Snowy 837 / 11,431 Report Post Posted December 28, 2020 Edited December 28, 2020 by Snowy Hey! As many of you have noticed, we have a new Zombie Escape Linux server up and running. The ultimate plan for this server is to replace the current server running under NFO as it will be a huge upgrade from the XEON E3-1275v6 we currently have. (New machine specs below) A big difference of this server vs our current one is that it will be running under GFL's Anycast network, you can read about this at TLDR: This gives GFL the power to point IP addresses to any machine (no future IP address changes), DDOS protection is controlled by us, and players will route to the closest POP (forwarding server) to them, they will then see their ping to this POP when viewing us in the server browser. Also keep in mind that his server will be running on Linux instead of Windows, Linux is better for hosting servers due to many factors which I won't get in to. However, this change means that there is a significant amount of Windows plugins/extensions running on the server that we need to port to Linux. Points to note: - Migrating the server will take months, so don't expect it to be opened soon - Yes, on the server browser, the Linux server will have a significantly lower ping than when you join due to the Anycast network - The server is currently online but requires a password to join - Once we change to a new IP, the old IP from NFO will be used to redirect everyone to the new IP If you have any concerns/questions, please ask in the thread and we'll do our best to answer them! Edited December 28, 2020 by Snowy Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Block 281 / 5,724 Report Post Posted December 28, 2020 RIP my 5 Ping Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vortiger 4 / 688 Report Post Posted December 28, 2020 YOOO this kinda pog champ lets fucking go Based^ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flowsieden 2 / 2,136 Report Post Posted December 28, 2020 my body is ready Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDankArab 2 / 1,812 Report Post Posted December 28, 2020 thanks for the low ping @Block Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rod 55 / 6,666 Report Post Posted December 28, 2020 Yay less ping igueSs Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GXP-10 43 / 2,691 Report Post Posted December 28, 2020 weeb skin plox any luff maps -> ff maps -> random tryhard maps -> tryhard laser maps that isn't ff or irrelevant ff maps -> random tryhard map -> mars_escape -> atix_panic -> any surf maps -> crazy_escape -> atix apocalypse -> minas tirith -> random casual maps -> shroomforest 123 -> platformer -> repeat Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurora is smelly 192 / 5,018 Report Post Posted December 28, 2020 7 hours ago, Block said: RIP my 5 Ping rip my 20 ping Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GXP-10 43 / 2,691 Report Post Posted December 28, 2020 1 hour ago, CSS ZE Secretary said: rip my 20 ping rip my 200 ping any luff maps -> ff maps -> random tryhard maps -> tryhard laser maps that isn't ff or irrelevant ff maps -> random tryhard map -> mars_escape -> atix_panic -> any surf maps -> crazy_escape -> atix apocalypse -> minas tirith -> random casual maps -> shroomforest 123 -> platformer -> repeat Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drifter 3 / 407 Report Post Posted December 28, 2020 So this will be a definite advantage for Australian players is what i am getting? Not a massive difference in ping but slightly better than 260? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy 10,832 / 0 Report Post Posted December 28, 2020 9 hours ago, Drifter said: So this will be a definite advantage for Australian players is what i am getting? Not a massive difference in ping but slightly better than 260? I don't believe the latency would change much from Australia on the new server. The latency from our GS15 machine to our Sydney POP is ~270 ms. What will be different is the latency (or ping) displayed inside the server browser. You'll receive the latency from you to the POP you're routing to instead of to the physical machine itself. This is due to A2S_INFO caching we have enabled on our POP servers (the servers that forward the game server traffic to the game server machines themselves). You can read what it A2S_INFO caching is and why we have it enabled here. In Regards To The Move Itself The processor upgrade will be major considering the new machine is running with the Intel i9-10900K, though. Therefore, I do believe there will be a big performance increase with this move for the server itself. In regards to the move itself, I haven't been involved much with it, but I was going to suggest a move eventually anyways due to NFO's limitations (e.g. being limited by Internap and not being able to purchase consumer hardware that would be faster than server hardware). Though, personally, I would really like for the main server move to wait until Bifrost is completed/stable. I've brought up the idea of having a second CS:GO ZE server on the network a while back, but I think that came with complications for the community itself, etc. I do think this would be a good move still though considering I'm sure the second server would easily receive population and we'd have the main server to fallback on if any issues occurred until we're fully ready to move the main server. That said, it would be a good time to test CS:GO ZE on the network itself. However, obviously it's up to everyone else. That's just my opinion on it. One big thing about this move is it gives us pretty much control over everything. We own the network itself and rent our the IPv4 blocks (but have full control over them), but with that, we also are responsible for a lot more such as packet processing/forwarding, routing, (D)DoS protection, and more. While this area is something I'm super passionate about, it also takes a lot of work and the network isn't fully built out yet. These are the kind of things hosting providers do who don't resell services from other hosting providers like many, etc. The network's infrastructure is pretty much being maintained by myself along with help from @Aurora with updating Compressor configs when adding/changing forwarding rules. I won't lie, with everything going on in my life right now, it has been taking a big toll on me as of recent and any help we can get on maintaining the network is beneficial. The problem is, this network is very complex and it's very hard for others to understand it on a low-level, which is understandable. Therefore, we haven't found anybody yet willing to take on the amount of work I am in regards to the network's infrastructure itself. Thankfully we have @Aurora helping out a ton with the game server machine's infrastructure though! It's also hard for me to train people in-depth on the network because that takes a lot of time with the amount of complexity this network comes with. There's also some weird bugs with DockerGen/Linux/IPIP tunnels which all servers suffer from on the network and CS:GO ZE on the new server is as well. This isn't necessarily related to the Anycast network itself. Seems like at times when starting up the server, the IPIP tunnel doesn't attach inside the Docker container/network namespace. We have to repeatedly start/stop the server until it works unless if we run into this annoying bug lol, but this is still quite annoying. This is something I'm still trying to figure out and everything looks configured correctly. We released the DockerGen files we used here for those interested. Bifrost is the packet processing/filtering software @Dreae and I are working on and the latest update on this can be found here. I'm currently working on this new project that'll be used as a source for Bifrost (replicating IPTables/NFTable's source port mapping in XDP/BPF). You can also read on our plans for Bifrost here. Though, some things have changed such as me wanting to write everything using XDP/BPF instead of having a combination of XDP, TC, netfilter, and IPTables/NFTables. Once Bifrost is made, I believe a lot of our issues will be resolved. We won't be relying on IPIP traffic mainly and it'll be much more user-friendly. With that said, I plan to implement a packet capture engine into XDP that'll be used for Bifrost so we'll be able to inspect packets on the POPs easier (as of right now, since game server traffic is forwarded within the XDP hook, the packets don't make it to the engine tcpdump uses for example). I understand this is a pretty low-level overview of the network right now. A TL;DR version is: This move will definitely increase the server performance heavily itself and is good long-term. I'd really prefer if we waited until Bifrost is completed before moving the main server. I do still think a second CS:GO ZE server would be cool on the network though and it'd allow us to see how a CS:GO ZE server will perform on the network while having the main server to fallback on. This move gives us basically full control over a majority of things. While this is nice to have, it also comes with a lot of responsibility and a lot of that responsibility is relying on me right now. The network maintenance and development takes a toll on me personally. Therefore, I am trying to find others who can help with the infrastructure itself since that relies on me mostly right now. Had to write this fairly quickly. I apologize for any mistakes, but I hope this clears up some things and provides a more in-depth overview of the network and whatnot. If you have any questions regarding the hardware and network, please feel free to reply 🙂 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
reindeer5 0 / 108 Report Post Posted December 29, 2020 Are the plugins/extensions open source? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vauff 964 / 16,856 Report Post Posted December 29, 2020 42 minutes ago, reindeer5 said: Are the plugins/extensions open source? The extensions are private. Some of the plugins are open source, but with plugins we only have to worry about porting gamedata (since SourcePawn is already OS-agnostic) and not really in need of extra hands to help out with. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drifter 3 / 407 Report Post Posted January 3, 2021 On 12/29/2020 at 5:37 AM, Roy said: I don't believe the latency would change much from Australia on the new server. The latency from our GS15 machine to our Sydney POP is ~270 ms. What will be different is the latency (or ping) displayed inside the server browser. You'll receive the latency from you to the POP you're routing to instead of to the physical machine itself. This is due to A2S_INFO caching we have enabled on our POP servers (the servers that forward the game server traffic to the game server machines themselves). You can read what it A2S_INFO caching is and why we have it enabled here. One big thing about this move is it gives us pretty much control over everything. We own the network itself and rent our the IPv4 blocks (but have full control over them), but with that, we also are responsible for a lot more such as packet processing/forwarding, routing, (D)DoS protection, and more. While this area is something I'm super passionate about, it also takes a lot of work and the network isn't fully built out yet. These are the kind of things hosting providers do who don't resell services from other hosting providers like many, etc. The network's infrastructure is pretty much being maintained by myself along with help from @Aurora with updating Compressor configs when adding/changing forwarding rules. I won't lie, with everything going on in my life right now, it has been taking a big toll on me as of recent and any help we can get on maintaining the network is beneficial. The problem is, this network is very complex and it's very hard for others to understand it on a low-level, which is understandable. Therefore, we haven't found anybody yet willing to take on the amount of work I am in regards to the network's infrastructure itself. Thankfully we have @Aurora helping out a ton with the game server machine's infrastructure though! It's also hard for me to train people in-depth on the network because that takes a lot of time with the amount of complexity this network comes with. I understand this is a pretty low-level overview of the network right now. A TL;DR version is: This move will definitely increase the server performance heavily itself and is good long-term. I'd really prefer if we waited until Bifrost is completed before moving the main server. I do still think a second CS:GO ZE server would be cool on the network though and it'd allow us to see how a CS:GO ZE server will perform on the network while having the main server to fallback on. This move gives us basically full control over a majority of things. While this is nice to have, it also comes with a lot of responsibility and a lot of that responsibility is relying on me right now. The network maintenance and development takes a toll on me personally. Therefore, I am trying to find others who can help with the infrastructure itself since that relies on me mostly right now. Had to write this fairly quickly. I apologize for any mistakes, but I hope this clears up some things and provides a more in-depth overview of the network and whatnot. If you have any questions regarding the hardware and network, please feel free to reply 🙂 Ahhhh awesome, thank you very much for your really detailed answer. I appreciate the care to detail and explanation you have for my question, thank you ❤️ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy 10,832 / 0 Report Post Posted January 4, 2021 7 hours ago, Drifter said: Ahhhh awesome, thank you very much for your really detailed answer. I appreciate the care to detail and explanation you have for my question, thank you ❤️ You're welcome 🙂 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OxideTM 11 / 2,233 Report Post Posted January 6, 2021 A threadripper 3950x or 3990x would be much faster than a 10900k but that will surely boost up the cost to run, right? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy 10,832 / 0 Report Post Posted January 6, 2021 2 hours ago, OxideTM said: A threadripper 3950x or 3990x would be much faster than a 10900k but that will surely boost up the cost to run, right? GSK has none of these AMDs in stock at the moment, unfortunately. These CPUs would definitely be faster in regards to single-threaded performance according to the benchmarks I've seen. I believe the Threadripper machine would be too expensive, but the AMD 9 3950x is something I wouldn't mind going with if we decide to replace two existing 8-core machines (since the 3950x is 16 cores and 32 threads). I've heard from @Bara there are new Intel CPUs coming out that may offer even better single-threaded performance than the AMD CPUs. I haven't looked much into this yet, though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...