DayZ Server Hosting

[HotJazzCP]

Hey. This is not really a epoch-specific question, more just a DayZ Mod server hosting question in general.

 

I don't currently own a server, but it's something i'm looking into doing for fun in the future. I understand it's better to host a server off of an SSD rather than a HDD.

 

Say I had 32gb Ram, Would it not be even more significantly faster to host a server off a Ram Disk rather than an SSD? - I would assume it would be, but I was just wondering.

[TayTayTheKiller]

Hey. This is not really a epoch-specific question, more just a DayZ Mod server hosting question in general.

 

I don't currently own a server, but it's something i'm looking into doing for fun in the future. I understand it's better to host a server off of an SSD rather than a HDD.

 

Say I had 32gb Ram, Would it not be even more significantly faster to host a server off a Ram Disk rather than an SSD? - I would assume it would be, but I was just wondering.

Yes it would and I do this. I picked 2x2tb hdd's over 2x 120gb ssd's as my server included 32gb of ram.

 

I have a 19gb ramdisk that holds dayzepoch, arma2+arma2oa addons folder (combined), overwatch and dayz. (has about 3.7gb free for extra mod space)

 

I use this for right click symbolic links and a old version of Dataram RAMDisk for the ramdisk on windows.

[Glenn]

Yes it would and I do this. I picked 2x2tb hdd's over 2x 120gb ssd's as my server included 32gb of ram.

 

I have a 19gb ramdisk that holds dayzepoch, arma2+arma2oa addons folder (combined), overwatch and dayz. (has about 3.7gb free for extra mod space)

 

I use this for right click symbolic links and a old version of Dataram RAMDisk for the ramdisk on windows.

 

Ever thought of putting together a guide for setting up an Epoch server in a Ramdisk?

I think that it would be very interesting to see, especially if it means that we could go with weaker entry level dedicated servers, where we could possibly gain a few server FPS that we lost by going with a weaker CPU.

Or is the Ramdisk gain not that big to offset the low CPU?

[TayTayTheKiller]

Ever thought of putting together a guide for setting up an Epoch server in a Ramdisk?

I think that it would be very interesting to see, especially if it means that we could go with weaker entry level dedicated servers, where we could possibly gain a few server FPS that we lost by going with a weaker CPU.

Or is the Ramdisk gain not that big to offset the low CPU?

Yeah I might do. Only problem new versions of dataram RAMDisk personal will not work on windows server. But I did come across this free tool just now http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html/#ImDisk I will have a play around with it see if it's any good and maybe do a guide. As for picking a slower cpu I don't think that would be a good idea but then again I couldn't tell you if using a ramdisk would effect the cpu in any way.

[HotJazzCP]

Yeah, it would be great to see a tutorial and would be helpful to me in the future, along with any other hosts who have a hunger for speed.

 

I honestly am not sure whether a Ramdisk would help for servers with a low Ghz. It would be an interesting test to see, one I could do to an extent.

[Glenn]

When looking at Dedicated, the difference would be a server running 3.2 Ghz vs 3.7Ghz... Prices can sometimes be a factor when deciding, so if there is a potential gain with going 3.2 and customizing Ram for the purpose of running Ramdisk, that would be something for sure.

 

Ultimately, I would love to see someone managing to set up a persistent cloud server running Epoch - but from what I can tell, you would have to run the Linux version if you want to do it now.

A bit of a tangent there, but anyway..  :)

[MGT]

Arma needs core speed over cores, so go for the fastest cpu you can afford, ram isnt much of an issue if you run SSD. There's no performance benefit to running an Arma/DayZ server on a ramdisk, 8gb ram is plenty for 1-2 servers.

[linuxx]

The only part of DayZ that I have found to heavily utilize disk is the SQL server. Epoch is very chatty to SQL, so the closer to the SQL server you can get, the better (local SQL is best). Disk I/O from the SQF files seems to be minimal (from the server perspective). I believe the server might even use memory resident copy's of the SQF files. Something quicker/easier than using a RAMDisk would be to use MySQL's memory tables (free). You would have to write a loader script to load the data into the tables after reboot. Even more importantly you would have to have good backup scripts, and good "export on shutdown" scripts. 

 

P.S. doing this on a cloud server would be no different than a home server

P.P.S. More MHz the better with Arma! Server cycles are important.

[Donnovan]

Nice,

From your experience, use MySQL's memory tables rises the server performance noticeably?