Discussion about running the server

[bistabil]

Greetings,
I am considering to start own project based on aCis.
There are few things I would like experienced admins to enlighten me with.

1. How doable is running the server while having a fulltime job and while being in team of two people were other staff member won't have access to machine server is hosted on, nor will be able to provide any hot fix if it's necessary? Other staff member will be just a simple gm with maybe elevated privileges to restart/shut down the server.
2. I would like to introduce a lot of modifications to aCis but taking that aside, how stable aCis server is without any crap code added to it? Should I restart it time to time or it can run long time without interruptions?
3. Could you provide me with some data on system requirements for stable server considering 100, 500 or 1000 active players? Here I am interested in CPU, system memory, network bandwidth, storage type and capacity,  requirements. Of course, even with nonmodified aCis if you play with configuration this may vary a lot (e.g. enabling item/chat loging) but I would appreciate your concrete experience with setups that just worked.
4. Which hosting provider would you recommend? I've seen good reviews about OVH.
5. Does anyone have experience/tips on actively developing server while in production? Is it doable or it's just too risky? How would you set your workflow for such scenarios? I am thinking about running test and live server side to side and automating deployment with Jenkins.
6. How complicated would it be to merge data from two servers assuming they are running on same files?

I will have more questions later.

edit: damn I've posted in wrong forum, could someone please move this to nongreek specific l2j development forum

Edited August 5, 2019 by bistabil

[Tryskell]

1. From the moment you got non critical issues occuring, I guess it's fully ok if at least one ppl got power to restart the server.

 

2. According to Sahar, aCis latest version (since Java11 move and use of enhanced default G1GC) is enough stable to run one month without any restart (and probably, with no restart at all, since the restart always came with some core modifications).

 

3. 2Go RAM dedicated to the JVM is the "minimum" requirement (could be even 512Mo without geodata and 256Mo without scripts loading/geodata). For a live server, values between 4G min  and  6/8Go RAM max. I think higher values is a complete waste of ressources, while lesser you will maybe struggle with big amount of live players.

 

4. Sahar moved from OVH because their DDOS protection sucked and help was inexistent to fix it, but he kept it for years. I think he moved to Hyperfilter.

 

5. It's generally adviced to use a test server, and, once tested, move content  on live. For a test server, simply deactivate geodata and run it with 512Mo, it can be done on any nowaday computer.

 

6. Not sure what you mean by merging data. If it's about SQL, well,  SQL querying is strong. About aCis specifically, SQL columns can appear, dissapear or be modified, rarely entire tables. XML can (and will, in the future : case of spawnlist and items) be modified aswell. I don't hold myself to make changes when a change needs to be done, otherwise I stuck. Changesets always suggest such changes on "PS:". It's up to you to make your customs easy to move from one revision to another (case of SQL : make your own tables, case of XML : add it to the end of a file / new file, case of core side : make your own custom package, and edit as low as possible existing classes - and if so, put everything in bottom).

 

I invite you to contact Sahar, an aCis user for something like 7 seasons of its L2OvC server.

Edited August 6, 2019 by Tryskell

[BabayG]

25 minutes ago, Tryskell said:

1. From the moment you got non critical issues occuring, I guess it's fully ok if at least one ppl got power to restart the server.

 

2. According to Sahar, aCis latest version (since Java11 move and use of enhanced default G1GC) is enough stable to run one month without any restart (and probably, with no restart at all, since the restart always came with some core modifications).

 

3. 2Go RAM dedicated to the JVM is the "minimum" requirement (could be even 512Mo without geodata and 256Mo without scripts loading/geodata). For a live server, values between 4G min  and  6/8Go RAM max. I think higher values is a complete waste of ressources, while lesser you will maybe struggle with big amount of live players.

 

4. Sahar moved from OVH because their DDOS protection sucked and help was inexistent to fix it, but he kept it for years. I think he moved to Hyperfilter.

 

5. It's generally adviced to use a test server, and, once tested, move content  on live. For a test server, simply deactivate geodata and run it with 512Mo, it can be done on any nowaday computer.

 

6. Not sure what you mean by merging data. If it's about SQL, well,  SQL querying is strong. About aCis specifically, SQL columns can appear, dissapear or be modified, rarely entire tables. XML can (and will, in the future : case of spawnlist and items) be modified aswell. I don't hold myself to make changes when a change needs to be done, otherwise I stuck. Changesets always suggest such changes on "PS:". It's up to you to make your customs easy to move from one revision to another (case of SQL : make your own tables, case of XML : add it to the end of a file / new file, case of core side : make your own custom package, and edit as low as possible existing classes - and if so, put everything in bottom).

 

I invite you to contact Sahar, an aCis user for something like 7 seasons of its L2OvC server.

4. I just want to ask about this,for further info to users who have better experience. These are supposed to be two of the best options out there? I have used HyperFilter for 2 months a year ago or so. Support wasn't the best, about their antiddos I have no idea and as for for money it's expensive for sure. Ovh never tried it before... Is it there any review topic in mxc about this? Or we can W8 for someone experienced to reply. 

[Raws]

ovh protection can be bypassed and will always be that way.

Hyperfilter is good until you get a large attack, they will null your ip.

in term of protection they're both bad if you go big you've to search for something else

 

any project can run for months without a need to restart, you just have to optimize it.

acis have probably done already the most work for you

Edited August 6, 2019 by Raws