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Data center servers for leagues?

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t-34
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Re: Data center servers for leagues?

Post by t-34 »

Smacky can you explain yours 300 per month and BCs 15 per month . I think BC done it in the past , sending his mac mini to dashs rack , that time it worked so i think thats what we trying to do now , this time putting it in the middle. Im might be wrong would like to hear more about.
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Re: Data center servers for leagues?

Post by Baba »

Yes, so these are the nuts and bolts details we need (and that I am clueless about).

What hardware, software would be needed.
What it takes to do this remotely.
How many (and who ) should be the "admins".
To reboot, reset servers for map needs etc.

How many servers would this get us?
Most leagues need 3 servers at game time.

Are there others out there that know resources (another dash)
or companies that offer what we will need to manage this at a cheaper rate?

Does anyone run a non profit or corporate entity that would get us a cheaper rate?

Should we have a locked link in the General Forums so others will see this (not all will look in leagues now that there are no current leagues going)
May be a admin can link to us here then lock it so it doesn't split the discussion. This at the risk of many youngers chiming in that its a good idea, with no ability to pony up the cash or provide resources/info to get er done.

When is Smacky moving to Omaha?
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Re: Data center servers for leagues?

Post by Reagent X »

BC can chime in here, but I think he is talking about "co-location". You send your own computer (usually a mac mini) to a place that sticks it in a rack and you get remote tools to operate it.
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Re: Data center servers for leagues?

Post by Blind Cide »

Yes, co-location of a Mac mini at this place in Las Vegas is what I'm proposing. I'll go ahead and send the mini I have and we can test it out for a month without obligation.

I found this place in Kansas City that could qualify as a central location. They have both co-location and rented dedicated server options for $50/month with no contract. If I knew command line Linux I'd try a rented server. It might be possible to get VNC setup on Linux to admin their rented server.

For the same $50/month we could try to co-locate a multiple processor machine (tower or 4U) that could host multiple TT games. We don't need expensive hardware to host TT, so a multiple processor(4X?) Linux box would be as fancy as we would need and I think we could probably build or buy something for cheap.
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Re: Data center servers for leagues?

Post by Cylicon460 »

Smacky wrote:Since we as a community aren't a corporation and don't have a credit history, we will have to pay this entire contract up front most likely. Which means we need to raise $3K+.
I think Doc should be counted as the TT Corporation, since she mainly funds the site. Then she could go buy some blenders and pay on time. There, we solved the whole problem.

You can thank me later :lol:
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Re: Data center servers for leagues?

Post by Baba »

^ thus your pending move to Omaha, we voted you in, all democratic like.
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Re: Data center servers for leagues?

Post by Blind Cide »

@Smacky
Colocation is basically what I did with a Mac mini in dash's data center. It needed a power reboot once in the 3 years and I'll bet you can get any data center to do that for free without subscribing to the reboot service if you're willing to wait 24 hrs.

Running only TT isn't an OS crasher for Linux and Mac OS. Worst case is that you'd have them pack up your hardware and send it to you.

As far as location is concerned, you have to think in terms of major internet exchange nodes. For me in Iowa, everything goes through Chicago. I'm not sure about Omaha, but I'd bet it goes somewhere else first. The best prices seem to be in the major nodes.

Prices have come down since I looked into this stuff 3 years ago, especially for rented hardware. $50/month for colocation or rented equipment seems to be the lowest price.

The Mac mini place in LV gives a 10% discount if you prepay a year, so $31.50 is a no-brainer if we decide we like it. The Intel Mac minis have a dual prossesor core and might be ok for two or more games at a time. We can give that a try on my dime and go from there.

@ the PC builders:
How much would a four processor tower with 2 drives and 4 GB of RAM cost? It wouldn't have to be bleeding edge and used would probably be ok.
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Re: Data center servers for leagues?

Post by SquidRing »

Cleaning out my stuff in my dads shed the other day I came across my old commodore 64 complete with 5 1/4 floppy drive.
I will donate it to you if you like...
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Re: Data center servers for leagues?

Post by Blind Cide »

SquidRing wrote:Cleaning out my stuff in my dads shed the other day I came across my old commodore 64 complete with 5 1/4 floppy drive.
I will donate it to you if you like...
Do you have the ethernet adapter for that, Squid? :thumbup:

@ Smacky
If you look at the traceroutes in this thread: http://www.planetthinktanks2.com/forums ... 2&start=20, it seems players from the east go through Chicago>Denver>Salt Lake City and Westies go through LA to get to LV. An LV server would definitely favor the West and not qualify as centric. Its main virtue is price.

Wow, I was just digging around and found this place in Dallas:http://www.tektonic.net/vps.php. Anyone remember the Unixshell experiment back in 2005? I bought a 1/32 slice of server and had my own virtual Linux server to run a TT server. Tektonic was part of the same company back then but was Windows only. Unixshell is no more because there is new virtualization software that runs Windows and Linux. I quit the experiment because my share of processor amounted to about 100 MHz for $8/month and it wasn't enough. Also, dash offered to colocate a mini about that time.

Anyway, It looks like the deal now is $15/mo. for about 300 MHz. of better processor. They let you have up to 2.8 GHz processor if the others on your machine aren't using it. If there are any command line Linux geeks out there who want to admin it, I'd spring for the intro $7.50 to try it for a month.
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Re: Data center servers for leagues?

Post by The Professor »

@ BC - I live in Kansas City (constructively, along with Jerry I believe). You would at least have two people to coordinate with in this geographic region. I am guessing we have Chicago people as well - just throwing it out there.
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