Leaderboard

Conclusion post This is just a tiny glimpse into the hell of hosting, and why it takes so many hours and why its so draining on people. This entire thread only covers some of my issues, and doesnt even go into VPN Hell Thread-pinning to avoid resource conflicts Juggling multiple IPs DNS Webserver mail sending hell DNS Did I mention DNS? So yeah, this is why the git has been a bit slow. Theres been a lot to deal with, and an entire mix of IRL hell too. But hey, atleast things are where they are now.

WARNING: This entire story is just complete nerd shit so prepare for technohell Expect more chapters as time goes on, but this is basically the chronicles of why you never want to become host Chapter listing Obtaining the damn server The pain of an OS install when your ISO is 6 gigabytes and moves at 3 megabytes a second The story of how windows (and/or asrock) sucks Moving everything to a new platform The first performance test, AKA byond sucks on linux Getting the game running on windows How to migrate with minimal downtime Why emulation sucks and paravirtualisation is the future (EXTRA EXTRA: BYOND sucks) The woes of getting logs into a nice viewer without killing the CPU BONUS CHAPTER - Remotely managing a server where you dont have a KVM/IPMI console

No context

This legal expert IPC puts the Marshal back into Martial Law. Marshal is the only magistrate main that was designed and constructed by the U.S.S.P. Despite the potential conflict of interest, he operates impartially and upholds Nanotrasen law, preventing the floating deathtrap we know and love from falling into chaos... until it inevitably does. @Esenno

Event: Photo Day Quick description: The Librarian (and any assistants they can rope in) is tasked with taking yearbook photos of as many crew members as possible. Reason for suggestion: Librarian has always felt like one of the least "engaged" roles on the station, so I and some friends have put a lot of thought into how to make it more fun and involved. This morning while joking around we came up with an idea that seems both fun and doable, so I thought I'd put it here. Necessary map changes: No, this event should be feasible on any station that has a camera and a photo album. Necessary code changes: No, this should work completely within the current system. Ideal player count: Should work with any number, but 60-80 is probably the ideal range? Detailed description: Potential modifiers: Notes: Best for extended/"quiet" shifts, as it will involve a lot of people being dragged away from work for a few minutes and as such will be extremely difficult to pull off if the crew is distracted by a blob attack or at risk of abduction. Head of Personnel and Captain should be informed via CentComm fax when this event is happening, as they play minor roles in it. I recommend requiring around 60% of the crew for objective completion; it's enough of a majority to feel both challenging and worthwhile without being such a majority that it's nigh impossible to complete.

In your opinion, what is Paradise's biggest selling point that separates it from other servers at the moment?

This is why I wish I could give you guys paid vacations. But also then I wouldn't because that would mean something horrible would happen while you were gone. Idk how many times I'll say this, but once again, thank you so much for the amazing job Arc.

Chapter 9 - The woes of getting logs into a nice viewer without killing the CPU So, if youre an admin you already know this, but admins have a fancy webtool thingy to look at logs (Courtesy of Denghis and his wizardry). However, you need some way to get the logs into that (In real time keep in mind). At first I ran the importer on the gameserver, but that caused servere resource issues, which I wasnt having because BYOND needs to be the most performant thing running on that machine. To try and combat this, I made a shared folder for the logs and mapped it on the logging server. I thought this would be the solution, but the log importer doesnt like network shares and kept throwing errors out, crippling the import process. A lot of tinkering and tuning later, we finally had the log importer running on the gamserver again without nuking the entire CPU. This made admins happy because they could use log webtools again.

Chapter 3 - The story of how windows (and/or asrock) sucks So I mentioned before how BYOND needs single threaded speed to be usable at all. This is achieved using a high end CPU, and having a high clock speed. Our previous server had an intel 9900K CPU which regularly turbo boosted to 4.9Ghz. This was very impressive and ran the server very well. In my research, I found that the RYZEN 5900X outperforms the 9900K in single thread performance by roughly 20%, so I expected it to all be going well. Now heres where the real issue begins. Windows (Hyper-V server, windows server 2016, and windows server 2019) does not have the CPU microcode to properly boost this CPU, which meant our new, faster CPU was now being hardcapped at a lower speed, making it slower than the previous CPU. After about 2 weeks of debugging and testing, I discovered that it was down to windows and unfixable, which meant I had to use a new platform for everything. Enter Proxmox VE.

Chapter 2 - The pain of an OS install when your ISO is 6 gigabytes and moves at 3 megabytes a second With the server obtained, I was now able to get to work. Most servers have a thing called IPMI, which is basically a web GUI for anything you'd need physical access for, including but not limited to: Hardware status such as fan speeds and temperatures Remote media mounting to install an operating system without a USB stick Power on/off control A remote console with mouse, keyboard and video This operates outside of an OS remote desktop, meaning you can use it even when the OS is locked up, and before the OS has loaded, so you can do things such as change BIOS settings and more Now, to actually install the OS on here, I just had to put it on the virtual media drive and boot the server to that. Simple enough right? Oh lord... Asrock's IPMI is pretty damn flawed, and the virtual media has a max speed of 3 megabytes a second, and the ISO for the OS was about 6 gigabytes. So I had to sit here and babysit the OS install to make sure it installed properly. Oh, and it also has to be reset if your connection drops for even a second. I spent a full 2 hours just getting the OS installed, and the mentors can tell you this involved a lot of screaming. However, after the screaming, I had my OS (Microsoft hyper-v server) installed, and I was ready to start work on things. I made my VMs, did the base security setup, and was ready to start performance testing, however I was about to run into a major issue.

No need to unlock it, anyone can do it ye.

A familiar sight aboard the Cyberiad, Lusooso Oo is the dark hunter who prowls the station's maintenance tunnels for crime! @ReVoS12

Name of Event: NanoTrasen Training Day One Sentence Description: Time to teach the Crew how to be a better Crew! Map Changes: No/Maybe? (Admemes spawning certain things may make it easier, see below [mostly Sec/Engi stuff]) Suggested Number of Players: Any, though higher pop could be a tad messier but "train" more people. Full Description of Event: An idea I've been toying with in my head for a while has been a semi-event/semi-changed Extended Roundtype where the Crew has a "Training Day" where assistants, staff members, and other crew cross-train or straight up learn new departments for a Shift. This could be a weekly thing at specified times where new players or experienced players can swap ideas and "training" ICly to try to teach new players or simply interested players how to do certain things in their departments. For example, Atmospherics can have a SM Setup tutorial, Security can do arrest drills with fake "antags" with some Syndie gear to play practically "tag" with, Science can do Toxins, RND, Robotics and such, and medical can just beat the shit out of some humanized monkeys and teach how to fix different races without worrying about SUPER SERIOUS injuries from the crew, Mining can do Megafauna training, and perhaps a SOO or Naval Officer can discuss proper Command behavior or SoP with aspiring future Heads or current ones. This would be something a Captain can decide to do in an Extended round, but you never REALLY know if its Extended or if its just a precursor to an Admeme event anyway. Hence why a CC Announcement of such a "Training Day" would be a big 'OK' that youre not gonna get T-Spider'd or some other spooky midround while teaching how the Turbine works. In a more OOC focus, perhaps allow Mentors or experienced Crew teach in voice comms some of the training as well. While this breaks SOME of the IC immersion, It may be useful to answer some harder or more nuanced questions. While this turns it more into a COMMUNITY event than an IC one, I really do think it would be helpful. Perhaps, if we would want to take it one step further, make it an Announced event on Discord or such, so that people can turn up if they wish to partake. This idea has been bouncing around my head for a bit, so any feedback or suggestions are 100% welcome!