Lots of crashes lately

[tonerrrr]

Por que?

[tonerrrr]

I'm down to start a pot for some new h/w if that's the problem.

[ValenAlvern]

I'm down to start a pot for some new h/w if that's the problem.

 

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhh

[Sky]

Myself and MissingNo spent quite some time tweaking the network variables to attempt to balance the server when holding 20 players.

With the following settings, we were able to keep the server stable for at least 10 days.

However, I would recommend a daily reboot.

 

Try playing with the network settings below. It may help.

 

 

 

// ==============================================

// GENERAL

// ==============================================

 

// Host name

hostname "skyservers rpg3.3"

rcon_password "tX!09!^!\\`thu&(7"

 

// Cheats

sv_cheats 0

 

// Max players

//sm_cvar sv_visiblemaxplayers "20" // 1 Hidden slot for reserve slot plugin

//sv_visiblemaxplayers "20"

 

//Bandwidth/Rate Settings

//sm_cvar sv_minrate 10000

//sm_cvar sv_maxrate 30000

//sm_cvar sv_minupdaterate 33

//sm_cvar sv_maxupdaterate 66

//sm_cvar sv_mincmdrate 33

//sm_cvar sv_maxcmdrate 66

//sm_cvar sv_client_predict 1

//sm_cvar sv_client_min_interp_ratio 0

//sv_max_queries_sec 3

//sv_max_queries_sec_global 150

//net_splitpacket_maxrate 15000

//sv_stats 0

sm_cvar sk_autoaim_mode "0"

sm_cvar mp_teamoverride "1"

sm_cvar tongue_allow_voluntary_release "1"

sm_cvar z_ghost_spawn_distance "1.0"

sm_cvar z_director_special_spawn_delay "1" // default "10" (Time before put in respawn queue)

 

//Logging settings

 

log 1

sv_logbans 1

sv_logecho 1

 

// Execute ban files

exec banned_user.cfg

exec banned_ip.cfg

writeid

writeip

 

// Limit game mode to versus

sm_cvar mp_gamemode "versus"

sv_gametypes "versus"

 

motd_enabled 1 // Enable motd

 

sv_tags "rpg"

sm_cvar mp_autoteambalance 0

sv_steamgroup_exclusive 0

sv_allow_lobby_connect_only 0

sv_alltalk 0

sv_contact ""

sv_search_key ""

 

// ==============================================

// EXTENSIONS

// ==============================================

 

 

// L4DToolz

//sv_maxplayers 28

sv_removehumanlimit 1 // Remove human limit kick

sv_unlock_sb_add 1

sv_force_unreserved 1 // Force the lobby to be unreserved

 

// Left 4 Downtown 2

l4d_maxplayers -1 // Don't patch slots as L4DToolz are already doing this

 

 

// ==============================================

// PLUGINS

// ==============================================

 

sm_cvar stk_realism_enabled "0"

 

sm exts load clientprefs

sm_cvar z_frustration "0"

 

manager_total_slots "22"

 

// ==============================================

// GAME ALTERING CVARS

// ==============================================

 

 

sm_cvar sb_all_bot_game 1 // Allow full bot games

sm_cvar allow_all_bot_survivor_team 1 // Allow survivor bot team to progress through the map

 

sm_cvar z_leap_interval_post_incap 2 // Decreases jockey ability recharge time after incap

 

sm_cvar director_always_allow_wanderers "1"

//sm_cvar z_difficulty "normal"

 

sm_cvar versus_tank_chance 0.0

sm_cvar versus_tank_chance_finale 0.0

sm_cvar versus_tank_chance_intro 0.0

sm_cvar versus_tank_flow_team_variation 0.0

sm_cvar versus_witch_chance 0.0000

sm_cvar versus_witch_chance_finale 0.0

sm_cvar versus_witch_chance_intro 0.0

sm_cvar versus_witch_flow_team_variation 0.0

sm_cvar tank_stuck_time_suicide 9999999999

sm_cvar versus_boss_flow_max_intro 0.0

sm_cvar versus_boss_flow_max 0.0

sm_cvar vs_max_team_switches 9999

sm_cvar director_vs_convert_pills 1

sm_cvar director_tank_lottery_selection_time "2"

sm_cvar z_ghost_delay_max 20

sm_cvar z_ghost_delay_min 15

sm_cvar z_mega_mob_size "120"

sm_cvar z_mega_mob_spawn_max_interval 300

sm_cvar z_mega_mob_spawn_min_interval "1"

sm_cvar z_mob_spawn_finale_size "90"

sm_cvar z_spawn_mob_max_size "90"

sm_cvar z_spawn_mob_max_interval "90"

sv_password ""

sv_max_queries_sec 100

sv_max_queries_sec_global 1000

net_splitpacket_maxrate 150000

sv_stats 0

sv_client_cmdrate_difference 100

sv_client_predict 1

sv_client_interpolate 1

sv_client_min_interp_ratio 1

sv_client_max_interp_ratio 2

sv_minrate 100000

sv_maxrate 500000

sv_minupdaterate 0

sv_maxupdaterate 101

sv_mincmdrate 0

sv_maxcmdrate 101

cl_updaterate 0

cl_cmdrate 101

cl_interp 0.100000

fps_max 1000

net_queued_packet_thread 1

rate 500000

sv_logsdir logs_server1

sv_consistency 0

sv_pure 0

[tonerrrr]

I'm down to start a pot for some new h/w if that's the problem.

 

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhh

 

lolwut

[crasx]

sky-

what is the best way to log errors? The crash dumps don't tell us much information... could we somehow log the console output by adding 2>error.log to it?

[LadyYuri]

oh my toner your pic is awesome LAWL

[Sky]

sky-

what is the best way to log errors? The crash dumps don't tell us much information... could we somehow log the console output by adding 2>error.log to it?

 

Errors should be logged automatically in the ../sourcemod/logs/ folder; Respectively, though, are you referring to more detail than those logs provide? You can also view

which plugins are leaking handles (which could be causing hiccups in the server, but most likely wouldn't be the all-out crashing)

[rhorizon]

Just crashed twice within 10 minutes

[paroxysm]

the stability is a joke right now lol

[Sky]

From a professional standpoint - of both a software developer and a networking expert, I'd gamble it is the following 3 issues, and

adding them together doesn't help the situation.

 

1.) We know the game is unstable after 8 players, but...

...since I've ran a server for 10vs10 with 2 reserve slots pushing to 22 players, and allowing spectators to increase the limit

(to always allow 10 on both sides, plus the 2 reserves, regardless of spectator count...) and managed uptimes over ten

days with full activity.

It did crash shortly after that time period, but it repeatedly maintained long uptimes.

However, the fact that it did eventually crash shows that the underlying stability issue still exists. Either way, it's

recommended to reboot the server often. A lot of communities reboot their servers daily at the lowest population hours.

 

2.) Network related issues

You can play with network related variables in the server config, as well as the networking protocols on-site. Fine tune them

until you find a stable set. The settings in my server.cfg above were roughed out by our networking staff member over the

course of several weeks of stress testing the server.

 

3.) Plugins

Alliedmods is a great place for public plugins, but a lot of them are poorly written. While they shouldn't crash the server, unless

a loop gets stuck somewhere, or some other extremely awful coding technique, they can stress the resources on the server, and

shorten the uptime.

 

 

I don't run a community anymore - my goal is to help the people who do have communities, so their community members don't

bang their heads into their desks when a server goes down erratically.

[samurai nightling]

And I must say, you have been doing a stellar job of giving info and help as of late Sky.

[Sky]

Ah, I stopped running a community months a go, and moved to swtor and diablo 3. Gave me a chance to try to help the other server

communities that were having issues with stability, or plugins, etc. I actually posted a lot of plugins on alliedmods.net and even custom

wrote one for another community. Plugins that some people would charge a lot of money for.

The result is, of course, more playability for, well, players out there. And less headaches for everyone!

[Biggs]

Write a plug-in to show the names of anyone actively broadcasting with their mic. Do this, and your name will be remembered in this kingdom for millennia.

 

But seriously, if you aim to reduce headaches... this would pretty much make my life headache-free (at least when playing l4d2).

[Sky]

Unfortunately, you can't write a plugin to do that, or someone would have, already.

The problem with this is that Valve decided to trigger microphone activation local only. The server never sees it.

As such, we can't track it.

The events you may have seen pertaining to it are actually pertaining to when one of the survivor characters says

one of their lines in the game.

[Davejb]

Today was a not so fun day, the server had just restarted from a crash when I joined, crashed 2 more times during my course of play, and just as I'm about to aquire the comfort of the safe room I get booted to make room for a member. Fun times.

[Flitterkill]

Won't be hardware; we pushed this server to it's own VDS a while back. 10v10 lives all by itself except for a few rarely used servers (retro and Minecraft live on the other VDS we have).

 

Uses about 25%-30% of the cpu power we have attached. Not much memory.

 

L4D2 multi-player is just rough. If you listen hard enough, you can still hear the echoing sounds of the desks and chairs belonging to the Valve developers rolling away from the L4D2 development area...

 

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-25/what-makes-valve-software-the-shangri-la-of-offices

[Sky]

Yeah. Realize, though, that there's a "hardcap" player limit of 18. You can push over that count, but you run a risk of it hitting a segment of code where it IOB's when over 18, causing a crash instantly.

The chance of this code being activated can be mitigated by playing with the settings linked above, but there's always a chance it'll hit, and if there are over 18 when it does, it'll crash. That'll be the

crash you see that doesn't produce any information. I'm extremely confident that you can avoid that code from being read by playing with variables.

Granted, keep it in mind, though, I also write a lot of my code in C++, so I'm running custom metamod plugins as well, including my own version of a player unlocker so I don't have to use that piece of

crap l4dtoolz. The 18 array hardcap is the reason l4downtown2 only caps at 18 players, since it's more of a hack to allow over 18.

[Garychios]

Think of crashes as team balance for those who want to stay, and noob cleaners for those who have no idea. I love crashes lately

[Soap]

do you know what the next step we can take to stop these from happening Sky?

[Sky]

There are two ways to lower chances of crashing.

Play with the networking variables and find a point where it's highly stable (like we did) but it will still crash - just a lot less often, and probably not once per day, but, again, you still want to reboot, probably, every morning.

Or, drop the players to 18 maximum, so the code never IOB's, and then crashing should stop altogether. If it doesn't, it could possibly be something in a poorly written plugin.

With that being said, I've wondered when you'll set up another server, since there seems to be a lot of players always trying to connect. Go go server 2!