So.. I'm currently running a server of my own, but use a hosting provider (NFO). I'm currently looking into running my server myself from home, without relying on a service provider, BUT I'm curious on what exactly do I need? Such as Hardware, software, Programs, Equipment, Etc. What concerns should I have? Do I get to decide my own player size? Connection Speeds, and Sql/MySqls? What about maintenance. Fees? Etc.
If you're running the server 24/7 you'll likely spend more in power costs than it would cost to rent a shared gameserver or VPS.
I'm bias on this one; but I'd suggest a VPS.
[quote]Such as Hardware, software, Programs, Equipment, Etc. What concerns should I have? Do I get to decide my own player size? Connection Speeds, and Sql/MySqls? What about maintenance. Fees? Etc.[/quote]
A computer with a decent CPU, decent hard drives and at least 1GB of RAM. Srcds. You get to decide how many players you can have. Connection speed would be shit on most residential ISP's. You'd need to run your own SQL server. Power and broadband would be your two main costs.
Compare that with a VPS: You pay a single monthly fee (e.g. $5-30/m) and generally get a good CPU, good hard drives, ample ram, good connectivity, etc.
the biggest issue isnt hardware, but network speed. you should be able to at least go 100 mbps stable with 0 drop.
for ram I was told the max you reach is 700 mb, so just for good measure I'd take 2 gb. HDD doesnt need to be that large, and IIRC there is no multi-core processing (this might be only for client gmod, I could be wrong. Dont hold me on it), so finding the best single core is your best bet.
overall, I'd still get a VPS. You can get a cheap one for $5 a month that can even run more than 1 server prolly. Only difference is that you will need to set everything up yourself.
I pay £100 a month for our dedicated, but that's to host multiple servers. I'd suggest a VPS if you're just starting. You can get those for around £20-£30 p/month although I haven't checked in a while.
First of all, will you host it on your own computer? If so, your computer has to be turned on at all times.
What network speed do you have? You need a good upload rate to support a bunch of players along with everything else that comes with it. Run a [URL="http://www.speedtest.net/"]speed test[/URL] and post back the results. 10mbps or higher is sufficent to run a server smoothly. A stable connection is also something you want to consider if you have.
SRCDS isn't multi-threaded so it will only use one core of the PC's CPU, so if you have a [B]3.0+ Ghz[/B] CPU, that is great for hosting a game server. You don't have to worry about RAM, as SRCDS hardly uses over [B]600-700MB[/B]. You need atleast [B]3GB[/B] of available disk space to hold the server files.
You also need a [B]static external IP-address[/B], otherwise you might lose your playerbase.
If you feel like you meet the requirements above, go for it and download using [URL="http://wiki.garrysmod.com/page/Hosting_A_Dedicated_Server"]SteamCMD[/URL], [URL="http://portforward.com/"]port forward [/URL]27015 TCP and shoot up your server.
If you have an old PC lying around, I highly suggest that you check the hardware and see if they meet the requirements. Install a Debian based distro like Ubuntu Server from a LiveCD and run the server from there as everything you do on your own PC have impact on the servers performance.
Basically, a 3.2 Ghz Dual Core will empower the server more than a 2.6Ghz Octa-Core.
[QUOTE=Svenskunganka;44989995]SRCDS isn't multi-threaded so it will only use one core of the PC's CPU, so if you have a [B]3.0+ Ghz[/B] CPU, that is great for hosting a game server.[/quote]
[quote]Basically, a 3.2 Ghz Dual Core will empower the server more than a 2.6Ghz Octa-Core.[/QUOTE]
That being said : a modern gen multi-core 2ghz CPU would likely outperform a P4 3.0+Ghz CPU. Ghz is not everything for performance. Plus, there are many things running on a system that are [b]not[/b] srcds. A single core CPU would have to deal with all of those too, while the octa-core CPU would handle that with ease.
[QUOTE=Flapadar;44990126]That being said : a modern gen 2ghz CPU would likely outperform a P4 3.0+Ghz CPU. Ghz is not everything for performance. Plus, there are many things running on a system that are [b]not[/b] srcds. A single core CPU would have to deal with all of those too, while the octa-core CPU would handle that with ease.[/QUOTE]
We're talking solely about SRCDS hosting now. Notice how I mentioned [I]"will empower the server"[/I].
On a vanilla Debian or Red Hat distro, there's not much else other than what you install that uses CPU resources. Linux server distro's are very lightweight.
EDIT:
This a an Ubuntu 12.04 of mine, it's not even vanilla. Hosts medium traffic websites, databases and heavy files. As nginx and varnish is running, static content doesn't use jack shit CPU. The only thing that actually uses CPU here is htop (process manager)
[IMG]http://puu.sh/9dzQn/902a740eef.png[/IMG]
[QUOTE=Svenskunganka;44990231]We're talking solely about SRCDS hosting now. Notice how I mentioned [I]"will empower the server"[/I].
On a vanilla Debian or Red Hat distro, there's not much else other than what you install that uses CPU resources. Linux server distro's are very lightweight.[/QUOTE]
I'm aware - but let's be honest, the OP will likely end up going Windows
[QUOTE=Flapadar;44990277]I'm aware - but let's be honest, the OP will likely end up going Windows[/QUOTE]
Not if we talk him into going the right way and get a VPS, as I'm 99% sure he won't even have the network capacity to support over 5 players.
Also, edited my previous post.
EDIT:
Also, the linux and windows kernel are both very talented process managers. If a core is heavily loaded by a process, they will restrict other processes from accessing that core if another core with less load is available. To reduce heat, "core hopping" is available in both kernels.
So, because I'm new to this a few terms are a bit new to me.
I do not plan on using MY computer, I plan on buying a whole new machine for the server itself as in it's always on and I manage it only, never game never browse. Now.. What do you mean by getting a VPS? And Last I heard, The gamemode I want to run off doesn't support Linux servers, (CWHL2RP) So this may be a bit of a problem. The hardware I can get with your guys help.. AKA I can I go to build a computer websites. My internet is high speed last I checked, But maybe it could be high speed for a client gaming side. Anyways, I'll do a speed test when I return home.
What's the different between Dedicated and VPS?
How would I set up a SQL?
How would I begin GETTING the server up?
Dedicated is a whole machine, just like your PC, but with server-related hardware (More stable RAM, power savings, etc). A VPS (Virtual Private Server) is a virtualization of a Dedicated, running on a larger machine. The hoster can specify how much resources the VPS has access to in terms of CPU, RAM, Disk Space and Bandwidth.
You are looking for MySQL Server. On Windows, you can download the server installation from MySQL's website or get the WAMP stack; which includes Apache and PHP so you can host a website aswell.
On Debian based Linux, simply run [B]sudo apt-get install mysql-server[/B] and you're done.
After that, you can use the CLI (Command Line Interface) to create databases and managing them. If you feel like you don't want to use a CLI, get the WAMP stack and you'll get phpMyAdmin along with it.
To install the server, use [URL="https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD"]SteamCMD[/URL] (tutorial on the page) with app_update 4020 validate.
Since you're located in the US, I highly suggest that you get your server parts from Newegg or get a refurbished server.
[B][U]Here are some parts that I recommend:[/U][/B]
[B]CPU:[/B] Intel Xeon E3-1240v2 @ 3.4Ghz Quad Core
[B]RAM:[/B] 2(Linux)-4(Windows)GB 1600Mhz DDR2/3 EEC RAM (Don't waste your money on RAM because you don't need more, also EEC RAM has longer lifetime and is more stable than standard RAM)
[B]Network Controller:[/B] 1Gbit I/O controller should suffice, unless you have a 10Gbps connection which I highly doubt.
[B]Disks:[/B] If you want your server to boot up fast, or if you know you'll have lots of disk I/O, I suggest you to either get one 240GB SSD or two 120GB SSD and put them on RAID0. Otherwise just go with a standard 7200 RPM HDD.
[B]CD-ROM:[/B] A simple reader is sufficent, but if you are looking to burn disks, get a RW.
[B]Operating System:[/B] Personally, I highly suggest going for a Linux distro - debian based suits a SRCDS server best. Linux is completely free to use, very lightweight compared to Windows. Can be a bit hard to use since you'll control it over SSH (Secure Shell), which is basically a CLI.
A Windows Server license is pretty expensive and uses a whole lot more hardware resources than Linux does. Windows is easy to use with the RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol)
If you are curious how a Linux server operates, I suggest you to get a trial version of VMWare and setup a [URL="http://www.ubuntu.com/download/server"]Ubuntu Server[/URL] distro on a virtual machine and boot into it, play around and see what you can do. Don't forget that Google is your best friend!
I'd strongly advise against using RAID0. It will only improve write performance+capacity over RAID1 while increasing the probability of failure per year from 0.11% to 9% (81x increase based on a single drive failure rate of an average 3% in the first year)
Sorry for the late reply.. I've been so busy with school and such. Now, I'll be taking the time to get the hardware you mentioned before, then once what is accomplished I will either necro/start a new thread to help get it started. i appreciate all of your feedback.
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