[bf1942] Linux Server Lags

[jjohnso1 at sbcglobal.net]

Sorry for the length here; I was writing this while troubleshooting.
Hopefully others can glean some useful information from this.

My server started lagging with just 2 players (one local, one internet).
Just after the server started, there was no lag -- but after running for a
while, it became progressively worse.  Running in COOP (which is broken
anyway) seemed to exacerbate the problem; in CQ mode, it took longer for the
lag to become annoying.

After the server finished loading, it consumed a fair amount of CPU (29.5%
in this example) even when no players are connected:

  PID USER     PRI  NI  SIZE  RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM   TIME COMMAND
21722 root      12   0 91808  89M 17036 R    29.5 11.8   1:37 bf1942_lnxded
21727 root       9   0 91808  89M 17036 S     0.0 11.8   0:00 bf1942_lnxded
21728 root       9   0 91808  89M 17036 S     0.0 11.8   0:00 bf1942_lnxded

Originally, I chalked the problem up the server being early BETA, and
figured it would get better as debug code was removed.  I didn't pay much
attention to all of the talk about game.setServerIP setting, because it
seemed to be primarily related to problems for systems with multiple NIC's,
or GameSpy/ASE woes.  Because I have only one NIC and don't want to be seen
in Gamespy or ASE anyway, I left the setting blank.

I just tried putting a valid IP in there (representing my public IP). Now,
with no players connected (CQ mode):

  PID USER     PRI  NI  SIZE  RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM   TIME COMMAND
21888 johnj      9   0 85328  83M 15940 S     0.0 11.0   0:35 bf1942_lnxded
21889 johnj      9   0 85328  83M 15940 S     0.0 11.0   0:00 bf1942_lnxded
21890 johnj      9   0 85328  83M 15940 S     0.0 11.0   0:00 bf1942_lnxded

Much better (idling at 0% CPU).  But if left unattended for about 10
minutes, CPU on the first process climbs right back up around 30% and stays
there for about five minutes.  Based on my non-scientific observations, this
would happen at 10 minute intervals for 5 minutes at a time.  Ugh.

So, as a wild guess -- I think Gamespy or some related timeout/heartbeat
process is part of the lag problem.  I tinkered with the game.serverInternet
setting, but it seems to simply tell the server to bind to Gamespy on a
different port (1=23000, 0=22000).

So the moral of the story -- make sure game.setServerIP is not blank!  Also
make sure the server can "bind" to Gamespy correctly (i.e. without a
firewall getting in the way).  I cannot find a way around the lag cycle
every 5 mintutes for those of us that don't want to connect to Gamespy at
all -- it happens even if the server is setup for LAN-only.  I finally
settled on the following settings to minimize CPU spikes:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
ServerSettings.con
----------------------------------------------------------------------
game.serverInternet 0
game.setServerIP <public-IP>

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Firewall
----------------------------------------------------------------------
udp allow 22000

On a side note, memory consumption by each process dropped from 83MB to 75MB
in this configuration.  I haven't tested this with any players yet -- I'll
let you know if this results in any sigificant reductions in lag for me.

John

----- Original Message -----
From: "Josip Eremut" <eremut at wooms.net>
To: <bf1942 at icculus.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2002 3:40 PM
Subject: Re: [bf1942] Linux Server Lags


> some behaviour here...cant nail the problem down...it just
laaaags..cpu/mem
> under minimum load
> is there any server running without those lag-connection problems side
> effects?
>
> bye josip
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Heiko G." <webmaster at ccnb.de>
> To: <bf1942 at icculus.org>
> Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2002 1:09 PM
> Subject: Re: [bf1942] Linux Server Lags
>
>
> Ryan C. Gordon or other, can you help us by this problem.
>
>
>
> From: paul wallace [mailto:frostcool at hotmail.com]
> Date: Sat, 28. Dec 2002 09:33
> To: bf1942 at icculus.org
> Subject: Re: [bf1942] Linux Server Lags
>
> i have the same problem i carnt have more than 8 people also ifi do the
> the
> connection logo keeps flashing till someone leves the server
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >From: "Heiko G." <webmaster at ccnb.de>
> >Reply-To: bf1942 at icculus.org
> >To: <bf1942 at icculus.org>
> >Subject: [bf1942] Linux Server Lags
> >Date: Sat, 28 Dec 2002 09:05:43 +0100
> >
> >Hi all
> >
> >Does anyone know, why the Bf Linux Server release have mutch Lag´s ?
> >
> >Ich have a Linux Dedicated Server on a 1,6 Gh P4 with 1 Gb Ram on a
> >100Mbit connection, but wenn more the 8 Players on the Server, then
> >comes at 5 Minutes many Lags and connection lost´s on the Server.
> >
> >And i have not other Running on the Server, is this problem a Bug of
> the
> >Bf Linux version?
> >
> >Thanks Heiko
>