Laggy Minecraft Server

[MPQC]

So I'm running a private minecraft server just for me and some friends (looking at probably 5 people on on average, probably 8~ max). Whenever someone goes exploring, it seems to lag the server pretty badly - when I check the minecraft console, each tick is around 100ms, so everyone see's the lag pretty clearly.

Now, the server is running on a 2-core VDS with an extra gig of ram (3 gigs total). It is a completely default server (1.7.4), and the only thing added is hourly backups. Now, there was 5 people on the server yesterday at one time, with one exploring. The CPU seems to hit around 70% (maxing out a core I assume), with the RAM around 50% - note I am hosting other game servers so it's not all from Minecraft. But in any case, it seems they're still within safe values.

Any tips on helping reduce the lag, or do I just need a beefier server? (Which I'm not willing to do unfortunately, this is just for fun )

[Madhavok]

We need a bit more info from you.

How many servers do you have?
What servers are you running?
When you are having issues with the MC server, how many people are in your other servers?

[MPQC]

When running the Minecraft server, I generally only have one other server running, which is a Primal Carnage server. It generally has 10-20 people in it at any given time - when full, CPU usage is usually around 25%, and uses about 450MB of RAM. (When not running the Minecraft server, I have 2 other Primal servers, 20 and 30 slots respectively, which when all servers are full I hover around 90% CPU.) So these servers aren't too demanding luckily.

When we were on yesterday, I wasn't checking my other server but I'd imagine at least 10 people. When we start playing again (today, tomorrow, not completely sure really), I can get you some hard numbers to work with. As of yesterday when I noticed the lag however, there was 4 people on the Minecraft server I believe, and only really happened when someone went exploring - was smooth otherwise.

[soja]

I read recently that view distances can have a very large effect on server performance. I am not familiar with minecraft, but if view distances can be set or limited try that. You could also try googling for a good setting.

[kraze]

It's very likely what you're seeing is a disk usage problem. Minecraft can be pretty disk intensive and it's pretty much of a requirement to be on an SSD.

If you disable hourly backups and any other servers on the VDS does the lag get any better?

[MPQC]

I read recently that view distances can have a very large effect on server performance. I am not familiar with minecraft, but if view distances can be set or limited try that. You could also try googling for a good setting.

I'll give it a shot when I get home, thanks.

It's very likely what you're seeing is a disk usage problem. Minecraft can be pretty disk intensive and it's pretty much of a requirement to be on an SSD.

If you disable hourly backups and any other servers on the VDS does the lag get any better?

As far as I know, for the hourly backups, it had no effect on the server whatsoever. I'll see if killing the other server has any effect as well soon. Is there some way I can check if the hard drive is the bottleneck?

[MPQC]

Sorry for the double post - either I'm blind or there's no edit button .

It seems reducing visibility to 8 (default 10) seemed to work wonders. No lag anymore.

[soja]

Great, glad to hear it!

There is no edit button after a few minutes here

If you need anything else please ask!

Enjoy your server