1
General Server Advices
HalcyonsGlory
Hey,so first a few words to my Person:
My name is BoneHunter and i host Minecraft Servers since more than 3 years and im active on PMC since about 2 years.
When i started to run my server i was a noob,used the wrong plugins and changed my Host often.
So every day i read the same Topics in the Server Help selection.
To prevent that here some tips for server owner newbies.
The job as a server owner
Seriously,thats in 80% a very annoying job.You have to handle spammers,retards,trolls and kiddies who call themself "Hackers".
You have to configurate plugins,search new ones when one is outdated.
Fight against bad Server Hosts when u picked the wrong one.
In total its a fulltime job.
When u dont have the time for that: Dont host a server.
The server itself
The host: When u buy your Server at a minecraft server host i can say u once: You pay to mutch money for nothing,in simple words: u will be screwed !!!
A example: A normal minecraft server host takes for 5GB RAM,30GB HDD,60solts and 5 myql tables about 50 Dollar.
Good deal ? NO
My server runs: 25GB RAM 2x1000 GB HDD unlimited Solts and unlimited mysql tables ! And it costs 120 dollar in month. U see the difference ?
When u are to lazy to teach yourself basic SSL (takes in total about 1 day with a few youtube videos) and u have mutch money to spend,then a mc server host is the right for you.
Otherwise look for a VPS or Root Serverhost !!!
But u have to know: There is no support for your mc.When the mc service is down,and u dont know the reason,the host will not help you !
But its cheaper and u can: run a website on the same server (ip) use a domain without a port ( yourdomain.com instead of yourdomain.com:25552) and you can run more than 1 minecraft services on the server (simple words: 2 servers on one server,only different ports)
So,when u dont have enough money or any knowlege about Servers,DNS settings,Ports,java,minecraft/bukkit itself: Dont host a server !!!!
By the way,the law in most countrys says u have to be 18 to own a Server and u are not allowed to collect any datas about people under 13.
Only wanted to say !
Mots of these minecraft Server hosts want money for services that are in main free,like FTP access,more mysql tables,more slots,i found even one who wants money to set your server to creative mode.
When u buy a root server,u have the full controll about it.You can set up as many slots ypu want,increase the RAM,set up more mysql databases etc.
You can set up own firewalls,ddos protections or install a website.
But this is advanced stuff,not that easy,but not impossible when u invest some time!
Slots
On a good Server u can define by yourself how many Slots you open.
But be carefull.When there are to many Players on your Server,and your Server is not powerfull enough, the server will lag or crash often.
I would say:
2GB RAM = 0-10 players
4GB RAM = 0-15 players
20GB RAM = 0-50 players
30 GB RAM = 0-70 players
Ofc it depens what kind of server (creative,survival etc.). How many worlds and how powerfull your plugins are!
Plugins
Permissions:
I read VERY often here: Help with my GroupMananger
and my answer will be always be the same:
PLEASE DONT USE GROUP MANAGER
Group manager is buggy,not compatible to some other plugins and hard to configurate !!
PermissionsEx is actual the best solution for permissions.
Essentials:
Dont use CommandBook! Essentials contains the most functions and works great.
Backup:
Choose a good Backup plugin,in case there is something wrong with your world.And download at least 1 backup weekly to your pc.
Multiverse:
Awesome plugin,nothing more to say.The rest is bullshit.
NoCheatPlus:
Seriousy very hard to configurate,even for a pro.But very very useful when its done !
Dynmap:
Dont use this plugin when you dont have mutch space on your server !
Works like this: takes many pictures of your world and put them together online like a puzzle.
So u have many folders with many many pictures,costs mutch server space.
LogBlock/prism/hawkeye: The plugins allow you to restore any kinds of grief.But u need basic mysql knowledge!
WorldGuard: Must have !
WorldEdit/VoxelSniper: Awesome plugins,but be carefull who u give the permissions to use them.
------------
Thats it in main.When you have a question u are free to send me a msg or answer in this thread.
Good luck on your way to a good Server Host and i wish you that u dont make the same mistakes like me !
My name is BoneHunter and i host Minecraft Servers since more than 3 years and im active on PMC since about 2 years.
When i started to run my server i was a noob,used the wrong plugins and changed my Host often.
So every day i read the same Topics in the Server Help selection.
To prevent that here some tips for server owner newbies.
The job as a server owner
Seriously,thats in 80% a very annoying job.You have to handle spammers,retards,trolls and kiddies who call themself "Hackers".
You have to configurate plugins,search new ones when one is outdated.
Fight against bad Server Hosts when u picked the wrong one.
In total its a fulltime job.
When u dont have the time for that: Dont host a server.
The server itself
The host: When u buy your Server at a minecraft server host i can say u once: You pay to mutch money for nothing,in simple words: u will be screwed !!!
A example: A normal minecraft server host takes for 5GB RAM,30GB HDD,60solts and 5 myql tables about 50 Dollar.
Good deal ? NO
My server runs: 25GB RAM 2x1000 GB HDD unlimited Solts and unlimited mysql tables ! And it costs 120 dollar in month. U see the difference ?
When u are to lazy to teach yourself basic SSL (takes in total about 1 day with a few youtube videos) and u have mutch money to spend,then a mc server host is the right for you.
Otherwise look for a VPS or Root Serverhost !!!
But u have to know: There is no support for your mc.When the mc service is down,and u dont know the reason,the host will not help you !
But its cheaper and u can: run a website on the same server (ip) use a domain without a port ( yourdomain.com instead of yourdomain.com:25552) and you can run more than 1 minecraft services on the server (simple words: 2 servers on one server,only different ports)
So,when u dont have enough money or any knowlege about Servers,DNS settings,Ports,java,minecraft/bukkit itself: Dont host a server !!!!
By the way,the law in most countrys says u have to be 18 to own a Server and u are not allowed to collect any datas about people under 13.
Only wanted to say !
Mots of these minecraft Server hosts want money for services that are in main free,like FTP access,more mysql tables,more slots,i found even one who wants money to set your server to creative mode.
When u buy a root server,u have the full controll about it.You can set up as many slots ypu want,increase the RAM,set up more mysql databases etc.
You can set up own firewalls,ddos protections or install a website.
But this is advanced stuff,not that easy,but not impossible when u invest some time!
Slots
On a good Server u can define by yourself how many Slots you open.
But be carefull.When there are to many Players on your Server,and your Server is not powerfull enough, the server will lag or crash often.
I would say:
2GB RAM = 0-10 players
4GB RAM = 0-15 players
20GB RAM = 0-50 players
30 GB RAM = 0-70 players
Ofc it depens what kind of server (creative,survival etc.). How many worlds and how powerfull your plugins are!
Plugins
Permissions:
I read VERY often here: Help with my GroupMananger
and my answer will be always be the same:
PLEASE DONT USE GROUP MANAGER
Group manager is buggy,not compatible to some other plugins and hard to configurate !!
PermissionsEx is actual the best solution for permissions.
Essentials:
Dont use CommandBook! Essentials contains the most functions and works great.
Backup:
Choose a good Backup plugin,in case there is something wrong with your world.And download at least 1 backup weekly to your pc.
Multiverse:
Awesome plugin,nothing more to say.The rest is bullshit.
NoCheatPlus:
Seriousy very hard to configurate,even for a pro.But very very useful when its done !
Dynmap:
Dont use this plugin when you dont have mutch space on your server !
Works like this: takes many pictures of your world and put them together online like a puzzle.
So u have many folders with many many pictures,costs mutch server space.
LogBlock/prism/hawkeye: The plugins allow you to restore any kinds of grief.But u need basic mysql knowledge!
WorldGuard: Must have !
WorldEdit/VoxelSniper: Awesome plugins,but be carefull who u give the permissions to use them.
------------
Thats it in main.When you have a question u are free to send me a msg or answer in this thread.
Good luck on your way to a good Server Host and i wish you that u dont make the same mistakes like me !
1
Just a few things to point out...
I could go on for hours about why PermissionsEx would not be the best possible plugin to use. For starters, it breaks the bukkit api, further breaking other plugins, default bukkit methods, and in the end, your own server. Have you ever tried to /reload while using PermissionsEx? It uses java reflection, so in creating a new instance of the plugin, you utterly break every plugin that uses the api (which, would be every plugin).
Group Manager certainly isn't close to being the best plugin, but it's a stable plugin. I wouldn't recommend it either, instead, I would recommend bPermissions. You can find it here: http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/bpermissions
For further reasoning on why not to use PermissionsEx, look here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BIg ... edit?pli=1
Essentials has a large amount of bloat and will cause noticeable performance differences in a server. Overall, CommandBook is a perfectly acceptable alternative and uses less resources. If I remember correctly, Essentials also makes manual calls to the Java GC (which is bad), forcing a user to disable Explicit GC calls in their server startup, or else let a program manually dictate it. This is also bad, because the JVM Garbage Collector really isn't something that needs tampering with unless there is actual direct modifications that need to be done.
AntiCheat is another promising development: http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/anticheat
Dynmap is run seperately from the server (for projection), as it can use a copy of your world files and broadcast those. The dynmap plugin merely sends updates on player locations and block updates to the dynmap process, which is then updated to a webpage.
what?
I'm fairly certain this isn't true.
More SQL tables / slots isn't necessarily free. A host may run a business model where they offer their overall hosting based on how many slots you want and then provide the appropriate hardware accordingly. This leaves out the worry for the proper hardware out of the customer's list of things to do, but you may not always see what happens behind the scenes, and increasing slots may mean moving to more expensive hardware.
In my personal experience, when you minimize bloat and excessive plugins, your playercount can be based on a few factors (keep in mind, upload speed IS a bottleneck at most times).
The Factors
This question have come up quite often that we used to have a site that would help. However, because of the recent changes, the site has become outdated. We are working on getting a new one. However, we do have stats that you can use to calculate this value.
There are a few factors that affect your server's max capacity to hold people. CPU speed, RAM allocation, network speeds, and the type of server you have. Each of these play a different factor.
1) CPU Speed
Since natively Minecraft is not multi-threaded well, and most wrappers do not use multi-threading as well, this means that your CPU's clock speed is the main factor here. The higher a clock speed, the faster it can work. The more cores, the more it can do. If you have a dedicated server, then the number of cores are not really much to be concerned about. A CPU that has a higher clock speed and less cores is a better choice to host a dedicated server than a CPU with more cores but less clock speed as the cores will just idle.
2) RAM
This is one of the 2 major factors in determining the maximum number of players your server can hold. There is a simple calculation that can be done to give an approximate number of players per GB of RAM for a server.
Vanilla servers: Max players = ( (1024 * RAM) - 80 ) / 40
Craftbukkit: Max players = ( (1024 * RAM) - 240 ) / 90
These results were from a locally ran server using Ubuntu 11.10 64-bit on a Java 6 JRE and using the 1.2.5 RB 1.0. These numbers are just estimates, but should be close to what the actual numbers are.
3) Networking
Now, your network is the other large factor in determining your server's maximum player limits. A network can be quite limiting in your server, and also is a factor in determining lag for the server. If a host is located overseas, then expect lag regardless of any hardware the server has. To get your home network speeds for a home-hosted server, just go to http://www.speedtest.net and jot down your download and upload speeds.
[indent=1]
Stages:
Stage 1 - Connection
During this, your server is communicating with the client and transferring data back and forth. Usually the data limits here are under 10 KB/s (yes, this is in kilobytes). This stage is usually not so bad with lag unless your server is already network-heavy or the server is performing a lot of operations already. During this, usually the CPU and any plugins that run during this state will cause you lag.
Stage 2 - Downloading
During this is when your network load is expected to be the highest. This is when the server starts sending any extra data to the clients and the chunks are being sent to the client to load. During this, the network client-side receives close to 100-120 KB/s. This means a server is pushing that much data, which is what the upload speeds are about.
Stage 3 - Updates
During this is when the network load is less than the Stage 2, since chunks updates are not as frequent and it is just individual updates to the server, so average loads there are signiifcantly less than that during Stage 2. Estimated and testing has shown this to use around on average 10-30 KB/s when no chunks are being loads and it is just block changes, movement, and other minor things.
Stage 4 - Movement
This stage is a mix of both Stage 2 and Stage 3, when you will see a spike in the network loads as chunks are being sent to the client, however they are not as long or as large as during Stage 2. Usually these updates cause an expected 50 KB/s download on the client.
To determine the maximum number of clients you can safely support, we will assume that the clients are all during the Stage 2 phase, when the server is transmitting the most data.
To get the players, you first have to do a few conversions.
1) If the speedtest results give you a number in Mb/s, then you need to convert that to Kb/s by multiplying the number by 1024
2) Divide the number now by 8 to get the KB/s.
3) Max players = (internet upload ) / 120
This is assuming though that everyone is connecting at once and that they are all downloading data, so if you wanted to push it, you can increase this number by about 50% if you really wanted to push the server to its limits.[/indent]
4) Server Type
As expected, the vanilla server is the lightest of the server types, so it can hold the most players and run the fastest compared to the others, but suffers from lack of customizations. Bukkit servers require more, so they are "heavier" than vanilla, meaning that they cannot reach the limits of what Vanilla can, but have the benefit of more features. Tekkit is a mix of both, so their stats can be considered the heaviest as they have the limits of Bukkit and the limits due to the mods that are added. To list the order of which can support the most and are the fastest:
1) Vanilla - very few things added, least network, RAM, and CPU loads
2) Bukkit - depending on the plugins added, but usually more consuming in the RAM and CPU
3) Tekkit - depends on plugins, but is usually heaviest with RAM and CPU with the added mod
4) FTB - heavy in cases due to the mods, usually less than Tekkit though
BoneHunter9
Permissions:
I read VERY often here: Help with my GroupMananger
and my answer will be always be the same:
PLEASE DONT USE GROUP MANAGER
Group manager is buggy,not compatible to some other plugins and hard to configurate !!
PermissionsEx is actual the best solution for permissions.
I could go on for hours about why PermissionsEx would not be the best possible plugin to use. For starters, it breaks the bukkit api, further breaking other plugins, default bukkit methods, and in the end, your own server. Have you ever tried to /reload while using PermissionsEx? It uses java reflection, so in creating a new instance of the plugin, you utterly break every plugin that uses the api (which, would be every plugin).
Group Manager certainly isn't close to being the best plugin, but it's a stable plugin. I wouldn't recommend it either, instead, I would recommend bPermissions. You can find it here: http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/bpermissions
For further reasoning on why not to use PermissionsEx, look here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BIg ... edit?pli=1
Essentials:
Dont use CommandBook! Essentials contains the most functions and works great.
Essentials has a large amount of bloat and will cause noticeable performance differences in a server. Overall, CommandBook is a perfectly acceptable alternative and uses less resources. If I remember correctly, Essentials also makes manual calls to the Java GC (which is bad), forcing a user to disable Explicit GC calls in their server startup, or else let a program manually dictate it. This is also bad, because the JVM Garbage Collector really isn't something that needs tampering with unless there is actual direct modifications that need to be done.
NoCheatPlus:
Seriousy very hard to configurate,even for a pro.But very very useful when its done !
AntiCheat is another promising development: http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/anticheat
Dynmap:
Dont use this plugin when you dont have mutch space on your server !
Works like this: takes many pictures of your world and put them together online like a puzzle.
So u have many folders with many many pictures,costs mutch server space.
Dynmap is run seperately from the server (for projection), as it can use a copy of your world files and broadcast those. The dynmap plugin merely sends updates on player locations and block updates to the dynmap process, which is then updated to a webpage.
When u are to lazy to teach yourself basic SSL (takes in total about 1 day with a few youtube videos) and u have mutch money to spend,then a mc server host is the right for you.
what?
By the way,the law in most countrys says u have to be 18 to own a Server and u are not allowed to collect any datas about people under 13.
Only wanted to say !
I'm fairly certain this isn't true.
Mots of these minecraft Server hosts want money for services that are in main free,like FTP access,more mysql tables,more slots,i found even one who wants money to set your server to creative mode.
More SQL tables / slots isn't necessarily free. A host may run a business model where they offer their overall hosting based on how many slots you want and then provide the appropriate hardware accordingly. This leaves out the worry for the proper hardware out of the customer's list of things to do, but you may not always see what happens behind the scenes, and increasing slots may mean moving to more expensive hardware.
I would say:
2GB RAM = 0-10 players
4GB RAM = 0-15 players
20GB RAM = 0-50 players
30 GB RAM = 0-70 players
In my personal experience, when you minimize bloat and excessive plugins, your playercount can be based on a few factors (keep in mind, upload speed IS a bottleneck at most times).
The Factors
This question have come up quite often that we used to have a site that would help. However, because of the recent changes, the site has become outdated. We are working on getting a new one. However, we do have stats that you can use to calculate this value.
There are a few factors that affect your server's max capacity to hold people. CPU speed, RAM allocation, network speeds, and the type of server you have. Each of these play a different factor.
1) CPU Speed
Since natively Minecraft is not multi-threaded well, and most wrappers do not use multi-threading as well, this means that your CPU's clock speed is the main factor here. The higher a clock speed, the faster it can work. The more cores, the more it can do. If you have a dedicated server, then the number of cores are not really much to be concerned about. A CPU that has a higher clock speed and less cores is a better choice to host a dedicated server than a CPU with more cores but less clock speed as the cores will just idle.
2) RAM
This is one of the 2 major factors in determining the maximum number of players your server can hold. There is a simple calculation that can be done to give an approximate number of players per GB of RAM for a server.
Vanilla servers: Max players = ( (1024 * RAM) - 80 ) / 40
Craftbukkit: Max players = ( (1024 * RAM) - 240 ) / 90
These results were from a locally ran server using Ubuntu 11.10 64-bit on a Java 6 JRE and using the 1.2.5 RB 1.0. These numbers are just estimates, but should be close to what the actual numbers are.
3) Networking
Now, your network is the other large factor in determining your server's maximum player limits. A network can be quite limiting in your server, and also is a factor in determining lag for the server. If a host is located overseas, then expect lag regardless of any hardware the server has. To get your home network speeds for a home-hosted server, just go to http://www.speedtest.net and jot down your download and upload speeds.
[indent=1]
Stages:
Stage 1 - Connection
During this, your server is communicating with the client and transferring data back and forth. Usually the data limits here are under 10 KB/s (yes, this is in kilobytes). This stage is usually not so bad with lag unless your server is already network-heavy or the server is performing a lot of operations already. During this, usually the CPU and any plugins that run during this state will cause you lag.
Stage 2 - Downloading
During this is when your network load is expected to be the highest. This is when the server starts sending any extra data to the clients and the chunks are being sent to the client to load. During this, the network client-side receives close to 100-120 KB/s. This means a server is pushing that much data, which is what the upload speeds are about.
Stage 3 - Updates
During this is when the network load is less than the Stage 2, since chunks updates are not as frequent and it is just individual updates to the server, so average loads there are signiifcantly less than that during Stage 2. Estimated and testing has shown this to use around on average 10-30 KB/s when no chunks are being loads and it is just block changes, movement, and other minor things.
Stage 4 - Movement
This stage is a mix of both Stage 2 and Stage 3, when you will see a spike in the network loads as chunks are being sent to the client, however they are not as long or as large as during Stage 2. Usually these updates cause an expected 50 KB/s download on the client.
To determine the maximum number of clients you can safely support, we will assume that the clients are all during the Stage 2 phase, when the server is transmitting the most data.
To get the players, you first have to do a few conversions.
1) If the speedtest results give you a number in Mb/s, then you need to convert that to Kb/s by multiplying the number by 1024
2) Divide the number now by 8 to get the KB/s.
3) Max players = (internet upload ) / 120
This is assuming though that everyone is connecting at once and that they are all downloading data, so if you wanted to push it, you can increase this number by about 50% if you really wanted to push the server to its limits.[/indent]
4) Server Type
As expected, the vanilla server is the lightest of the server types, so it can hold the most players and run the fastest compared to the others, but suffers from lack of customizations. Bukkit servers require more, so they are "heavier" than vanilla, meaning that they cannot reach the limits of what Vanilla can, but have the benefit of more features. Tekkit is a mix of both, so their stats can be considered the heaviest as they have the limits of Bukkit and the limits due to the mods that are added. To list the order of which can support the most and are the fastest:
1) Vanilla - very few things added, least network, RAM, and CPU loads
2) Bukkit - depending on the plugins added, but usually more consuming in the RAM and CPU
3) Tekkit - depends on plugins, but is usually heaviest with RAM and CPU with the added mod
4) FTB - heavy in cases due to the mods, usually less than Tekkit though
