[9-11-17]Quick OVH Update

[Roy 10,832 / 0]

Hello everybody, I’m going to be giving an update on our OVH setup. Things did not go as planned but I believe we’ll be fine. Let’s begin!

 

Our Initial Plan
If you’ve read other update threads/posts I made about OVH, you probably already know the plan. However, I’ll go over it again for those who do not know.

 

Basically, after switching from NFO to OVH in our European location, we found our OVH machine having too little space. Since linking files isn’t supported in the new control panel we use, our CS:GO base installations take 15+ GBs alone. The machine only comes with a 240 GBs SSD (only ~200 GBs available). With that said, we had to use some of that space for another mandatory VM on the machine. Basically, we don’t have enough space and we need a better solution. This machine’s specs are:

• Name - MC-32B
• Processor - Intel i7-4790K @ 4.0 GHz
• Ram - 32 GB DDR3
• Storage - 240 GBs SSD
• Datacenter - SBG (Strasbourg, France)
• Price - $79.00/m

 

OVH recently opened a new datacenter located in Frankfurt, Germany and they had a great deal on one of the machines there. Here are the machine’s specs:

• Name - DISCOVER-DE
• Processor - Intel E3-1245v6 @ 3.7 GHz
• Ram - 32 GB DDR4
• Storage - 2 TBs HDD
• Datacenter - DE (Frankfurt, Germany)
• Price - $54.99/m

 

This machine was less expensive and had more storage space. This is one HELL of a deal in my opinion. These specs are better than the NFO machine we had (other than the hard drive which doesn’t matter much in our case) and our NFO machine costed $164.98/m (yes, this Germany machine is basically ⅓ the price of the NFO machine)…

 

I wanted to replace the MC-32B machine with DISCOVER-DE and move our 79.137.121.128/29 block to the new DISCOVER-DE machine.

 

What Didn’t Go To Plan?
When the OVH Germany datacenter opened, we had to wait to purchase a machine because additional IPs weren’t initially supported (something required for us). This took a little over a month but last week they finally added support. Therefore, I decided to purchase the machine and set it up (took a couple consecutive days to setup).

 

Once things were successfully set up, I was ready to move the 79.137.121.128/29 block to the new Germany machine. However, I noticed the option wasn’t there and after contacting OVH’s support, I found out there wasn’t a way to move IP blocks from datacenter to datacenter (both of those machines listed above are in different datacenters). I would have normally expected this but since I ordered the 79.137.121.128/29 block under the Germany geo-location/pool specifically, I thought there wouldn’t have been any problems (moving a Germany IP block over to a Germany machine, what could go wrong, right?). Furthermore, when contacting OVH asking when additional IPs will be supported in the Germany datacenter, they made it sound like we wouldn’t have any issues moving this IP block over once additional IPs were supported in Germany. However, in the end, this is my fault for not directly asking them about moving the 79.137.121.128/29 block over to the new Germany machine before purchasing it. I do apologize.

 

So yeah.. We can’t move any of our servers from the MC-32B machine over to the DISCOVER-DE machine without changing IPs. I was thinking about just moving the servers over with another IP change but players and admins are already frustrated from the last IP change on the CS:GO servers. With that said, our very popular CoD 4 server is on the MC-32B machine. We also paid $12.00 for the 79.137.121.128/29 block and honestly, I really don’t want to put this IP block to waste.

 

What’s The New Plan?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot for the past few days occupied by frustration. We have TWO highly powerful but also highly underloaded OVH machines in Europe. The one we would like to get rid of has our most popular CoD 4 server on it (something we do not want to change IPs for). I feel like I’ve setup the DISCOVER-DE machine far better than the MC-32B machine when it comes to software and such. With that said, the MC-32B machine does NOT have enough space for our needs.

 

After a while, I decided we’re just going to keep the DISCOVER-DE machine and look for another machine to replace MC-32B (in the same datacenter so we can move the servers to the new machine). The DISCOVER-DE deal is something we cannot avoid in my opinion. After looking at machines in other OVH datacenters, I’ve found that most of the cheapest machines are $70+/m for the Intel E3-1245v5 (the DISCOVER-DE has the E3-1245v6). The DISCOVER-DE deal won’t last and it’s best to purchase the machine now and although we’re going to be paying $54.99/m for a possible underloaded machine, we will benefit from it once we put the machine to use and the deal is erased.

 

What Machine Will We Replace With The MC-32B?
I’ve been thinking about this as well and I believe it’d be best to purchase the newest OVH GAME machine for an extra $10.99/m. The machine would be an upgrade to the storage (240 GBs to 480 GBs), ram (32 GB DDR3 to 32 GB DDR4), and processor (Intel i7-4790K to Intel  i7-6700K). The new machine’s full specs are:

• Name - MC-32
• Processor - Intel  i7-6700K @ 4.0 GHz
• Ram - 32 GB DDR4
• Storage - 480 GBs SSD
• Datacenter - SBG (Strasbourg, France)
• Price - $89.99/m

I believe it is worth spending an extra $10.99/m for these specs. Otherwise, we can just get one of the ~$70.00/m machines that comes with the Intel E3-1245v5. I may end up initially purchasing the Intel E3-1245v5 machine and once we start using the machine more, upgrade to one of the GAME machines.

 

Does This Mean Another European Expansion?
I’ve been planning on expanding into the European division again for some time now and I think this is the start of it. We started our very successful European expansion back in September of 2013. We should do the same this September/October and now that we have two VERY powerful machines fully setup, this gives us motivation to do so. I will discuss this in detail in another update post.

 

Overall
Although things did not go to plan, I believe everything will work out in the end. We can easily support both of these machines financially and believe it or not, these two machines combined are still less expensive than the NFO machine we had (even with the upgraded MC-32) and more powerful. 

• NFO Price - $164.98/m
• OVH Price - $144.98/m ($54.99 + $89.99)

 

I will be looking for things to add to our DISCOVER-DE machine to put it to use until we setup game servers on it. A few years back we hosted GameBanana mirrors that advertised GFL. I feel like doing something similar again would be nice!

 

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reply to this thread or PM me!

 

Google Doc

 

Thanks for reading!

[Finnick 2,355 / 32,193]

css dr or mg

pls @Roy

[Joshy 4,310 / 43,098]

There's a quote you've seen me use over and over again on a positive note about GFL, and here's an example:
 

 

"Take away my people, but leave my factories, and soon grass will grow on the factory... but leave my people, and soon we will have a new and better factory." - Andrew Carnegie

 

I've been noticing a heavy investment on your technical side, and I perceive these threads to be analogous to factories.  I think it's great you're keeping us up to date on your goals, decisions, and the machines supporting the servers although I wonder how well people understand these type of threads.  I feel like you have been straying a lot the social and cultural aspects of the community.  Be careful not to stray too far from your people.