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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
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    Looking for Stable Windows VPS

    Greetings WHT.. It is about that time again that I am seeking to acquire a VPS or perhaps Dedicated Server if deemed necessary. I'm not 100% sure what sort of specifications I am in need of or if a VPS would be perfect for this.

    I've been working on a multiplayer video game that uses a client to server connection. Most of the processing and logic is done client side. The server mainly acts as a match making lobby only really keeping track of accounts, ratings, and the chat system. During a game session, it keeps track of player locations and scores of up to 16 players per game. The client pretty much does the rest like the collision detection and all of the resource intensive code. So it appears I am going to need to be looking at bandwidth more than the server processor and ram.

    It still has not reached the beta testing stage yet and is by no means a game I'm looking to have a huge playerbase for. I only expect it to attract at the most 200 players but will probably be lucky to even have 50. So I'd like to be able to easily and quickly expand my VPS if needed in the future or have just enough spare resources to survive on for a little while.

    This is what I figured I'd need:

    at least 2 GB RAM
    at least 40 GB of space
    at least 1500 GB bandwidth?

    The server is only made for Windows so obviously need Windows. Xen, OpenVZ, whatever technology doesn't matter.. Budget is not relevant. I'll spend if needed but prefer it to be under $80. I hate to get a dedicated server.

    I'd like a good central location like Texas or something to give equal pings to both west and east coast players.

    Any thoughts? Am I in the right range as far as the hardware numbers? What providers would be right for something like this?

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    Take a look at frantech.ca

    Pretty fair ping to South America...
    █ Diego Rodríguez B. - https://diegorbaquero.com
    █ Software Engineer @ Protocol Labs | Filecoin Saturn

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    USA, UK, Singapore
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    3,481
    You are pretty much in right range - I'm not sure if you'll require full 1500 GB bandwidth. Most customers are pretty low on bandwidth usage (~200 GB per month). Your budget is good and I'll recommend a solution which will help you to scale up and upgrade when your requirements increase. With regards to virtualization technology, I'll strongly recommend Hyper-V for Windows.

    Good luck!
    Last edited by anon-e-mouse; 02-12-2011 at 01:11 AM.

  4. #4
    since you are not concerning virtualization technology there are bunch of host that you can select. beside hyper-v, you also can choose for citrix xen, xen hvm. try to ask chhost.net sales, they offer Xen based windows in Kansas as well, center of US, i'd think better latency from anywhere in US.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
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    I'm also going to be another person that advocates Citrix XenServer. Sounds like you may have a pretty good idea of what you need already, actually. Xen's got some really nice features and is *very* scalable.

    Something else to consider: Windows 2003 or Windows 2008? 32 bit or 64 bit?
    Doug Hazard - "retired" Web Hosting Master
    * Full Stack (Web/WP) Dev for The Catholic Diocese of Richmond (160+ sites)
    * Sports Photographer, Media Personality and CFB Historian
    * Tech Admin for several Sports Networks/Sites

  6. #6
    thanks for the recommendation.

    It is better to have VPS in central region for hosting gameserver. This will greatly reduce the latency when you target to have player around US.

    @OP
    Is windows VPS a compulsory option?
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  7. #7
    Join Date
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    The server is only made for Windows so obviously need Windows.
    Seems pretty compulsory to me.
    Doug Hazard - "retired" Web Hosting Master
    * Full Stack (Web/WP) Dev for The Catholic Diocese of Richmond (160+ sites)
    * Sports Photographer, Media Personality and CFB Historian
    * Tech Admin for several Sports Networks/Sites

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Douglas View Post
    Seems pretty compulsory to me.
    opppss.. i should ask the virtualization instead of OS
    ControlVM.com :: Elastic Cloud Hosting Alternatives to VPS Reliable Cloud Server
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  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
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    Thanks for the responses. Yep, Windows is a must. I don't know how to do any programming that is compatible for linux just yet although that is something I'm interested in learning in the future.

    I'm not really sure I have much of a preference whether it is 32 bit or 64 bit. It doesn't really matter to me. I've been programming the game server on a 64 bit OS, so perhaps I should look for a 64 bit setup just to be safe? Not really sure on that.

    I suppose I should also have mentioned that all of the data (accounts, stats, etc) are going to be stored in a database which will be on a separate machine, which is another reason I kind of said 1500 GB bandwidth as the server won't just be serving the clients but also writing and reading from the database. If I don't necessarily need that much, I'd be willing to cut down on it as long as it isn't too expensive to upgrade for more if I find I need it.

  10. #10
    Join Date
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    Dark, if you've been developing your game in a 64 bit environment, I see no reason why to change it. While 64 bit Windows (especially 2008) tends to require a little more RAM than 32 bit does, it also tends to handle the memory performance quite a bit better.

    You may want to try to keep your VPS locations close to where your DB is hosted, or consider having your DB relocated to the same provider/facility where the game is at in order to improve latency. In some rare cases (especially on Citrix XenServer), a hosting provider may be able to bridge the two separate systems to behave as a single system... with the Web <-> SQL going over a private backnet. This would allow you to lower your BW requirements while still allowing for blazingly quick speeds. It's essentially clustering two different systems together. I've personally done that in the past and it's worked exceptionally well.

    There are, of course, a few firewall tweaks that need to be done to achieve this, however, any competent Windows provider would be able to assist you with that quite easily.

    Curiosity is killin' the (bear) here... MySQL or MS SQL or PgSQL?
    Doug Hazard - "retired" Web Hosting Master
    * Full Stack (Web/WP) Dev for The Catholic Diocese of Richmond (160+ sites)
    * Sports Photographer, Media Personality and CFB Historian
    * Tech Admin for several Sports Networks/Sites

  11. #11
    Join Date
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    Thanks for the feedback. Added to my list of things to ask about.

    Hah, I figured someone would ask. I'm currently using MySQL because I'm very familiar with it and haven't had any problem with it at all (maybe because I've never really operated a service with high query volumes?).. But before getting any kind of lecture on how horrible MySQL really is, I will state it for the record that I'm always opened to suggestions if you have a better one that would actually show a significant difference! Personally I have seen both MySQL and PostgreSQL sites and haven't really noticed much of a difference.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
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    Okay, personally speaking, I've been hard pressed to find a reason why to move Hogville (the site that gets a bit more traffic than WHT does, at times) off of PHP/MySQL. Some have suggested that I look at RoR and maybe PgSQL... but to be honest, I'm right there with you: No one can provide me legitimate enough reasons why. ::chuckles::
    Doug Hazard - "retired" Web Hosting Master
    * Full Stack (Web/WP) Dev for The Catholic Diocese of Richmond (160+ sites)
    * Sports Photographer, Media Personality and CFB Historian
    * Tech Admin for several Sports Networks/Sites

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