Race Server

[epwatson]

Hey all,


Discussion has been brought up lately on flightsim's forum about possibly getting us all on the same server for the race..


I'm curious what your thoughts are on this..


What I was thinking was possibly renting for 1 month a Virtual Server with Windows Server installed on it. Then obiously FSHost would need to be installed, but this would allow all the race participants to login to the same server.


We would still maintain separate Teamspeak servers to prevent cross talk and we would keep an AVSIM race server in case main server goes down and also for scouting.. Which brings up a valid point.. All scouting would have to be done in private, so if you are gonna log in to do a leg say 5 legs from the current one, then log into the private server to do your scouting and do not log into main race server until the leg heading to your airport has taken off..


Well its an idea.. Thoughts/suggestions/ideas??


Posted on AVSIM and flightsim for feedback..

[Dangerousdave26]

epwatson

Why rent when we already have one.

Our SOH Flight Center server is a windows based server. We are hosting 4 different hop lists and TeamSpeak3. (plus IL2 CLOD which means nothing to this group).

Its also home to our backup forums

www.sim-outhouse.net

www.sim-outhouse.net:8181 for the FS Host server.

The server is in the same server farm as our main site SOH.

[PRB]

I think it would be fun if all teams were flying on the same server. Provided that went smoothly. Would the excess load cause problems? If one pilot doesn't have the ports forwarded, all heck will break loose. Cats and dogs living together, that sort of thing. I think we should try it.

- Paul

[epwatson]

So you guys already have one in a data center okay.. Question then, I know FSHost does not have a limit on the number of connections but where in the world is your server located? is it rented or your own hardware and your leasing the rackspace?

Now whats your max bandwidth on this server? we would need 1.5Kb/s per pilot connected, so if we have 50+ users then probably only need 75Kb/s which shouldn't be a problem for most servers.. :) But would have to tell FS2004 users to limit fps to 30 as FS2004 sends data with each frame, big pain. Obviously if this Server is in the US, then europeans will have a little more latency connecting..

Now, PRB to address your concern regarding forwarding ports and all that BS, the solution is a VPN.. You set the server up as a VPN server that is not a gateway so no internet traffic goes through it, just FS data.. Have the VPN accept traffic only on the appropriate ports then your computer will see the fshost server as being on the same LAN and you dont have to worry about forwarding ports on your home routers.

[Spookster67]

Hi guys,

In principle, the idea of having everyone on the race on the same server sounds great to me. I can't comment on the technical issues.

I imagine you wouldn't necessarily want the kick-off event on the same server, where many pilots are flying to and/or from the same airport simultaneously. With three teams all trying to land multiple pilots it would just be carnage!!

Regards,
Martin.

(p.s. sorry you haven't seen me around on flight sim or the forums since the race. Real life is busy!! But I'll be ready come Christmas time for next February... :salute:)

[epwatson]

I imagine you wouldn't necessarily want the kick-off event on the same server, where many pilots are flying to and/or from the same airport simultaneously. With three teams all trying to land multiple pilots it would just be carnage!!

Would be interesting.. Of course collisions would NEED to be turned off but it would be fun.. :)

[Tako_Kichi]

Things like the start event and team flights might be a problem if everyone is on one server. If you have ever attended one of the 'celebration' events after a race you will know how confusing that can get and how quickly it can turn into a stutter-fest with so many people in close proximity.

I like the idea of racing on one server but I am concerned that too many people (racers, weather spotters, observers, etc.) will lead to problems for all.

[Dangerousdave26]

Both the SOH and SOH FC servers are rented from Layerd Tech. They are housed in their Data Center in Dallas TX.

SOH FC
Dell Poweredge R300
Windows Server 2008 Standard
2.5 Ghz Quad Core
4 GB Ram

I can't remember what our bandwidth is but it is the same as the SOH

As far as our speed just running a speed test from Speakeasy.net

Dallas
Last Result:
Download Speed: 20609 kbps (2576.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 76099 kbps (9512.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

Seattle Washington
Last Result:
Download Speed: 23199 kbps (2899.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 22931 kbps (2866.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

Washington DC
Last Result:
Download Speed: 24272 kbps (3034 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 27961 kbps (3495.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

VPN is an option but it does not help our members who are forced to use dialup because of the remote locations they live in.

Still since we are only talking part of the race I am sure we can come up with a few members who would be willing.

What VPN product do you use?

At one time I used OpenVPN to connect to my home server and it worked well but I never tested it to connect to other computers on my home network.

Its something I am willing to look at since we have the time to have discussions.

[Moses03]

Nice thought but leery of the connectivity issues and FPS nightmares. Hate to get distracted if landing at the same airport right when another team is doing the same...

I'm for keeping to our side of the sandbox.

Moses

[salt_air]

Nice thought but leery of the connectivity issues and FPS nightmares. Hate to get distracted if landing at the same airport right when another team is doing the same...

I'm for keeping to our side of the sandbox.

Moses


Hi All,



Kevin ... I hadn't considered the remote possibility of 2 or even more teams landing at the same airport at the same time ... hmmm.

Wonder if any of the studies of previous races would shine a light on how close we've been to that happening in the past.

Interesting scenario indeed.

I guess it would be who ever got there first would have the right of way to keep from having a crash ... like any other type of racing.




Boy that would make for some Good video footage, eh?

[Tako_Kichi]

Wonder if any of the studies of previous races would shine a light on how close we've been to that happening in the past. ?

Two years ago three teams arrived at the same airport in Japan within a five minute window (and that was after travelling halfway around the world!)

At the start of last year's race Team SOH and Team AVSIM flew identical routes to the first two airports and were less than a couple of minutes apart over the two legs.

It could easily happen that teams arrive at an airport at the exact same time especially shortly after the start.

There is also a possibility of 'unsportsmanlike conduct' whereby one team could have spare members sitting at or around another team's destination causing lags and/or distractions on landing.

[epwatson]

FSX limits the number of other aircraft it shows but I'm not sure the number.. How many members would be susceptible to huge lag should the number be high?

However, I find it hard to believe that anyone would purposely cause issues for another team (Well I hope not)..

Well except for the start and ending the number of people online at the same time will be relatively low.. I know on our server, we have maybe 6-8 on at one time during the race.. Maybe 1 or 2 more just parked at either a past airport or a far future airport..

[Great Ozzie]

There is also a possibility of 'unsportsmanlike conduct' whereby one team could have spare members sitting at or around another team's destination causing lags and/or distractions on landing.


I currently do that for my own team. :icon_lol:

[epwatson]

Aint that the truth.. :)