Server Lag, Crashes and Ping Spikes

[McBain]

I witnessed what I think has been causing some problems recently on the servers, either causing them to crash during map change or cause ping spikes, meaning everyone gets booted.

I was fiddling with the new Pstats theme when everything seemed to slow down to a halt. The CPU usage was at 100% and the custom map server was using around 800meg of RAM. All it was doing was changing map... but something seems to cause it to 'get stuck' during the map change. The odd thing is, I don't think its every map change, just maybe now and then. If it takes too long with the map change, the server monitor assumes its crashed and restarts it.

I've already removed the rate and interp checked, so it can't be them, so now I've removed the maprating plugin to see if that makes any difference.

I'm guessing last night when all the servers went down, this happened, but with pretty much a full set of 5 servers running, which just brought everything down. :(

Also, I notice Helios went onto one of the servers to restart it around 10:40pm. Sorry, we were testing updating the stats with full servers... I went on two servers to try and let people know (even though they didn't listen) and Wint was trying to tell people through console on the others, but maybe we didn't do to well :lol: It was a one off test, wont be done again. We've found we can't update stats when people are playing, PsychoStats will just update every night at 4am. :thumbs:

So... if anyone can report back if these ping spikes are still happening, or if a server crashes on map change. Please state which server you were on and an approximate time. Thanks. I will of course in the mean time, be looking into what might be causing the problems.

[helios]

Also, I notice Helios went onto one of the servers to restart it around 10:40pm. Sorry, we were testing updating the stats with full servers... I went on two servers to try and let people know (even though they didn't listen) and Wint was trying to tell people through console on the others, but maybe we didn't do to well :lol: It was a one off test, wont be done again. We've found we can't update stats when people are playing, PsychoStats will just update every night at 4am.

oops :oops:

[hyperen]

All Lanarchy Servers are not respoding - Time: 1152

Office just finished and my game wouldn't load Dust2, no progress on the loading bar

I'm getting occasional lag too where game stops for about 3 seconds.

Edit - Dust2 back up but ping is spiking and we are all getting kicked

Edit - Its ok now :)

[McBain]

Yeah, although the dust server happend to be changing maps (I was on their too) so was the custom map server changing maps, and that was what was causing problems :(

I'm trying a fresh install (when it finally finishes downloading) for the custom map server and I'll switch it over later today, to see if that helps the problem.

[hyperen]

I'm getting bad lag every few seconds. (Everything stops moving and the weapon icon things on the right pop up again) It's especially bad when people chuck flashbangs and you can see them go off.

[McBain]

Which server? And, is anyone else getting this?

[helios]

Dust2/Office i'd assume.

[hyperen]

Yeah Dust2/Office. I asked but only one person replied and said no. Did get some grief from some idiots though.

[McBain]

I think its important to remember, if you experience lag, its not necessarily anything to do with the server. I hardly ever feel any lag but often notice people moaing about it. It might be the individuals settings or ISP...

[McBain]

Today I've added back in the rates checker. I'd like to keep this, so I'm hoping it wont have any adverse effect on lag... :?

[Sgt. Stadanko]

Just hazarding a guess that it could be the #csm option maybe???

I was getting it pretty bad today but that may have been IMs running or something. 8-)

[helios]

#csm has only been put on in the last few days, there is no way it is the cause of the lag.

Yesterday was pretty laggy, but remeber, there have been thunderstorms in the area recently, and who knows what switches and routers between us an the server blew, making us go over older, slower or more saturated routes.

[McBain]

Now things seem to have settled down with the servers, I've done a nice fresh install of the Speed server. This may well bring everything back to a screeching halt... but we'll see.

We use another server for clan matches, and it seems to cope, so as long as we drop the speed server when clan matches are on our server, we might be okay :thumbs:

[helios]

been a few people compalining of having pings in the 50s when they used to have pings in the 30s or less, this could be a remnant of the thunderstorms though.

[McBain]

Helios tells me there were complaints of lag this evening. I know this must be due to the Warcraft server, but I also know people want to keep it... so, there are two things I'm trying for tomorrow -

1) The assault server and custom server will come down to 18 man in size.

2) Drop the servers FPS from 300 to 150 (most only use 60).

The lag is caused by CPU usage hitting 100% and the machine basically can't keep up with the servers. The ping boost causes the servers to use twice as much CPU usage as they normally would. Whilst this keeps things nice and smooth, it may also be causing the lag when busy...

It might be I only need to do one and not the other. If doing both fixes it, we'll try putting one back and see how we go.

[McBain]

Hows it been? I've been playing quite a bit the last few days, and haven't noticed any problems, and have only had 1 ping spike reported back. Do things generally seem okay now?

[helios]

they seem better, but people do complain of lag BUT, they tend to be the ones from eastern Europe with higher pings, so i do not believe it is the server.

[pitchblack]

It only laggs when some one has high ping.

[Penguin]

We had a discussion about this in the car. I myself haven't noticed any ping spikes or ANY lag, but people complain. Perhaps it is because they can't face the fact that they got killed OR they have FPS lag/ Using page file/ Using too much CPU.

[pitchblack]

No, lag does happen, but as i said its only ussauly when some one has high ping.