Hardware Requirements for Server

[Fairuza]

I read over the wiki guide, but I didn't see anything regarding hardware requirements for hosting a server. Does anyone know what the recommended minimum would be?

[inu]

Depends on how many people you're gonna have playing on it.
I'm guessing with less than 50 even an Intel Atom with 1GB of RAM would do just fine.

[bluekirby0]

Yes, I had it running fine for personal use on a 400 mHz Celeron (P3 generation) with 256 MB of RAM, but the hardware requirements scale by the number of players and change as we add more features. It will not do you much good to have more than 2 cores though if this is all that is running on it, as the entire system is state-based rather than threaded, and only the game server has any load at all. In general terms, it is easy on hardware but brutal on bandwidth.

[korn16ftl3]

[quote="bluekirby0"It will not do you much good to have more than 2 cores though if this is all that is running on it, as the entire system is state-based rather than threaded,[/quote]

im going to have to google state base vs threaded...im interested in running a server of some sort completely dedicated with an objective of mimicking the retail servers as close as currently possible

only the game server has any load at all.

ok so some elaboration here would be great....is there multiple servers with in the server as a whole or something? i briefly skimmed the setup guide and am running set up ideas for server computers threw my head im considering the computer cluster set up as i have a couple dual core laptops that need minimal repairs and i have no real use for them aside from running a server.

it is easy on hardware but brutal on bandwidth.

is there some sort of bandwidth to player ratio? what speed is recommended per X amount of players?

[bluekirby0]

There are 3 separate server applications, each serving a different basic purpose.

The login server handles account and character creation, as well as selecting your character and logging into the world.
The game server handles just about everything in the game itself...movement, combat, scripted actions...you name it.
The search server handles search queries in the game as well as auction house transactions.

There is slightly more load now that navigation has been added. I haven't tried a recent version on old hardware yet to see what the overall effect is, but there will be more affect on RAM usage than CPU i imagine.

[korn16ftl3]

There are 3 separate server applications, each serving a different basic purpose.

The login server handles account and character creation, as well as selecting your character and logging into the world.
The game server handles just about everything in the game itself...movement, combat, scripted actions...you name it.
The search server handles search queries in the game as well as auction house transactions.

There is slightly more load now that navigation has been added. I haven't tried a recent version on old hardware yet to see what the overall effect is, but there will be more affect on RAM usage than CPU i imagine.

ok sooo:

It will not do you much good to have more than 2 cores though if this is all that is running on it, as the entire system is state-based rather than threaded,

im assuming the only upside to running an X64 bit OS and dual core system would be the ability to surpass the X86 bit 4GB ram limit then as i do believe that this game was developed for an X86 bit system....or is open source server code set to run on an X64 bit os also?

I almost dont think it is very relevant but how about GPU? even tho it is targeted toward graphics processing it in its self should relieve stress from the RAM and system over all should it not?

I have only tinkered with a few of the dev tools on steam for CSS servers and what not so im not really sure what an FFXI server would entail.....being an MMO and as previously stated i would imagine bandwidth would be a major asset in a properly functioning server as well as hardware up to par if not at least 4X more powerful than the min system specs of the retail game.

[bluekirby0]

Running a server on a 64-bit OS is currently not possible, but I have put in work towards making that possible on occasion and its getting rather close now.

In order to make use of the GPU at all, a lot of the basic code of the server would have to be changed. If you are running a dedicated server you can avoid the load that a hefty OS puts on a system by running it on a linux system without running a graphical desktop environment. In that scenario the GPU would be completely irrelevant.

A server at its core is in every possible way different from a client. It does many things the client does not, but by the same token it doesn't need to do anything the client itself does. It is a communications hub that performs mathematical operations and stores/retrieves information on-demand. You cannot estimate the hardware requirements of the server by the client in any way.

[korn16ftl3]

Running a server on a 64-bit OS is currently not possible, but I have put in work towards making that possible on occasion and its getting rather close now.

In order to make use of the GPU at all, a lot of the basic code of the server would have to be changed. If you are running a dedicated server you can avoid the load that a hefty OS puts on a system by running it on a linux system without running a graphical desktop environment. In that scenario the GPU would be completely irrelevant.

A server at its core is in every possible way different from a client. It does many things the client does not, but by the same token it doesn't need to do anything the client itself does. It is a communications hub that performs mathematical operations and stores/retrieves information on-demand. You cannot estimate the hardware requirements of the server by the client in any way.

ok got ya thank you for the better understanding

[gedads]

Running a server on a 64-bit OS is currently not possible, but I have put in work towards making that possible on occasion and its getting rather close now.

i'm running my server on windows 8 x64, but i play solo on it. Does that mean i can't invite someone to go on my server on a 64 bit os or just that the server isn't supposed to run on it at all?

[whasf]

If you compile it for x32 on a x64 Windows system (which is the default) then you're fine. BK0 was talking about compiling on a x64 *nix system.