(Complete) MTA Server Upgrade: OS from live to SSD based

[[DRuG]NikT]

I just bought an OCZ 60Gb SSD for the server - tonight I will be upgrading MTA to 1.0.5 and setting up Debian on the SSD... as a result, the MTA server will be down for up to 8 hours.

No stats etc will be lost - this is NikT, non-loser of data.

*edit*

1.0.4 server is back up on the new permanent debian 6 install on an OCZ 60Gb SSD drive I just put in it.

Over the next hour or so I will merge the 104 resources with the new 1.0.5 server daemon at http://linux.mtasa.com.. once it's running nicely I'll transfer the stats across and complete the move by taking down the 1.0.4 daemon and run 1.0.5. Plannnnnz - wish me luck.

*edit 2* we're now on 1.0.5!! everything seems to be running smoothly

[[DRuG]Stijger]

Good Luck Nikt,
You're the best

[Hypno_Toad]

BOO YA!

[[DRuG]NikT]

Well we're up on 1.0.5 and a fresh install of debian linux 6.0.1a netinst. - running off a shiney new solid state drive.. server is launching in around a minute where previously, from the live linux (it wasnt installed on a disk, just running off a usb) it was taking around 20 minutes for it to launch... it does have to cache around a gig of resources, but still.

What does all this mean for you?

- Server updates will be faster, resource additions can even be done when the server is busy because refreshing them also happens in under a minute now.

- We're running an updated race resource, so far I don't see any new features, but all good.

- Map list now works in the admin panel

- The network interface, which was seeming to drop out every hour or so, now seems to be behaving. I suspected a faulty cable or a switch or the router needed a reboot, but it seems to be behaving on the new install.. that live usb linux idea wasn't such a good one.. glad the server now has a decent drive - improvements to performance everywhere

- The server itself isn't even breaking a sweat - it's an Intel dual core 1.6GHz with 2Gb RAM (a laptop) - cpu graphs are peaking under 5% so everything should run really smoothly.. amazing what a difference a proper install and a good disk will make.

[HaRCoR7]

Naice work!

[[DRuG]Ryant]

yay!

[[DRuG]tvc]

Hope you didn't put the swap on the SSD.

[[DRuG]NikT]

I did, actually - the entire system only has the SSD, do u see a problem there?

[[DRuG]tvc]

I assume you already know that once all RAM is used, the swap space is treated as extra RAM. Writing to an SSD consists of a delete then a write, over time this wares down the cells in the SSD (they're notorious for not lasting long), if you're treating the SSD as RAM, it's performing many read/writes all the time and will ware down your SSD faster then it would do with normal use. Some ways you can get rid of the risk are, trying to find a second SATA port on the motherboard and attach a normal HDD to use as swap, or increasing the amount of RAM in the computer and removing swap altogether.

Many people on Windows disable their pagefile or move it to another HDD, I also assume you know that the pagefile is the Windows equivalent of swap in Linux.

[[DRuG]NikT]

This one never uses even half it's physical ram, it sits at a load avg of roughly 0.01 and never gets used as a desktop... generally I always overspec the amount of RAM in a machine, as it makes such a difference to speed.

Good advice, though.. cheers!