Advice about moving server regions

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Naleksuh
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Advice about moving server regions

Post by Naleksuh »

So, I have had my VDS in Los Angeles since November 2019 when I registered it. I am considering moving it to Seattle as it will both be much closer to me (about a fifth of the ping) and the Seattle location is better at handling DDoS attacks. However, I know that moving a server region is a large pain for VDSes that are hosting game servers because it will break the old IP address. I could create redirects from a secondary VDS, but still worried that it might be a bad idea to change IP especially as it may be done too many times.

What does everyone here think? Would it be worth it to move the server region (i.e. would the costs outweigh benefits)?
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Vanderburg
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Re: Advice about moving server regions

Post by Vanderburg »

I think the best thing to do would be to simply announce the IP change to your users and make sure they are aware of it.

You can consider using DNS to have your players connect to "server1.mydomain.com", then swap the IP over so it's somewhat seamless for them (depending on the TTL), but I think just making sure everyone is aware of the change will be all you can do, really.
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Re: Advice about moving server regions

Post by Naleksuh »

I'm more asking for advice on whether or not it would be worth it to switch at all. There's no reason I couldn't just keep it in LA. Unless you are saying that it would be, I may have misunderstood.
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Re: Advice about moving server regions

Post by Vanderburg »

The only reasons to switch would be if you're seeing attacks that the location can't handle, or if changing would lower the latency for all players.
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Re: Advice about moving server regions

Post by Naleksuh »

I see. All attacks against the service have been handled. Good to have a second opinion!
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Re: Advice about moving server regions

Post by Naleksuh »

Oh, another thing I should mention here is that the games in question are Source engine games, specifically CSGO and TF2. While Vanderburg specializes in Minecraft (the average IP looking something like mc.nfoservers.com), for Source engine, the general convention is to use the numbers IP and always include the port even if it is default, for example 66.85.15.1:27015. In addition, sometimes the game will display the numbers IP even if it is the host being used.

This essentially means that the IP changing is much more painful for Source based games, but relatively none for Minecraft servers as you can simply repoint the domain name to the new IP.

While I have already made up my mind to not move, I did want to append this to add information for anyone else in a similar situation. I'd recommend against moving unless the benefits found would outweigh the IP changing (and how well you can damage control that, which depends on the game) or simply choosing the best region from the start, which I failed to do sadly
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Re: Advice about moving server regions

Post by Edge100x »

I recommend using the DNS for all games and not just Minecraft, and always have. You shouldn't need to specifiy the port if it is the default. Other hosts might encourage specifying the port because they run more than one server per IP address and using the default port is rare for them.

For CS:GO and TF2, switching a server's IP address should be relatively painless for players. Both games support login tokens that cause players' favorites entries to be updated with the change.
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Re: Advice about moving server regions

Post by Naleksuh »

It seems that even if you connect via a name, the IP that the game presents is still the numbers IP, both in what will be added to favorites and finding the IP via the status command or the display in the top right corner. That is likely the reason why most people simply use the numbers IP to begin with, as Source Engine doesn't really seem like to like domain names.
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