AW: [cod] Multiple Servers on one box and PB

Joe Brown joe at overdrivepc.com
Sat May 15 14:07:56 EDT 2004


Hi Mark,

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and taking your time to explain these 
technical details in a language I can understand. 

One of the reasons this thread started: I mentioned to a colleague, I 
prefer to run servers from one install of a game server, to allow the OS 
to make use of shared libraries.  Althought I think the advantages are 
somewhat minor, there are still system performance issues that will be 
realized.

For a server instance, some ppl have a tendency to make a copy of all 
the game server files in seperate home directories for each server 
instance.  Because these files are a copies, not linked or the same 
physical file image, I'm working on the assumption the OS has no means 
to identify that the same executable is being run mutiple times, because 
it's executing from seperate copies.

There are a couple of issues in system performance, I don't care for, 
when this happens.
1st, any file caching benifits are out the window.  I don't believe 
system performace will take a very noticable hit on this, it's effects 
are fairly well hidden and hard to observe.  But it is there.

2nd, I suspect more memory will be consumed by running game servers from 
seperate copies, because shared libraries won't be shared as they could 
be.  <- I'm in the dark about the accuracy of this statement tho.

I'm a performance junkie.  If I can make things perform better, I'll go 
the distance to make it so.  But when a guy tells me he can't see a 
difference in one method vs. another and I cannot refute that with 
tangible details, I find myself in bit of a quandery.

I would appreciate if you could elaborate on these issues, my technical 
knowledge is far less intimate with the internals of the kernel.


Thanks Again,

-Joe





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