Dedicated Server for A20

[Spatch]

All,

 

What are the minimums needed for me to set up a dedicated server?  I'm a Linux guy so am able to set up my own but also am not against using linode (have used them in the past) or one of the game server hosting companies (have used them as well).

The problem I ran into in the past is the need for a good graphics card on the server and my old machines lying around don't have great graphics cards.

Maybe its time for me to retire my current PC to the Linux server farm and buy a new gaming rig! 

Thoughts for the best way to run a server?  (Note, it will be for no more than 4 players - all family and friends)

[meganoth]

Create the world on a client (with GPU) and move it to the server. Then you don't need a GPU on the server.

 

I rented a virtual server CPU, those usually have relatively low CPU frequencies, in my case 2,1GHz I think. It is already a Ryzen CPU, so even with that low frequency I get enough oomph that it always stays above the critical 20 FPS, even on horde night with 4 players and a resource-intensive overhaul mod

 

 

[Gamida]

I may be nutty as a fruitcake but if I recall I thought I was told long ago you don't even need a graphics card for a server. Don't even need a monitor. Something called a headless server?

I think some people ran servers (for just a few friends or family of course) on an old laptop.

[Spatch]

Oh wow!  I did not know it only needed the GPU during generation!  I'll just use a basic Linode server (quicker than refurbing one of my older unused chassis)!

[Pernicious]

Uh - you don't even need one during generation. I run mine on a Supermicro server that doesn't even have a VGA output at all (All accessed through Telnet/ESXi)

 

I found A19 Navezgane to run fine on 4 CPUs and 16Gb for 4 players. I bumped that to 32Gb for a custom 8k map, but it never took much more than 16-17Gb.

 

Apparently disk IO is important once you have fast moving vehicles, so I put mine on an NVME drive, but I haven't ever had problems so I don't know at what point a SATA/SCSI/Nearline-SAS/SAS drive would be an issue, especially if it was in a speed enhancing RAID. The issue is loading up the next "chunk" and serving it to the client before the client gets there (Hence why it's more of an issue with the faster vehicles).

Edited December 6, 2021 by Pernicious (see edit history)

[Orclover]

Anybody renting a server or just hosting their own?

[SylenThunder]

2 hours ago, Orclover said:

Anybody renting a server or just hosting their own?

We've always self-hosted. Have two servers up currently. One is Navezgane, and the other is the 10k pregen.  They will be available for gameplay and bug reporting throughout experimental.