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BiosElement

Server Disk Usage Out of Control

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So this has been mentioned in another thread, but It's a big enough issue to deserve it's own. After several hours (ala overnight) the dedicated server decides to use 30mb/s or more of the disk, probably updating databases in-place. Naturally this is horrible for both anything else on the drive, disk lifetime and probably performance for the game itself.


 


Until this gets fixed, I'm looking into the use of a ramdisk to at least save the drive from having to take such a beating.


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Sure use an SSD but there is no reason for DB writes this hard its almost like the DBs are not cached in RAM and writing out to the disk periodically. This needs to be addressed.


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SSD's won't improve the issue much. Sure it'll be faster, but you're just ripping through the SSD's life. I too will make a RAM disk for this, because this is causing performance issues (even on a hardware RAID) both in game and for other processes.


 


This is a pretty serious issue that should be a high priority...


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I'd love to have what you guys refer to as a RAM disk, but I lack knowledge on the subject. Would anyone be willing to post a guide on how to accomplish all or part of this? Thanks.


Edited by Munsta0

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I'd love to have what you guys refer to as a RAM disk, but I lack knowledge on the subject. Would anyone be willing to post a guide on how to accomplish all or part of this? Thanks.

Google dataram or go to memory.dataram.com

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That's good to hear. Is there a target date for this? (Not sure if there is any planned schedule for update waves for example 1 batch a week?)

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That's good to hear. Is there a target date for this? (Not sure if there is any planned schedule for update waves for example 1 batch a week?)

Also wanting to know this

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yeah, use an SSD.

Unusually high disk I/O will shorten a solid state disk's life a lot, writing operations in particular, I wouldn't recommend putting it there.

Edited by Ulviirala
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I run a RAID 1 SSD.   I recommend this for anyone wanting to host anything over a handful of players.   Most of this is SQL.   I also found that running a dedicated SQL server is much better performance and easier to backup without impact to players. 

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I run a RAID 1 SSD.   I recommend this for anyone wanting to host anything over a handful of players.   Most of this is SQL.   I also found that running a dedicated SQL server is much better performance and easier to backup without impact to players. 




 


That doesn't address the Wurm server software performing infinite constant writes. Faster storage just means you're accelerating the wear the case of SSD's. A single mechanical disk should be more than enough for running a Wurm server with a small amount of players, particularly if most of you are in a close(ish) location on the map.


 


Also Wurm is all SQLite so it doesn't really have a "server" component you can dedicate. This would only be achievable by creating symbolic links to redirect the databases to some dedicated storage. That isn't related to this issue though, as it's the protected tiles binary map that is being infinitely written to -- not an SQL database (file or networked).


 





We already fixed that, fix will appear in next update.




 


Any ETA on when this is getting published?


Edited by Adambean

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I can confirm that the update yesterday didn't fix it. I still get 30MB/s write operations after running the server for too long.

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Is it after 4 hours still? I try to restart the server more often for now.


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can you validate the beta_branch name syntax please using SteamCMD.    Im still getting the same MD5.  


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That doesn't address the Wurm server software performing infinite constant writes. Faster storage just means you're accelerating the wear the case of SSD's. A single mechanical disk should be more than enough for running a Wurm server with a small amount of players, particularly if most of you are in a close(ish) location on the map.

 

Also Wurm is all SQLite so it doesn't really have a "server" component you can dedicate. This would only be achievable by creating symbolic links to redirect the databases to some dedicated storage. That isn't related to this issue though, as it's the protected tiles binary map that is being infinitely written to -- not an SQL database (file or networked).

 

 

Any ETA on when this is getting published?

 

 

 

No I agree on the life of the SSD.   This is not the first server I've run with high disk r/w.    But in a raid5 at least you're spreading it out between multiple disks.  It appears another fix is in beta branch but im having issues with getting the image using steamCMD.   Its pulling the same MD5.   Ive asked for the correct syntax and name in another thread.  

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Should be fixed on beta branch now.

 

Thanks, I'll try this out on my home server today. The branch downloaded and it's running, I'll know in 4 hours time if this is fixed. :)

 

Already I'm no longer seeing "disk active time" constantly hovering at 100% when starting the server, so that's a good sign for now. Initial disk usage appears to be very low.

 

can you validate the beta_branch name syntax please using SteamCMD.    Im still getting the same MD5.  

 

You need to use these parameters:

+"app_update 402370 -beta beta validate"

The quotes after the + and after validate are important when declaring a branch.

 

No I agree on the life of the SSD.   This is not the first server I've run with high disk r/w.    But in a raid5 at least you're spreading it out between multiple disks.  It appears another fix is in beta branch but im having issues with getting the image using steamCMD.   Its pulling the same MD5.   Ive asked for the correct syntax and name in another thread.  

 

My home server has a 4 disk RAID 5, Wurm was causing the disk active time to hover around 100% consistently -- even before the 4 hour protected times bug. This was impacting other processes.

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Thanks, I'll try this out on my home server today. The branch downloaded and it's running, I'll know in 4 hours time if this is fixed. :)

 

Already I'm no longer seeing "disk active time" constantly hovering at 100% when starting the server, so that's a good sign for now. Initial disk usage appears to be very low.

 

 

You need to use these parameters:

+"app_update 402370 -beta beta validate"

The quotes after the + and after validate are important when declaring a branch.

 

 

Many thanks!!!    

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Should be fixed on beta branch now.

 

Good news: 4 and a half hours later I'm not seeing any oddly high disk I/O. The most intensive I/O handle is for top_layer.map at 34 kBytes/second (oh no!), due to us doing some terraforming. Looks like this is fixed. :)

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I seem to skill be having this problem. I am getting an I/o of around 32mbs has this been pushed to an update yet?


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I seem to skill be having this problem. I am getting an I/o of around 32mbs has this been pushed to an update yet?

 

It has been pushed to the beta branch.

 

All good from this end since updating:

 

d47505541c.png

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What Jacklez said. If you're using SteamCMD to update a dedicated server, make sure you triple check you really are downloading the correct beta branch. Performance has still been quite excellent for my server since getting this update from the beta branch.


Edited by Adambean

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