Which game VPS hosting for CSGO server(s)? CPU / Hypervisor requirements?

pr3d4t0r · **Author**

Hello!

I searching for a good VPS hosting for CS:GO gameserver(s). I moved my server from a poor gamehosting to a game-VPS hosting, now it's better, but not good enough.
Now I run a high slot number public server on debian7, and if there are more than 20-22 players on 128tick, sv is increased (20-30), because of the cpu load (100%).

This configuration (lscpu output):
Architecture: x86_64
CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order: Little Endian
CPU(s): 32
Vendor ID: GenuineIntel
CPU family: 6
Model: 44
Stepping: 2
CPU MHz: 2261.039
BogoMIPS: 4521.83
Virtualization: VT-x

As it found that the Source engine is not responding to the multi-core architecture, core load always the same like this:
1 [||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||100.0%]
2 [| 1.0%]

1 [||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||97.4%]
2 [|| 2.1%]

1 [||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 57.0%]
2 [|||||||||||||||||||||||| 42.1%]

1 [| 1.7%]
2 [||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||99.6%]

1 [|| 3.1%]
2 [||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||100.0%]

1 [||||||||||||||||||||||| 39.1%]
2 [||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 62.0%]

1 [||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||99.8%]
2 [|| 2.2%]

So I tried a well-known game vps hosting's (nfoservers) cheapest singe core package, but it's not a good choice, only 1 player and 9 bots gets the cpu load near 100%!
Configuration info:
root@nfotest:/etc/init.d# lscpu
Architecture: x86_64
CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order: Little Endian
CPU(s): 1
On-line CPU(s) list: 0
Thread(s) per core: 1
Core(s) per socket: 1
Socket(s): 1
NUMA node(s): 1
Vendor ID: GenuineIntel
CPU family: 6
Model: 63
Stepping: 2
CPU MHz: 2600.058
BogoMIPS: 5200.11
Hypervisor vendor: Xen
Virtualization type: full
L1d cache: 32K
L1i cache: 32K
L2 cache: 256K
L3 cache: 35840K
NUMA node0 CPU(s): 0

So which VPS hosting should I try, if I would like to run now 1, later 2 high slot number 128 tick public csgo server?
Which hypervisor is better for this, Xen or VT-x?
What kind of CPU configuration should I search for this?
Only one core is able to use the Source engine under windows?

/Sorry for my bad english/

hustl4

Try using NFO's 2 CPU package instead of the singe, I am currently using that and am running at total of 4 servers: 3 servers @ 128 tick 10 players each and 1 server 64 tick 10 players.

CPU load is always at 100% when all servers full, but no lag in game and var is low, as long as restart server every day or 2.

PresidentEvil

get a VPS from NFO, I'd recommend a managed 4 core

Miu

Quote:

Originally Posted by pr3d4t0r

Only one core is able to use the Source engine under windows?

All the main work is done in a single thread AFAIK so yeah, don't think there's anything you can do about that

pr3d4t0r

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miu

All the main work is done in a single thread AFAIK so yeah, don't think there's anything you can do about that

I read some posts about that, higher populity servers maybe running better on win OS, because of the OS's multitheading function. (Windows is supposed to be able to run the SRCDS as multithread)
Personally, I prefer linux for server systems, but I decided to do a test, I rented a Windows VPS trial period of one service provider.

Windows: Xeon X5570 4 x 2,93GHz, 4GB RAM, Server 2008 R2
Linux: Xeon X5680 4 x (I can use up to 2,261GHz), 4GB RAM, Debian 7

Now I have tested windows and debian servers with the same configuration and load.
Load simulation: I set bot_quota 20, I joined the server, and watch the values about 5 minutes under warmup.

Experiences on win server (128tick, 20bot):
sv: 120-200 (avg: 150)
var: 5-20 (avg: 8 )
ping: 19

after rcon bot_kick
sv: 1-2 (avg: 1,7)
var: 0,1-0,5 (avg: 0,3)
ping: 5

Experiences on debian server (128tick, 20bot):
sv: 30-70 (avg: 50)
var: 3-15 (avg: 5)
ping: 11

after rcon bot_kick
sv: 0-1 (avg: 0,7)
var: 0,008-0,2 (avg: 0,02)
ping: 5

CPU loads attached.

So should I change something on windows, to force SRCDS to use more thread, or is it automatic? Just because now the linux csgo server is better on weaker hardware...

Puppetmaster

There was a thread a while back that gave a .cfg file that I found to massively reduce the CPU load at high player counts on my servers. After applying it my servers CPU usage halved and its ingame var would sit at around 0.02ms with 10+ players on 128 tick.

Spoiler

pr3d4t0r

Quote:

Originally Posted by Puppetmaster

There was a thread a while back that gave a .cfg file that I found to massively reduce the CPU load at high player counts on my servers. After applying it my servers CPU usage halved and its ingame var would sit at around 0.02ms with 10+ players on 128 tick.

Spoiler

Thanks, I'll try it tonight, and I will write about my experiences.

tumtum · *Last edited by tumtum; 02-04-2016 at 13:24.*

I can provide a test VPS, send me a PM for technical information. (Linux)
2.6ghz as VPS speed isnt telling the truth.. Maybe it is 40% of 2.6ghz, you will never know that..

Edit: Also, it is single core based, so you need a lot core power! ;) (Single/dual is enough if you got all the units)

pr3d4t0r · *Last edited by pr3d4t0r; 02-04-2016 at 16:13.*

Quote:

Originally Posted by Puppetmaster

There was a thread a while back that gave a .cfg file that I found to massively reduce the CPU load at high player counts on my servers. After applying it my servers CPU usage halved and its ingame var would sit at around 0.02ms with 10+ players on 128 tick.

Spoiler

How should I execute this cvar commands? I tried in server.cfg and in gamemodes_competitive_server.cfg, but got this error message on server start: Unknown command "sm_cvar"
Metamod, sourcemod installed and works fine.

Puppetmaster

Quote:

Originally Posted by pr3d4t0r

How should I execute this cvar commands? I tried in server.cfg and in gamemodes_competitive_server.cfg, but got this error message on server start: Unknown command "sm_cvar"
Metamod, sourcemod installed and works fine.

I put it into performance.cfg in the /cfg/sourcemod folder and the added "exec performance.cfg" into my sourcemod.cfg file.