Posts Tagged ‘server performance’

SOE Introduces ‘Live’ Server Status Page

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Uncategorized

From EverQuest2.com:

We’ve got some really great news! We now have an official SOE Server Status Page! The page includes server status information for the following games:

  • EverQuest II Extended
  • EverQuest II
  • EverQuest
  • Star Wars: Galaxies
  • DC Universe Online

Check it out here: http://www.soe.com/status.

The information on this page will include up-to-date region, server name, status, and server load information.

UPDATE: The Server Status page has been redone to add other games (Vanguard, EQ Mac, EQOA, FreeRealms, and PlanetSide). They’ve also added a time readout for the last time each server’s status was updated. This seems to have changed the structure of the JSON output.

   

Permafrost, Oasis Upgraded to New Hardware

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

A surprising post from SmokeJumper yesterday caught our attention regarding New Hardware:

The server hardware is coming in in chunks as we ship it to the various data centers around the world.

But the good news is…Permafrost and Oasis are now upgraded, as of this morning.

More are coming soon!

We’ve already received indication that the rest of the hardware is already on order. Russian servers will not be upgraded as the hardware is relatively new (2007) while the current EQ2 servers were on 2004 hardware. Note these are the game servers and zone servers. The database servers were already upgraded late last summer to new 64-bit hardware.

New EQ2 Server Hardware Announced, Timetable Unknown

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums:

I don’t have the ETA yet, but we are making the purchases and we’ll get the hardware replaced on the servers that have not yet been upgraded (Guk, Everfrost, Unrest, Butcherblock, Permafrost, Oasis, and Splitpaw).

It’ll take some time to get these changes implemented (takes a while to order them, get them delivered, and then installed at the various data centers), but we’ll update you with details when we know more.

They’re coming!

Server Merges, Lucan D’Lere and Performance

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

I’ve finally managed to escape Charles de Gaulle airport which completely ground to a halt due to 3 inches (7cm) of snow. Meanwhile, our SAS pilot made a perfect landing in near whiteout conditions with heavy snowfall on a runway and at an airport positively blanketed with snow. Ah… Copenhagen… 😉

Anyway, ’bout those server merges…

Servers Back Up after Extended Maintenance, US-UK Battlegrounds Bridge

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds

At 11pm PDT on June 9th, 2010 (7am GMT on June 10th, 2010), several EQ2 servers were brought down for maintenance:

Befallen, Permafrost, Crushbone, Mistmoore, Oasis, Runnyeye, Splitpaw, Innovation, Valor, Storms, Battlegrounds UK, Battlegrounds DE, and Battlegrounds FR

The original announcement indicated that maintenance would take 7 hours. All servers were up after ~13 hours, with a total downtime of ~15 hours for Runnyeye, Innovation, and some of the Battlegrounds servers.

So what was this maintenance all about? And did it include the US-UK Battlegrounds bridging we’ve been hearing about?

Midnight Performance Update

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

Players were surprised when servers went down at midnight PST last night for a Hotfix. This hotfix is targeted at Performance issues which continue to dog EQ2. From the EQ2 Forums by Rothgar:

Tonight’s hotfix introduced a few changes that have been on the test server for a few weeks. I’d like to hear your feedback to see if any of these performance issues have gotten better after tonight.

First, we made a change to the zoning processes that should hopefully speed it up. In addition we’ve extended our logging in this area to help us better troubleshoot long zoning times. If you’re someone who occasionally hits long zoning times, let us know if you see an improvement after tonight.

Second, we’ve made some changes to the game servers related to the spell system. This should hopefully improve server lag but the amount can be difficult to quantify. Let us know how your lag situation looks after tonight.

These are only the first changes to come. We will continue to look at performance improvements over the next few updates.

Thanks!

As for why the downtime happened at midnight instead of at the usual 6 or 7am time, the cause is related to the Free Armbands promotion which we’ll be posting about momentarily. Rothgar again with the great communication:

Sorry for the miscommunication about the downtime. There was a last minute change to avoid two downtimes in a single day.

Due to a marketing promotion that begins tonight at midnight, the servers needed to be rebooted. Rather than taking them down again at 7am for the hotfix, it was decided that we’d update the servers with the hotfix during the midnight downtime.

So in essence, you’ve been saved a downtime.

Performance Issues: Top Priority

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

From Rothgar on the EQ2 forums:

We’ve located the issue that was causing the slow performance last Tuesday. This problem had ZERO to do with battlegrounds but they were taken down as a precaution anyway. I know that battlegrounds tends to get the bad rap because it’s new, but they are not always the cause of problems. In fact, we’ve got the character loading issues under control now so that there are no performance spikes as a result of characters going to and from the BG world.

We’ve been making some general performance improvements that will help lower the game server lag (exhibited as spell lag) which will be going into testing soon. When we are confident that these changes are working correctly, we will get them out to live servers.

We have several engineers working on performance issues and this is currently our top priority.

New Senior Producer on Server Performance and Handle Choice

Written by Dethdlr on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

After the widespread outages of the EQ2 servers the night prior, a thread was created on the EQ2 Forums to solicit an explanation from the EQ2 Developers, and/or new EQ2 Senior Producer Dave Georgeson, on the cause, and to seek reassurances that the issues are being identified and on track to be resolved.

As they tend to do, the thread branched into speculation on the origins of Dave Georgeson’s forum handle — SmokeJumper. Skywarrior posted his theory:

Hmmmm.  Smokejumpers are extremely brave (or crazy) and well-trained individuals who jump out of airplanes in order to reach remote areas involved in forest or brush fires, with the express purpose of helping extinguish the flames.  It seems to me that Dave’s handle is quite appropriate to the situation he finds himself in.

Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson, the new EQ2 Senior Producer responded with:

Ding, ding, ding. You have it in one, sir.

And yes, I still answer to “Qix” or “Qixter” also. (I’ll bore you with the story of where those names came from some other time.)

Regarding the performance issues: Yes, we’re completely aware of it, and yes, it’s our highest (and only) focus for the programming team currently.

It’s a two-pronged issue that affects multiple aspects of our architecture, and neither of the issues is a “quick fix”.

In other words, we have to gather more information and study that data to find out exactly where the problems are before we can create solutions.

That’s in progress now and we’ll get solutions made ASAP. But currently, I don’t know an exact date when “ASAP” will be completed…mostly because we don’t have the solutions figured out yet.

But as I said in the other thread…we *will* kill them.

Tackling Server Performance Issues

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

Rothgar has been working closely with the Database folks trying to solve the Server Performance Issues, specifically Server-side Lag, and extremely long Zoning times which have become a major problem facing EQ2 since Game Update 55, the Sentinel’s Fate expansion, and the introduction of Battlegrounds. These Database and Server Lag issues have been so disruptive, that they have largely drowned out discussion on other issues facing EQ2.

Fortunately, Rothgar brings us an update on the situation regarding some long-needed caching being added to how character data is transmitted and stored:

Right now we are addressing the database-related issues and then we will be moving on to the game server performance issues that you’re speaking of.

We have several very positive changes in the works to improving database performance. Today’s hotfix contained a small change that should help and we have several other changes going onto the Test Server. One of the changes I’m most excited about is something that Zoltaroth just finished working on. Character data will no longer need to be loaded from the database when you move between zones. This should cut out a lot of traffic from the database and even make zoning a little faster. If we ever experience a problem with the database like we’ve had in the past, this new caching scheme should keep the database issues from affecting your zoning times.

If this round of changes makes the impact we are hoping for, we will move on to other types of performance issues.


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