Hard Light Productions Forums

General FreeSpace => Multiplayer => Topic started by: taylor on March 12, 2008, 06:53:56 pm

Title: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: taylor on March 12, 2008, 06:53:56 pm
FS2NetD will be unavailable late Thursday night for a period of about 30 minutes.  I know that there are people who play on Thursday nights, but this change will happen at some point after 2am GMT, and I'll try and time it for a period that no one is playing.

Given the scope of the changes there are bound to be a few hiccups though.  So please check everything over early Friday so that any fixes can be put into place before you guys need everything working smoothly on Saturday night.


The new upgrade is just one step in a rather drawn out process to add a bunch of new capabilities to FS2NetD on the server side.  This first step is to consolidate the code so that the v.1 server for 3.6.9 and the v.2 server for 3.6.10 can exist in the same package.  They now share the same config file setup, based on XML, and they also live in the same location on the server (before they had to be kept separate).  There is also a new helper app that can be used to start and stop all of the daemons, display the status of each and whether it's running properly or not, and refresh the daemons to get config changes and to restart any dead daemons without having to restart them all.

The v.2 daemon for 3.6.10 builds has had a bunch of changes, with everything to bug fixes to new features.  It should now work far more reliably for everyone and should also be a bit faster, particularly with slower connections.  New security measures are also in place now to help with reliability as well.

The v.1 daemon for 3.6.9 has seen a major upgrade as well, though it's protocol remains the same.  Much of the code is the same between the two now, but the v.1 daemon can't take advantage of all the improvements for bandwidth reduction and faster connections.  It should, however, be a bit more reliable and slightly faster than it was previously.
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: captain-custard on March 14, 2008, 03:01:00 pm
just a quick one i can log into 3.6.9 but cant log into 3.6.10, ive tried 3 ..3.6.10 builds with and without mediavps and no luck , gets to pwxo chat screen and fails to connect to server , is there a new patch , or a new anything?
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: taylor on March 14, 2008, 05:10:59 pm
There is a bug when trying to log into the lobby server, but I haven't identified what that is just yet.  The lobby server daemon was hardly touched in the upgrade so I'm sort of at a loss for what the problem actually might be.  I thought I had it figured out but removing that change didn't fix it.  I hope to find and fix the problem before the day is over though.
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: Shade on March 15, 2008, 06:59:56 pm
3.6.9 daemon doesn't appear to be tracking stats properly at the moment.
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: captain-custard on March 16, 2008, 06:39:26 am
i followed shades advice and downloaded the latest 3.6.10 from your site (taylor), it connects to server but ten fails to read pilot info , so i cant stay in chat or move on to create a game , at the same time i do show up on the 3.6.10 fs2net ,i hope this mindless info helps.....
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: captain-custard on March 16, 2008, 11:04:55 am
just a quick add on .... as i said in my last post i show up on the 3.6.10 server and even though i logged out 2hrs ago im still there and can no longer get connected to the 3.6.10 server......
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: Shade on March 16, 2008, 03:18:29 pm
Also just found an issue with the FS2NetD website. After going to the site, it doesn't display games or logged-on players until you switch to a different mod. It still shows the number of players online with the number at the bottom-right of the player list, but no names or connection info.
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: taylor on March 16, 2008, 04:56:30 pm
3.6.9 daemon doesn't appear to be tracking stats properly at the moment.
Can you verify whether the 3.6.10 daemon stores stats or not?

The logs confirm that the 3.6.9 daemon isn't storing stats, or doing several other things, properly.  The code in those particular functions is identical between the two daemon versions though, and the 3.6.10 daemon indicates no database errors, so it's a pretty curious situation.

I'll keep an eye on the logs to see if it gives any extra clues as to what is going on, but it's likely to be a couple of days before I can really work on that stuff again.
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: FUBAR-BDHR on March 16, 2008, 06:07:48 pm
Can anyone even connect with 3.6.10?  I know I couldn't yesterday.
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: captain-custard on March 16, 2008, 06:10:29 pm
id love to do that but 3.6.10 server will not let me log in , failed to connect msg everytime .... heres my multi log

[attachment deleted by ninja]
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: Shade on March 16, 2008, 06:26:29 pm
I've been able to connect fine using the 3-14 build, and host a game, but I haven't actually gone as far as committing to a mission.
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: captain-custard on March 16, 2008, 06:42:48 pm
ive tried using the 3.14 build and im still logged on to the fs2net server, this has been like this for the last 8 hrs , but it could not authenticate my pilot and timed out so im left in limbo on the server, i wonder what the difference is between our two logins ?
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: FUBAR-BDHR on March 16, 2008, 08:22:49 pm
I was using the 2-22 build.  Have to get the 3-14 one and try that next time.
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: taylor on March 16, 2008, 08:51:19 pm
I was using the 2-22 build.  Have to get the 3-14 one and try that next time.
Yeah, sorry about that guys, you do need to use 3/13 or newer.  Since the daemons can now run in parallel I didn't bother doing the extra setup to run the v.2 daemon, which means that it now runs on a different IP and port number than it did before (now "fs2netd.game-warden.com:12009").  The builds still hard code the config settings, so it's not possible to change that info until the next set of builds.
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: captain-custard on March 16, 2008, 10:10:53 pm
ok im still having problems, 3.6.9 it works , 3.6.10-xt_0314 is a no go can you or shade please atatch your...fs2open_pxo file( if thats the right one) to be asking for, so i can try with that and the 3.6.10 server still has me as logged in can u flush its cache or something ?

thanks in advance
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: taylor on March 16, 2008, 10:49:26 pm
ok im still having problems, 3.6.9 it works , 3.6.10-xt_0314 is a no go can you or shade please atatch your...fs2open_pxo file( if thats the right one) to be asking for, so i can try with that and the 3.6.10 server still has me as logged in can u flush its cache or something ?
Try it now.

Oh, and it no longer uses fs2open_pxo.cfg, it uses multi.cfg now.  Plus in all test builds so far the connection information is hard coded, so you can't change it anyway.
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: captain-custard on March 17, 2008, 02:00:12 am
ah interesting and know your going to tell me i have to create a new pilot to use the 3.6.10 network or otherwise it will try to load my stats which arent on that server and obviously fail each time causing the problem i have now.... i get to the pilot stats and there it times out and fails to finish logging on and returns me back to the game hangar, and now im in limbo again lol
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: Shade on March 17, 2008, 06:57:31 am
I can't log in either now, so it's not just you. The error message reads "An unknown error (probably a timeout) occured when trying to retrieve your pilot data". Logs show nothing interesting except "FS2NetD ERROR:  UNKNOWN ERROR when fetching pilot data".

[Edit] Oh, and a nice little graphical error when the error popup is active :p:

[attachment deleted by ninja]
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: taylor on March 17, 2008, 09:10:07 am
I can't log in either now, so it's not just you. The error message reads "An unknown error (probably a timeout) occured when trying to retrieve your pilot data". Logs show nothing interesting except "FS2NetD ERROR:  UNKNOWN ERROR when fetching pilot data".
Yeah, the daemon crashed due to andicirk's issue (which is what messed it up yesterday too).  I had it running in a debug session though, so I'll go through and fix the problem in the next hour or so and get a new build up and running shortly afterwords.
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: captain-custard on March 17, 2008, 09:13:54 am
thanks taylor, and sorry maybe captain custard is just to much for the new server, ( respawning every 2 minutes is hard work for the server)

Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: taylor on March 17, 2008, 09:46:39 am
thanks taylor, and sorry maybe captain custard is just to much for the new server, ( respawning every 2 minutes is hard work for the server)
Nah, it's just a code oversight on my part.  Actually it was a bug in the previous code too, but due to a slight fluke it didn't risk crashing before where as now it will.
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: Shade on March 17, 2008, 01:41:30 pm
Besides that, the fact is that crashing the server now is good. That means it won't crash after release :)
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: taylor on March 17, 2008, 05:42:20 pm
Ok, give it all another try.  I think that I fixed the crashing and the bugs that caused the various storage issues (stats, pilot creation, etc.).  Let me know if it's working any better or not.
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: captain-custard on March 18, 2008, 02:57:33 am
ok, maybe a little better but it still bugs on the player stats , times out at this point and then throws me bk to hanger........
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: Shade on March 18, 2008, 12:00:48 pm
Logging into the 3.6.10 chat lobby takes ages, otherwise it seems to work on both 3.6.9 and 3.6.10. The website still won't show online users until you switch mods, though. Haven't tested whether stats store yet, but I'm looking out for any opportinuties to do so.
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: taylor on March 18, 2008, 12:07:56 pm
The website still won't show online users until you switch mods, though.
There are two pages, index.php and main.php, but there are basically the exact same file.  They were symlinked at one point but that keeps getting messed up.  The problem is almost certainly that I changed the config setup in main.php (which gets used when you switch mods) and index.php got missed so the initial load of the page doesn't show anything properly.  When I get a chance I'll fix that, but it isn't exactly my top priority at the moment. :)
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: Shade on March 18, 2008, 12:16:01 pm
That's understandable :) Nice to know why, though.
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: captain-custard on March 18, 2008, 02:32:39 pm
ok still cant log in and once again im stuck in limbo, im gunna try creating a fs folder thats pretty much blank to see if its a conflict my end and ill try and post the results here, what do i need to give you information wise so that i can log in and play on fs2net
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: captain-custard on March 19, 2008, 07:41:34 am
ok i created a new fs folder based on 3.6.10xt 3/14......; only left the absolute minimum in there created a clone pilot with no medals no missions etc , and no change its limbo ...... 3.6.9 works but seems really slow on mission load up , btrl and tbp on 3.6.9 work ok as well

shade can you post me your setup so i can compare it with what im running and see if this a conflict my end....

sorry to be giving you extra work @ taylor but i think the 3.6.10 server has bugged with my big foot still in the door , ive been there for 24hrs stuck in limbo.........
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: captain-custard on March 22, 2008, 12:10:28 am
grrrrr still buggs at pilot stats point....... and 3.6.9 takes ages too load up but does work
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: captain-custard on March 25, 2008, 07:06:07 pm
any news about the 3.6.10 server side of things, it would be nice to play with normal maps again ....

  :D ;) :D ;) :D
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: taylor on March 25, 2008, 08:38:13 pm
any news about the 3.6.10 server side of things, it would be nice to play with normal maps again ....
I haven't had any more time to work on it yet.  I should be able to get it all working again this weekend though.
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: captain-custard on March 26, 2008, 04:52:11 am
thanks taylor thats great news ,
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: taylor on March 29, 2008, 12:06:31 pm
any news about the 3.6.10 server side of things
Give it another try now.  It could still crash, but I'll be watching to catch any other issues that it comes up with.
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: FUBAR-BDHR on March 30, 2008, 06:10:22 pm
I reset the standalone today since you made that server change.  1000% faster mission validation loop.
Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: captain-custard on March 31, 2008, 02:22:51 am
thanks taylor , it works............,  :D :yes:

just a quick one when will 3.6.10 start saving stats or do we have to create a new pilot for this...

Title: Re: Server downtime for software upgrade on Friday (late Thursday night)
Post by: taylor on March 31, 2008, 05:39:54 am
just a quick one when will 3.6.10 start saving stats or do we have to create a new pilot for this...
It should already save stats.  If it doesn't save for some reason then post your multi.log file for me to look at.