[nopleez]

The server now has a set map rotation as of this morning/last night. What was the reason behind removing map voting?

[Rylo Ken]

because we live in a absolute monarchy in which hani is our ruler

[La Flama Blanca]

Señor Dink told a few people yesterday that he was going to remove the map voting system to see if it reduced the lag/crashing that happens a lot upon map changes. Gabe mentioned that it doesn’t seem to be working though, so the change is perhaps only temporary.

[Avocado Toast]

The server still crashes when it changes

[reed1103]

Fish did mention in a post that all the data in the database causes lag at round start, it may have something to do with the mapchange lag, but idk

[Cosmic Tortoise]

I though this was about midround map votes, to which half the map votes were for maps even the server didn't have.

[Tedgp908]

Fish did mention in a post that all the data in the database causes lag at round start, it may have something to do with the mapchange lag, but idk

Yes, this is the cause of the lag. When the map changes it basically will restart the server, and when all the players join back to the server on the map change they send the query for the SQL database to serve up this information. So when a map starts, each user will query the database their time on the server, rank, and point shop information. Im guessing this is around 20 queries per user, with a full server this will be around 640 queries. The issue with all SQL based databases is that queries can only occur one at a time, each query gets added to a job queue. At the start of the round everyone gets their guns that they selected in the point shop. So everyone user will query the database for all the guns a player will have. It will run a separate query for each gun. (main, secondary, grenade). It will also do a query for your hat, player model, etc. You can see how quickly this adds up.

The Janitor that set all this up did not have a good understanding of how to do this resulting in many inefficiencies. This also results databases not being well optimized, or normalized slowing it all down. I am unaware of how exactly these databases are structures, but I wouldn't be surprised if the databases for PH, TTT, and forums all run off of the same server that is not dedicated to being a SQL server. I am sure this server is overwhelmed and not designed to handle this many requests. A good way to speed this up was to transfer all the databases to a dedicated database server, if this already hasn't been done. The databases are also not updated, and are filled with corrupted data. Think of on these forums, if you go back to an old post, it won't quite look right. All this corrupted data also slows down the queries; this is also the cause of the warning on the forums many people see onLoad. At this point I would speculate if the databased were to be updated it would result in a loss of data.  The Janitor with his lack of knowledge saw SQL as a way to end all the server lag and thought that if all the existing data stored in .JSON or .txt files were to be transitioned to SQL would reduce lag. He came to this conclusion and convinced the server to go in this route without realizing the downsides. While the current use of SQL may have speed things up initially it has now reached a point that it slows it all down. It will keep slowing down if the player slots are increased, and even as new steam users join the server. The latter will have a very slight effect.

---

Also, the recent Garry's Mod update increased load time for all servers.

[Everyjuan]

Fish did mention in a post that all the data in the database causes lag at round start, it may have something to do with the mapchange lag, but idk

Yes, this is the cause of the lag. When the map changes it basically will restart the server, and when all the players join back to the server on the map change they send the query for the SQL database to serve up this information. So when a map starts, each user will query the database their time on the server, rank, and point shop information. Im guessing this is around 20 queries per user, with a full server this will be around 640 queries. The issue with all SQL based databases is that queries can only occur one at a time, each query gets added to a job queue. At the start of the round everyone gets their guns that they selected in the point shop. So everyone user will query the database for all the guns a player will have. It will run a separate query for each gun. (main, secondary, grenade). It will also do a query for your hat, player model, etc. You can see how quickly this adds up.

The Janitor that set all this up did not have a good understanding of how to do this resulting in many inefficiencies. This also results databases not being well optimized, or normalized slowing it all down. I am unaware of how exactly these databases are structures, but I wouldn't be surprised if the databases for PH, TTT, and forums all run off of the same server that is not dedicated to being a SQL server. I am sure this server is overwhelmed and not designed to handle this many requests. A good way to speed this up was to transfer all the databases to a dedicated database server, if this already hasn't been done. The databases are also not updated, and are filled with corrupted data. Think of on these forums, if you go back to an old post, it won't quite look right. All this corrupted data also slows down the queries; this is also the cause of the warning on the forums many people see onLoad. At this point I would speculate if the databased were to be updated it would result in a loss of data.  The Janitor with his lack of knowledge saw SQL as a way to end all the server lag and thought that if all the existing data stored in .JSON or .txt files were to be transitioned to SQL would reduce lag. He came to this conclusion and convinced the server to go in this route without realizing the downsides. While the current use of SQL may have speed things up initially it has now reached a point that it slows it all down. It will keep slowing down if the player slots are increased, and even as new steam users join the server. The latter will have a very slight effect.

---

Also, the recent Garry's Mod update increased load time for all servers.

I appreciate your guesses, but the server that runs the SQL databases is dedicated for SQL and some light Apache.  We watch for resource issues.

Where do you see there being corrupted data, and what database updates are you referring to? I'm assuming since you're making these statements, you have knowledge of what you're talking about. I'd be curious to know what account you're using to look at this data to make these statements, as I don't see an account for you on the DB or SQL server.

[Tedgp908]

Fish did mention in a post that all the data in the database causes lag at round start, it may have something to do with the mapchange lag, but idk

Yes, this is the cause of the lag. When the map changes it basically will restart the server, and when all the players join back to the server on the map change they send the query for the SQL database to serve up this information. So when a map starts, each user will query the database their time on the server, rank, and point shop information. Im guessing this is around 20 queries per user, with a full server this will be around 640 queries. The issue with all SQL based databases is that queries can only occur one at a time, each query gets added to a job queue. At the start of the round everyone gets their guns that they selected in the point shop. So everyone user will query the database for all the guns a player will have. It will run a separate query for each gun. (main, secondary, grenade). It will also do a query for your hat, player model, etc. You can see how quickly this adds up.

The Janitor that set all this up did not have a good understanding of how to do this resulting in many inefficiencies. This also results databases not being well optimized, or normalized slowing it all down. I am unaware of how exactly these databases are structures, but I wouldn't be surprised if the databases for PH, TTT, and forums all run off of the same server that is not dedicated to being a SQL server. I am sure this server is overwhelmed and not designed to handle this many requests. A good way to speed this up was to transfer all the databases to a dedicated database server, if this already hasn't been done. The databases are also not updated, and are filled with corrupted data. Think of on these forums, if you go back to an old post, it won't quite look right. All this corrupted data also slows down the queries; this is also the cause of the warning on the forums many people see onLoad. At this point I would speculate if the databased were to be updated it would result in a loss of data.  The Janitor with his lack of knowledge saw SQL as a way to end all the server lag and thought that if all the existing data stored in .JSON or .txt files were to be transitioned to SQL would reduce lag. He came to this conclusion and convinced the server to go in this route without realizing the downsides. While the current use of SQL may have speed things up initially it has now reached a point that it slows it all down. It will keep slowing down if the player slots are increased, and even as new steam users join the server. The latter will have a very slight effect.

---

Also, the recent Garry's Mod update increased load time for all servers.

I appreciate your guesses, but the server that runs the SQL databases is dedicated for SQL and some light Apache.  We watch for resource issues.

Where do you see there being corrupted data, and what database updates are you referring to? I'm assuming since you're making these statements, you have knowledge of what you're talking about.  I'd be curious to know what account you're using to look at this data to make these statements, as I don't see an account for you on the DB or SQL server.

I have no access to the server. You can tell some data is corrupted on the forum database by looking at old threads and looking at the old threads where words are broken up by basically junk characters. And how many people have an SQL warning message about encountering a null data field on the forums. You didn’t ask but to speak to my credibility, im double majoring in CS and Math at Purdue and have a job doing a lot of work on databases.

[Everyjuan]

Fish did mention in a post that all the data in the database causes lag at round start, it may have something to do with the mapchange lag, but idk

Yes, this is the cause of the lag. When the map changes it basically will restart the server, and when all the players join back to the server on the map change they send the query for the SQL database to serve up this information. So when a map starts, each user will query the database their time on the server, rank, and point shop information. Im guessing this is around 20 queries per user, with a full server this will be around 640 queries. The issue with all SQL based databases is that queries can only occur one at a time, each query gets added to a job queue. At the start of the round everyone gets their guns that they selected in the point shop. So everyone user will query the database for all the guns a player will have. It will run a separate query for each gun. (main, secondary, grenade). It will also do a query for your hat, player model, etc. You can see how quickly this adds up.

The Janitor that set all this up did not have a good understanding of how to do this resulting in many inefficiencies. This also results databases not being well optimized, or normalized slowing it all down. I am unaware of how exactly these databases are structures, but I wouldn't be surprised if the databases for PH, TTT, and forums all run off of the same server that is not dedicated to being a SQL server. I am sure this server is overwhelmed and not designed to handle this many requests. A good way to speed this up was to transfer all the databases to a dedicated database server, if this already hasn't been done. The databases are also not updated, and are filled with corrupted data. Think of on these forums, if you go back to an old post, it won't quite look right. All this corrupted data also slows down the queries; this is also the cause of the warning on the forums many people see onLoad. At this point I would speculate if the databased were to be updated it would result in a loss of data.  The Janitor with his lack of knowledge saw SQL as a way to end all the server lag and thought that if all the existing data stored in .JSON or .txt files were to be transitioned to SQL would reduce lag. He came to this conclusion and convinced the server to go in this route without realizing the downsides. While the current use of SQL may have speed things up initially it has now reached a point that it slows it all down. It will keep slowing down if the player slots are increased, and even as new steam users join the server. The latter will have a very slight effect.

---

Also, the recent Garry's Mod update increased load time for all servers.

I appreciate your guesses, but the server that runs the SQL databases is dedicated for SQL and some light Apache.  We watch for resource issues.

Where do you see there being corrupted data, and what database updates are you referring to? I'm assuming since you're making these statements, you have knowledge of what you're talking about.  I'd be curious to know what account you're using to look at this data to make these statements, as I don't see an account for you on the DB or SQL server.

I have no access to the server. You can tell some data is corrupted on the forum database by looking at old threads and looking at the old threads where words are broken up by basically junk characters. And how many people have an SQL warning message about encountering a null data field on the forums. You didn’t ask but to speak to my credibility, im double majoring in CS and Math at Purdue and have a job doing a lot of work on databases.

Fair creds, but i'm looking at the data and don't see this.  I'll dig more.  The version isn't far behind, there isn't resource contention.  I DO see SOME slow queries but nothing outstanding. Trust me, we're working on this but I only have so much time as I also do this for a living 10-12 hours a day elsewhere.

I did have Dink increase RAM on the box as it only had 1GB when I started.  CPU is fine. Open to suggestions.