High CPU Usage

[posse]

Hello nfo, I'm a new subscriber and so far I'm loving your network. I moved from my old VDS providers, with whom I was with for 3 years, because they were having a lot of issues with their network which caused lag on my community servers.

I am currently on your 2 core package, running 6 HLDS, all CS1.6, on CentOS 6. I am having high CPU usage issues which as far as I know is the reason why my server starts to lag. With my main 32 player pub when it reaches full capacity it starts to use 95% to 101% CPU, I have even seen 107%. This never happened on the old VDS provider, it would never go over 30% CPU usage. I have a Zombie server as well which when it reached 25/32 players it got to 99% and started affecting the pub. Right now I have turned off zombie server until I can find a solution. I need to know what could be causing it? Its the exact same setup as the old VDS except for old one was CentOS 5. Are there any tricks to sharing the cpu load between the 2 cores or is it better for it to be on 1 core? How do I make it share both cores? Could it be because you are using Xen and old VDS was using openVZ on a Core2Quad machine.

EDIT: forgot to mention, the HLDS's CPU usage starts to go up as players join in, when they are empty they are not using more than 5% CPU. Most of my other HLDS are mostly empty for now, I can't imagine what would happen when they start to get full.

[kraze]

That is a decent amount of servers for the two core package but it set up and used properly it should be able to handle it.

First I would suggest that you turn all servers off and one by one turn them on, while monitoring usage. Determine that point where anymore will cause lag.

Also determine if you can have all six running, but with a lower slot count.

Another thing I would check is plugins. All it takes it one bad plugin to cause a whole mess of issues. For testing purposes I would disable all of them for each server. If all six run fine with no plugins you know the issue lies within.

[posse]

They are not all 32 slots. Using the same plugins as on the old machine, nothing extra has been added or changed, it can't be the plugin, could it?

[Edge100x]

I would not recommend running more than one 32 slot server per HT core; that is usually about what a machine can handle. It sounds as though you are doing more a bit more than that.

Are you sure that the CPU usage number on your old VDS was not an aggregate (i.e., an average for 3 or 4 cores)?

The OS will automatically balance the processes between cores, and you should let it do that.

I would not recommend CentOS 6 for game servers, as it's not tuned for latency-sensitive workloads. Debian is usually the highest-performance option on the Linux side, and CS 1.6 servers run even better on Windows.

[posse]

The only reason I stick with CentOS is because when I tried debian a while back, it would give me non-stop segmentation fault errors. So I just tend to stay away from from it. Don't get me wrong, I love debian, I have it running on my other servers that are not used for game servers.

So, the high server usage, is it only because its a 2 core package?

Here is a screenshot of what top looks like:

http://i55.tinypic.com/flxzpz.jpg

[Edge100x]

The CPU usage in that process must be due to the server itself.

Are you running a lot of intensive plugins? A constant 100% usage with basically nothing else running is unusual on a CS 1.6 server.

[posse]

The CPU usage in that process must be due to the server itself.

Are you running a lot of intensive plugins? A constant 100% usage with basically nothing else running is unusual on a CS 1.6 server.

Nope, that HLDS is very bare, its a regular pub with no special plugins, no amx_super stuff, just the normal plugins, regular admin commands. amx, metamod, stuff. Even smoke nades are blocked if that matters.

the zombie hlds has a lot of extra plugins but i have it offline right now, untill this issue can be resolved.

[Edge100x]

Are you seeing any unusual traffic to the server that would indicate a DoS attack? Without plugins, 100% CPU usage for any size of CS 1.6 server is not normal at all, otherwise.

[posse]

Are you seeing any unusual traffic to the server that would indicate a DoS attack? Without plugins, 100% CPU usage for any size of CS 1.6 server is not normal at all, otherwise.

nope, no unusual traffic and I don't have any conflicts with anyone to even expect an attack. i am on good terms with most of the communities

i dont know if this matters but i have the exact same configuration still running on the old vds with 25 bots in it and its not using anymore than 30% usage

[Edge100x]

To be clear, you're testing both the new and old one with the server full of bots?

[posse]

To be clear, you're testing both the new and old one with the server full of bots?

Nope, the old one is still running and its on bots, im just using it to redirect people to new servers. The new one is not full with bots tho, this nfo server is full of real people. When the old vds used to be full of people, it was never 99%, maximum it went to was 60% but average was 30-40%

[Edge100x]

If you'd like to open a support request, I can move you to another machine as a test. I'm not sure what else to try on this end.

[posse]

Sure we can try a different machine, but will I have to reinstall, will it change IP's or anything else?

If different machine does not work out can we try with three core as well to see if its just an issue of not enough cores?

What do you want me to ask in the support ticket?

[rustydusty1717]

Nothing will change, including IP's. Unless you are changing locations, or going from a VDS/Full machine to a managed game server.

[posse]

After the machine change it seems to be much better. its taking about 50-70% cpu usage, it still looks high but at least not as high as before.