Request for info: hosting , server specs , Admin mods

[the_fodder]

-A place to share your remote hosting experiences / plans or home server specs-

After convincing my friends to update to BTW, all I am getting is complaints that "mah Bukkit" never needed to be restarted so frequently or brought his server/media box to its knees and is threatening to go back to the good old days. Would any of you be kind enough to share what you are run/ who hosts your server and any admin plug ins that might help my endeavor to keep BTW on our server?

Forgot to ask about user numbers vs memory, our group is under 20 strong but I would be surprised if more that 5-8 were on at once.

[SterlingRed]

There are currently no admin plugins compatible with BTW that I have been able to find so far. As far as server hardware and configuration info goes, take a look at the op of the server threads here. Many of them contain that information.

[Ethinolicbob]

Edit: Moved post to here

[the_fodder]

take a look at the op of the server threads here. Many of them contain that information.

:edit: it looks like I am bad at reading OP posts :edit:
Most of them only list IP address or White/Black lists. While I was compiling a list to prove you wrong I notices some things that didn't jump out the first time through. I can't believe I missed Edolas specs and Just another world was added after my post.

Welcome to Edolas (Server information)
-This is currently a 10 slot server that has 2.5Gb of dedicated memory running on a 1Gb uplink and is hosted by multiplay.co.uk

[4.15] Jade Dragon Realm (Anarchy) - Used Google to guess Minecraft III plan from http://chromobyte.com/.
-server will restart every 12 hours. It will only be down 30 secs.
-only 30 people can be logged on at the same time.
-IP: .cbyte.co

[4.16]Just Another World[no whitelist currently]
- Beastnode Zombie plan , 24/7

[SterlingRed]

Uh huh... and right below those is mine. 4.16 Anarchy Falls

Server Management:
This is hosted on my personal desktop, thus I cannot guarantee 100% uptime. I also travel every weekend so if it breaks, when I'm able to fix it depends on my availability and my ability to remote in and restart the server. The same goes for adding people to the white list.
-3.00 Ghz quad core AMD processor
-4.0 GB RAM allocated to Server
-Solid State Drive

It's capped at 15 players and is whitelisted.

[jadedcat]

take a look at the op of the server threads here. Many of them contain that information.

Most of them only list IP address or White/Black lists. While I was compiling a list to prove you wrong I notices some things that didn't jump out the first time through. I can't believe I missed Edolas specs and Just another world was added after my post.


[4.15] Jade Dragon Realm (Anarchy) - Used Google to guess Minecraft III plan from http://chromobyte.com/.
-server will restart every 12 hours. It will only be down 30 secs.
-only 30 people can be logged on at the same time.
-IP: .cbyte.co

um nope not minecraft 3 plan. I just capped it at 30.

I am using the VPS 4 plan

[the_fodder]

Thanks for the response.

That is a little bit of a price jump from the home mediabox. :)


Normally I would take this to a PM but I think the info would benefit others. Would you mind if I ask you a few questions?

What your experience with them?
How hard does a BTW world hit that box?
What is the server load under 5-10 players?

[Zhuria]

I hope you don't mind me joining in your thread - I'm afraid to start a new one and get yelled at :P

I have a few similar questions.. Basically I'm wondering how much more RAM a BTW server uses than vanilla. I'm planning on renting a 6-slot (I guess slots don't matter in this case) server for myself and a few friends - there'd probably only be 2-4 of us on at a time. How much RAM would you recommend for that?

I'm also wondering if it's difficult to set up BTW on rented servers.. I'm scared they're going to force bukkit on me or something. Never done this before!

[Marasambala]

http://www.bestminecrafthosts.com/
Here's a site with tons of reviews on a large number of mincraft server hosts.
It's where I shopped, and I'm happy with my choice so far.

[jadedcat]

Thanks for the response.

That is a little bit of a price jump from the home mediabox. :)


Normally I would take this to a PM but I think the info would benefit others. Would you mind if I ask you a few questions?

What your experience with them?
How hard does a BTW world hit that box?
What is the server load under 5-10 players?

My experience has been quite good. That said I believe they are better at smaller servers. Their larger vps and dedicated servers do suffer from some technical support issues. On the side of customer service however they are amazing. I can talk to the owner on skype at almost anytime I have an issue.


A regular world or my world? Our current world is 60k blocks by 40k blocks. With 15 people on we use aprox 40% of the cpu and 30% of the RAM. BTW that is a very large world. Around 4gb file size.

In my experience RAM doesn't matter as much as host companies would like you to believe. Its very cheap to sell RAM. Anytime a server of mine has had issues it been with the CPU load. The only reason I am considering swapping is that I would like more CPU then they can offer me.

Its not good to ignore RAM either but RAM is not as important as many hosts make it out to be. Slots don't even matter that much. Say a server company offers you a 5 slot plan for 5$ and each slot after that is 1$ . Technically with the amount of resources they would need to allocate to run a 5 slot server you could have up to 10 player slots without a problem. However they will charge you for those extra 5 slots.

Many people also think throwing more RAM at it will make it work better. It doesn't RAM and CPU are both important. I highly recommend my host for small servers. The owner is reasonably knowledgeable and its only when you start getting to some of the larger machines and VPS service that there starts being some issues.


Also as a side note on you comment about home machine cost. That is really dependent on where you live. Do you want to have a machine in your house on 24/7? Can your internet bandwidth handle the demand? And in many states of the US you must pay a license fee to the internet provider to run a server from your home. Failure to do so can result in fines, legal actions and throttling of your bandwidth. If you are going to run a home server make sure you know the laws in your area and read your internet contract very carefully.

The plus side to home servers is you know exactly what machine its on. And its right at hand if something fails in the hardware level. On the other hand you have to pay for the repair.


@Zhuria -- Not much RAM wise. CPU wise you'll need a bit more oomph.

Most server hosts can set it up with craftbukkit or a regular minecraft server jar. Unless you pay extra most will not modify the jar and keep it updated for you. Instead you will need to use FTP to load the modded jar file every time you update it. Just tell them you want a vanilla server file and then swap the jar for the modded btw one.

[the_fodder]

I hope you don't mind me joining in your thread - I'm afraid to start a new one and get yelled at :P

No problem, that's why i started it, let knowledgeable server admins share what they have learned to help the weak and feeble.

good to hear about the service and the extra details you gave Zhuria really helps me too. As I said before I am just a concerned user who is trying to give a friend options to instead of using his mediabox which he says BTW is killing and he can't even watch youtube /netflix on while underload.

[Marasambala]

In my experience RAM doesn't matter as much as host companies would like you to believe. Its very cheap to sell RAM. Anytime a server of mine has had issues it been with the CPU load. The only reason I am considering swapping is that I would like more CPU then they can offer me.
...
Many people also think throwing more RAM at it will make it work better. It doesn't RAM and CPU are both important.

Jade,
On my current host, I'm finding I need to restart the server every few hours to keep lag down. Is this indicative of the RAM vs CPU issue you're speaking to?

[jadedcat]

In my experience RAM doesn't matter as much as host companies would like you to believe. Its very cheap to sell RAM. Anytime a server of mine has had issues it been with the CPU load. The only reason I am considering swapping is that I would like more CPU then they can offer me.
...
Many people also think throwing more RAM at it will make it work better. It doesn't RAM and CPU are both important.

Jade,
On my current host, I'm finding I need to restart the server every few hours to keep lag down. Is this indicative of the RAM vs CPU issue you're speaking to?

It really depends what you have. It could be caused by either. If there is a control panel that came with your host there should be a section that shows ram/cpu useage. Whichever one is toping out is probably the one having an issue. In my experience this has always been the cpu. But I have been told RAM can do it too if low enough. Your best bet is to find out how much RAM and how much of your cpu s being used at that point.


It could also be caused by a player hacking the game or a hardware problem on the machine.

[Zhuria]

@Zhuria -- Not much RAM wise. CPU wise you'll need a bit more oomph.

Most server hosts can set it up with craftbukkit or a regular minecraft server jar. Unless you pay extra most will not modify the jar and keep it updated for you. Instead you will need to use FTP to load the modded jar file every time you update it. Just tell them you want a vanilla server file and then swap the jar for the modded btw one.

Thank you SO much for this! I can't thank you enough. I rented my server today and was able to get it set up thanks to this post. Had a little bit of a WTF moment until I realized the server jar that came with the server was on 1.2.5.. haha. Fixed that and it's working great. It doesn't seem to be laggy so far but if it can't handle a few more people I can always upgrade it. I am glad now that I know what to do!

[schubeast]

I wish I had seen this post a couple months ago!

This summer a friend of mine, who builds performance desktops, built me a computer to use as a dedicated server, as a favor/bonus for some work I did for him. I use it to run a small server for a few friends and acquaintances. Previously we had been renting space on minecraftservers.com, playing a vanilla world for about a year. When I got this, we also decided to give BTW a shot, and made the switch in September.

Server Specs:
> Processor: AMD FX-4100 Quad Core 3.6GHz
> RAM: 8GB DDR3, 1333MHz
> Hard Drive: 160GB
> Disc Drive: Dual-Layer, DVD/CD
> Power Supply: 500W

I have a Linksys gigabit router, but the biggest limitation of a home server is the ISP. With current hookup speeds of only about 20Mbps, its definitely the biggest bottleneck. Even so, with about 15 registered players, and 1-5 on at a time, it runs very smoothly. I set up an automated daily and weekly backup using a batch file and windows task scheduler since I couldn't find any sort of existing system that was compatible with BTW.