Orxonox Game Server

[beni]

I talked to Nowic the other day and heard of his and his colleagues idea to rent a root server. Nowic would get a fourth of the resources and would use the server for all kind of services. He said that he's also willing to let friends use the server if the service is not causing too much traffic and even then, he would just demand to pay for the extra traffic.
This is when I came up with the idea for a Orxonox game server while I was thinking about services I could use the server for. Nowic even said, that he would donate the space and traffic it would use.

I know the network isn't ready yet and that we haven't completed a dedicated server yet, but for testing and for raising popularity reasons, we should at least keep in mind that Nowic offers us some static space on the net. The server IS suitable as a game server and therefore would may be better than Nautilus.

[BadElvis]

This sounds great. I'm sure, a server would attract some attention from other students.

Still I would not rent a server until the game is playable and use a ETH-server for testing purposes (if possible).

But if Nowic rents the server anyway, then why not.

[nicolasc]

Still I would not rent a server until the game is playable and use a ETH-server for testing purposes (if possible).

ACK, I don't really see a point in using a dedicated server, if we are still trouble-shooting, and trying to get this thing working.

OTOH, I would prefer, if we had our own server - not to make this idea bad - but if Nowic suddenly decides to drop Orxonox, the project would still have its server. It's me wanting to be independent...

cheers
nico

[x3n]

sounds cool

don't forget we'll also need some sort of a master server. thats maybe where nautilus comes in. or a separate root server.

i myself have access to a root server too (from my ut-clan), but i won't run an orxonox server on it, except for testing purposes (which don't take much time), but not as a long-time server.


edit:
@nico: renting our own root-server is a good idea, but its not cheap. a good server might cost up to 100.- CHF per month, but could host maybe 5 orxonox gameservers. of course we could rent a slower machine, but it's still an expensive purchase.
maybe that's the point where a sponsor could come in quite handy.

[beni]

I'm sure, a server would attract some attention from other students.

That's what I hope as well!

Still I would not rent a server until the game is playable and use a ETH-server for testing purposes (if possible).

True, we cannot make use of this offer yet. That's something we want work on, right? It's good to know that there is somebody willing to support us in this way.

OTOH, I would prefer, if we had our own server - not to make this idea bad - but if Nowic suddenly decides to drop Orxonox, the project would still have its server. It's me wanting to be independent...

Ain't that always the problem? Right now we even have problems with Nautilus, since VSETH wants us to change the server hardware. Renting an own server brings the disadvantages of high costs. I don't think that bit of independence makes up for the difference in cost. But that's my opinion.

i myself have access to a root server too (from my ut-clan), but i won't run an orxonox server on it, except for testing purposes (which don't take much time), but not as a long-time server.

Yes, we have several possibilities to use various servers for short time testing. Also tardis would fit in there. Nowic' server would rather be used for a long time server.

maybe that's the point where a sponsor could come in quite handy.

That's true. We need a sponsor anyway. I'll see if I can get to the AMIV meeting to ask for a sponsorship. I'm not sure yet how to manage, but we'll see.
But you guys too, could search for an idea for a sponsor or even find one. This would be quite cool.

[nicolasc]

What I meant by staying independent: Don't make ourselves dependent on one single person, if we can do it with a group.
Sure, we will always have some sort of dependence...

and yes, nautilus needs some fixing - another solution.

cheers
nico

[Nowic]

Today we ordered our server. I rent it together with 3 friends. So I'll only own 1/4 of the ressources in my Xen-Guest, but it's a powerfull machine.

It's located in Germany, AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Dual Core, 4 GB DDR2 RAM, 2 x 400 GB SATA II, 55 GBit/s

a nice toy

I would love to host an orxonox server as long as it doesn't produce too much traffic and cpu load. ('only' 1TB/month is free)

nowic

[lieni]

Hi,
may I ask what kind of offer you got from what company? I've been looking for a long time for a root server too... but could never find anything affordable or people who wanted to share.

thx

edit: hetzner.de?

[nicolasc]

I would have to ask a friend one mine... He has one here in switzerland, and is quite happy - especially about the service.

@nowic: just 33GB per day, that should be doable

cheers
nico

[beni]

edit: hetzner.de?

As far as I remember, this site was in Nowic' browser when I visited him in the ETZ Foyer , yes.

[Nowic]

edit: hetzner.de?

As far as I remember, this site was in Nowic' browser when I visited him in the ETZ Foyer , yes.

Jep, http://hetzner.de/rootserver.html (DS 5000)

[Dorian]

hetzner root servers are quite good, i rent myself two of the ds3000 and had a good experience with them, a ds 3000 costs only 49 euros a mont, for us in switzerland it's even cheaper, 41 euro because of EU's high VAT, which doesn't count for swiss people
and with hetzner, you have really free choice of the os, i run gentoo on my servers, for example

[patrick]

I will think about a sponsoring program for Orxonox. I see that there is need for a small fund of money that can be accessed without much delay and trouble for very urgent things like the Nautilus-VSETH-Hardware issue. And there is always the risk of hardware failures that need fast fixing and fast money.

On the other side I see Orxonox events, like:
- PPS Pizza dinner
- Orxonox Fondue
- Orxonox BBQ
Where people working hard on Orxonox come together to meet and talk about Orxonox.

And I would actually like to add another event: "Orxonox Weekend", see this thread.

I think it would make sense, that Orxonox will be able to pay parts of these expenses (and never all, because people tend to forget how much things are worth, when it's free ) through an Orxonox fund.

What do you think? Do you have suggestions for fundings?

[beni]

Well, I already wrote to Simon Umbricht, the president of AMIV. He invited me for the next meeting at the beginning of the semester. I'm not exactly sure what I should do there, but it will involve explaining what Orxonox is and what we need money for and what we're willing to give in return.
Good thing: At the Maturandentagen the representatives of AMIV talked about Orxonox to attract students for the ITET. This means AMIV knows us already and many people at least heard of Orxonox.
So AMIV would be possible. I have to admit though, that I do not know how to handle such stuff. I never did something like getting sponsored by anybody.

[patrick]

Cool. I know Simon well, we did a TIK course together and he's a nice guy. I told him some things about Orxonox in the course . We should definitely make some thoughts about it. If you have enough to do with the overall Orxonox work, let me know, I will be gladly going to this meeting and inform you about it.
But of course it's your call.

BTW: to the root server idea: Thanks novic and beni. I think it is always a good motivation to see people willing to help the orxonox community.

I opened a new thread.