but is there any way to calculate how much bandwidth one person would use with 60 seconds of constant noise?

--> set by the server, based on quality, quality kbps x number of people hearing it

> Cool, thanks. That makes it easier for me to manage and estimate!

Originally Posted by quantumphysics

If I were to rent my own dedicated server using a windows server OS, how many different game servers could I host with something powered by an Intel i7-920 and 12GB of Ram and 1TB of storage based on that "per slot" model?

--> everything is different, if you were to mix and match some gameservers use 100% cpu and <100mb ram, some gameservers use as much ram as possible but not much cpu, some pound disk io, etc

> Hmm, I guess there won't be any way to really tell what game does what. I always thought that it takes relatively little computing power to be the gameserver host as nothing needs to be rendered (but then again, that's mostly graphics I guess).

Thanks for the reply!

[savigejr]

Originally Posted by Ramon - i3D

The per slot pricing is simply a calculation that said provider made at which point their service is profitable.

Different games use different numbers of resources. For instance: Call of Duty games are high on RAM, Battlefield is high on CPU, source is somewhere in between. As a provider you base your pricing on a combination of resources needed + costs of server + average occupancy + additional services = slot price.

At the end of the equation you need a positive number or reevaluate your pricing.

How many slots you can host largely depends on a combination of the game(s) you're hosting, the slotcounts and the occupancy.

As for your hardware: Unless you only run Minecraft and Call of Duty I'd recommend getting an E3 CPU in combination with 12 GB RAM.

Your bandwidth depends on how much your provider will give you. These days it's common to get 5+ TB of bandwidth, you normally won't get anywhere near that amount with game hosting.

I'm still somewhat confused. I understand the price per slot calculation which is necessary for the company to determine what would become profitable for them. I've been an admin for a clan server before and I just had a little control panel for each server IP. For the most part then, are those /slot companies running one server box per game or they running multiple games per server similar to a vps solution?

I just don't want to get involved in paying for a month of shared services that lag due to me sharing a blade server with someone else. It's hard sifting through the companies that all make it sound so simple and easy stating that their systems are the best...

[quantumphysics]

Originally Posted by savigejr

I'm still somewhat confused. I understand the price per slot calculation which is necessary for the company to determine what would become profitable for them. I've been an admin for a clan server before and I just had a little control panel for each server IP. For the most part then, are those /slot companies running one server box per game or they running multiple games per server similar to a vps solution?

I just don't want to get involved in paying for a month of shared services that lag due to me sharing a blade server with someone else. It's hard sifting through the companies that all make it sound so simple and easy stating that their systems are the best...

A lot of them have a "list of games" that turns out to be like, all srcds or hlds, or etc.

But really - You wont know until you try it.

Some servers run mods that may push resource limit far above what the baseline is, some run stock everything, everyone is different...

In any case whatever you do don't host on a VPS if you want to run multiple gameservers and a TS..

Originally Posted by savigejr

> Cool, thanks. That makes it easier for me to manage and estimate!

Don't forget you can also google for phrases like "400 Kbps * 1 month" and gcalc will solve for you

Btw - have you tried Mumble?

[Ramon - i3D]

As a hosting company you run multiple instances on a box. Most companies use some sort of control panel (developed inhouse or a solution like TCAdmin) to manage their game instances. If you aren't planning on really reselling these you have no need for that though.

[rossers]

Ok im in the same story as the first poster i need a game server and ww2 strategy software and have 100 gamers ready to move but we need all admin and advice


please can anyone guide use we cant find any info thanks

[enigma-servers]

I think: gsptalk.com may be the better place for you guys!

Also about how many slots you can run, it's all about testing what your system can handle.

You could sell 1,000 slots (say you have 6TB HDD and you only use 500GB space for all those game servers, that's fine) if only 300 slots are being used. Like I said it's all about testing.

If it is for personal use then you won't need to worry as much.

By far the best game panel is: TCAdmin (Windows and Linux supported)

Everyone that has ran or owns a GSP works differently, but everyone has to test their hardware to see what it can do etc - for a business you just give yourself a limit 300 active players and if it gets laggy get a new server and move them to the new one, check who's using the most CPU usage and test, test and test some more

Oh yeah be prepared for steam updates

[SHOUTcastUK]

Second the above its all about testing, the more testing you do the more you can understand a servers limits etc.

[PatrickN]

Judging by your post, I would definitely wait before you even think about wasting your money trying to start this up. Do what you're doing now first (research). And after you feel like you don't need to ask any "how-to" questions anymore, that's when you know you're ready!

For Teamspeak and Ventrilo you need licenses to host servers. For game servers you need to have a server and game files. What's recommended for easy-to-install game server setup, is to use TCAdmin control panel. They make everything a lot more simplified. I suggest finding a host that specializes in game servers, such as ColoCrossing.com. They would be able to help you out...

good luck!

[rock65]

When the service company says "$0.34 per slot", does that mean they're running game servers off a vps based system and give you the mod tools to administrate it?

It simply means that they will charge you on per slot basis. They are usually running a third party utility like TCAdmin which allows them to give you flexible amount of slots for your game.

If I were to rent my own dedicated server using a windows server OS, how many different game servers could I host with something powered by an Intel i7-920 and 12GB of Ram and 1TB of storage based on that "per slot" model?

1TB is a lot of diskspace. You can practically host 100s of games on it. As for Ram and CPU, they are essential. Every game uses different specifications. For instance, COD 4 server uses 370 MB RAM for any slot server plus it increases with the number of players connected to it. Also, it takes up to 1 CPU, but works best if you assign 1 physical and 1 virtual processor to it. Core i7 has 4 physical processors and 4 virtual processors. In your task manager, you can actually set processor affinity for a game. This is for custom configuration but mods like TCAdmin usually takes all 8 processors and distributes among the servers created. A server end machine like XEON is recommended in your case, but core i7 also works good if your number of servers aren't that much.

I understand that if I were to run a teamspeak service along with that, my bandwidth would have the potential of skyrocketing, but is there any way to calculate how much bandwidth one person would use with 60 seconds of constant noise?

Teamspeak is not a resource extensive application, it takes up very little RAM and CPU. But it consumes a lot of bandwidth. For instance, if CS 1.6 takes 1 TB upload and 500 GB download, TS would take 1.3 TB upload and 1.3 TB download. Usually, what matters is the channel quality, and the number of people connected to the channel. In 1 MB CIR, there is 128 kbps. So, in ts, if there are 10 people, and the channel quality is 5 kbps, a total of 50 kbps would be used, or like 0.4 MB CIR (connectivity). So this is actually 50 kilo bytes per second download and upload

I do have other questions but I'll reserve those for later in the thread when I find a good reply.

PM me for any questions you have regarding gaming. I'm already running my own gaming servers and handling the biggest gaming community of my country.

[Ryanhz]

Game servers take allot of work, if your planning to do this by yourself with not much knowledge I would suggest getting a managed dedicated server from an already established GSP Provider that includes TCAdmin. This should be adequate if your just planning to resell servers to other clans.

[savigejr]

Hey guys, thanks for all your replies. I haven't been able to keep up on wht lately as my grandfather found out he has stage 4 cancer and it spread to the brain. I've been helping more with the grandparents than focusing on the gaming stuff lately. When I have time I'll go through these posts and ask some more questions. I've not forgotten!!

[JackVX]

Unfortunately, for bandwidth please factor in occasional DDoS attack. These attacks are getting more frequent in gameserver hosting, it will chew through your bandwidth.

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