CentOS question

[ZacharyS]

Hi ppl - well I'm totally new here and still fairly new to this stuff. We have a new VDS and I selected CentOS 7 as the operating system. We want to run maybe 2 or 3 COD4 servers and our main website from here. However, when I boot the OS and access it via the vnc option in the panel I get dumped at the cli (I've tried cycling through the various terminals), I'd really like to have a desktop environment to work with and I read in here that indeed CentOS should auto boot into the desktop (or by using startx / init 5). Am I missing something ? I haven't reinstalled anything since the server was activated, but I'd like a desktop to work with. I also think that maybe UBUNTU might have been a better choice, but there again do we get a desktop as default?. I know it's not difficult to download / install the various packages, but I just want to check in case I've missed something.

I have experience with standard UBUNTU systems.

Regards.

Sorry if this is a stupid question.

Zac.

[$atanic $pirit]

This is sad to read. I did a CentOS 7 install last month and was told the same thing.

CentOS installs for virtual machines are configured to start Gnome GUI by default when the machine boots. You won't see this graphical interface if you log in through SSH, but it will be running in the background, and you can log in through VNC to interact with it.

After going back and forth for hours, I confirmed that default CentOS does not come with Gnome or any other GUI. At least it's not pre configured as NFO claims.

NFO staff team can refer to ticket #185292 for the conversation.

Unless NFO did listen to what I said before and made the appropriate changes, I would say the stock CentOS does not come with any GUI. It's sad to see that same issue was reported again with same results.

Here are the steps to install minimal Gnome GUI on CentOS 7

1. Install CentOS-7 - Minimal (First entry point in list)
2. yum groupinstall "X Window System"
3. yum install gnome-classic-session gnome-terminal nautilus-open-terminal control-center liberation-mono-fonts
4. unlink /etc/systemd/system/default.target
5. ln -sf /lib/systemd/system/graphical.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target
6. reboot

Source: https://www.centos.org/forums/viewtopic ... 47&t=47088

[Edge100x]

We advise against installing a desktop when using Linux. It reduces the performance of the system by consuming CPU and memory resources without creating benefits over the default, powerful command-line system. But, you are welcome to do it if you wish -- they make it very easy to do post-install, as do other Linux distributions.

Our default CentOS 6+ install should be the stock "minimal" option, so you have an ideal starting point. We stopped using the unpopular server desktop option by default when CentOS also stopped making it the default in 6.x.

(If you do what a desktop, you should also consider Windows. Most game servers are designed for the Windows platform and run best on it, which compensates for its GUI overhead. Windows' main downside is that it has a terrible firewall, but we provide a Firewall page that also compensates for this.)

[ZacharyS]

Thank you both for the quick response and for not making me feel like a complete noob

I understand your point about Windows being the usual choice for gameservers and I WILL consider that, but I really wanted to run a Linux based install of COD4 even tho I realise there may be a performance hit (actually I thought that COD 4 should run better on Linux - but maybe that's as a bare bones system, like I say I'm new to this). I think what I'll do is try and use Linux first and if, for whatever reason it proves the wrong choice for us then I'll use a Windows install. As we're just starting out I have a little time to experiment and find the best solution.

Thank you both for your help and the instructions will be very helpful $atanic $pirit.

I may be back - you have been warned

Cheers.

Zac.

[ZacharyS]

Sorry for the capitalised "WILL" above it was unintentional.

Z.

[Edge100x]

Linux is a great OS, don't get me wrong . If you want to run a webserver/MySQL server on the same VDS, it's a good choice, especially. Similarly, it's easy to script on a Linux platform. Linux has a much better firewall and far more configurable/powerful networking bits in general. It is also cheaper to rent a one-core Linux VDS in our system because we don't have to pay for a Windows license.

Performance-wise, speaking strictly about game servers, most games do a bit better on Windows. Partially this is because the primary clients are designed for Windows and optimized for that platform. More generally, for other tasks, recent versions of both platforms perform well, but there are specific ones that one or the other is better-suited for.

I should also note that RDP works much better than any VNC-based solution, in terms of accessing a remote GUI. There doesn't seem to be much attention put to improving desktop remote access on Linux, likely because server administration is almost always done through SSH and the desktop market is relatively small for Linux (and even fewer admins access their desktops remotely). At the same time, all the money behind enterprise remote access for Microsoft's products has led to frequent improvements for Windows' Remote Desktop system, such as the recent development of outstanding IOS, Android, and WinMo clients; it currently has excellent performance and a rich feature set, including built-in file and printer sharing, copy-and-paste support, sound transfer, a resizable desktop, full encryption, etc.

[ZacharyS]

Thx Edge, I have some experience with Linux desktops and I've used RDP software before. I suppose this all comes down to what will give us the best performance - I've not got anything running yet coz we only had the server activated in the early hours of today (I'm in the UK). With my limited knowledge of this stuff and looking around the net it seems that generally COD4 has lower PINGS when run on Linux, but I may have got the wrong end of the stick there (Brit speak for misunderstood) I'm going to have a fiddle around with it all later today. As we don't have anything up and running yet we can reinstall if necessary? is that correct? Our plan says we have access to any OS, so that includes the Windows server that we all know and love ( cough ) I suppose?.

Thank you again for the help so far - great support, I'm well impressed .

Cheers.

Zac.

[ZacharyS]

UPDATEI think I may be ok - I've used a program called webmin b4 and I've just downloaded it to our server, so I have a sort of GUI without adding a resource hungry desktop. Then I thought I'd download and install zPanel and possibly an open source gamepanel such as GamePanelX or possibly OpenGamePanel. If that doesn't suit us then I'll just use the Windows software in the OS list. I spose the best version of that is the 2012 version? If I can ask just one thing - when I setup the other panels etc,. the IP address I use is the server IP with the extra directory tagged on the end, right? coz I think the actual sites are placed in var/www after I install apache/mysql (mariadb) etc,. or have I got that wrong?. If this is the wrong place to ask these questions, my apologies - I'll just ask Mr.Google

Thanks again, I might post the results just so others (noobs like me ) have some frame of reference.

Zac.

[$atanic $pirit]

A few things that you need to consider here.

Linux can decrease latency, but there is a very high chance that you will have to recompile the kernel to get best performance.

Free game panels don't really work that good, but that's just my opinion. You would be a lot better by just using putty and ftp. You need to install ftp server of course. I would recommend VSFTPD for the task, as it works really good.

According to my experience, stock LAMP settings usually configure the IP to point to /var/www/public_html . You have to use the folder structure, if you have different folders in there.

You can always ask questions here regarding this kind of stuff. This is a support forum after all.

Our default CentOS 6+ install should be the stock "minimal" option, so you have an ideal starting point. We stopped using the unpopular server desktop option by default when CentOS also stopped making it the default in 6.x.

I agree with everything you said there, but why does NFO team say there is a pre-configured GUI environment when it's not there. You can't really blame the clients for being upset, when they don't get what they were promised.

Oh and one more thing that I would like to mention. CentOS 7 have replaced IPtables with firewalld. The stock install of CentOS 7 have configured firewalld to block all ports. Not sure, if that needs to be taken care of by NFO team, just putting it out there for future reference.

[kraze]

I agree with everything you said there, but why does NFO team say there is a pre-configured GUI environment when it's not there. You can't really blame the clients for being upset, when they don't get what they were promised.

Oh and one more thing that I would like to mention. CentOS 7 have replaced IPtables with firewalld. The stock install of CentOS 7 have configured firewalld to block all ports. Not sure, if that needs to be taken care of by NFO team, just putting it out there for future reference.

When you support many different installs as we do here, it can be very difficult to know everything about each install. While we do our best, in some cases mistakes are made :/

In this case we've addressed the issue in this forum thread, and have updated our KB article with additional information.
http://www.nfoservers.com/forums/viewto ... =46&t=4117

[ZacharyS]

Thanks again for that info by all concerned. This is going to be a steep learning curve for me - but I'm sure I'll crack it in the end The reason for wanting to use a free game panel is quite simple. We want to be able to give other admins the option of restarting gameservers etc,. while restricting access and as they're probably going to be even less savvy about this than me it just seemed logical to try something like that. Kraze I hear you Sir, I wasn't really upset, just a little confused (more than usual ) but I'm going to try and keep the server desktop free if at all possible to save on resources and disk space.

Very impressed so far with the replies to my post, thanks again. Now I suppose I should get back to setting up the servers I feel a long night ahead of me.

Cheers.

Zac.

[ZacharyS]

Hey all just a quick update - I've managed to get B3 running from our new server from you guys. I've had to use the nohup command and I don't really like using that. Is there a way to start a python command as a script at boot/reboot automatically. I've tried adding it in webmin, it starts but then shuts down immediately with an error. Maybe python-daemon is the answer? but for now at least we have a working Big Brother Bot installation, so now I move onto the gamepanel install, fingers crossed for that.

Zac.

[Edge100x]

I recommend using "screen" to start a command in the background in a way that you can access it again later. For instance,

cd /your/server/folder
screen -AmdS myserver ./your-server-executable your command-line options

You can then access it again later with:

screen -r myserver

.. and get back out with Control-A + D.

We talk a little more about using screen here: http://www.nfoservers.com/forums/viewto ... =67&t=4545

[ZacharyS]

Great - thanks for that edge - I did install screen just haven't been patient enough to look through all the command line options But it looks exactly what I'm looking for, I'll look through that link as well for more info.

Thanks again for the headsup.

Zac.

[ZacharyS]

Hi peeps Well it's been around 2 weeks now and I'm still learning. I have some Linux knowledge but it's scary just how much I don't know about cli commands. I use UBUNTU as a desktop alternative to Windows quite regularly, but it makes you a bit lazy cli-wise

So this is what I have atm.

3 COD4 servers up and running using the Bright Game panel (which has great potential - if only I could work out how to run the game servers without root having to do it. I think I have an answer, just have to try it and see I spose).

1 TS3 server up and running for 13 days now.

1 Big Brother Bot instance running. Working on the other 2 COD4 servers, but the "root" permissions thing is causing me a real headache. The bot simply can't gain access to the "mods" directory of the servers because Bright Panel is running the screen instances as root (see above). I'm sure it's something really simple - I just have to figure it out.

I can't say it's been easy getting to this point, BUT it's good fun trying things out and working through the many problems that my inexperience of server management has caused.

If I can help anyone with anything (esp if ur a noob like me ) then just post on here and I'll do my best to answer - and these forums (or should that be fora? ) are full of great advice.

I hope it was ok to post this - I just thought I'd give u guys an update.

LOVING your servers NFO - really glad I found you.

Oh if I can ask an NFO person one question? Our webserver account is the lite plan. I've looked at phpinfo and it states that mod_rewrite is loaded, but I want to install a program called xlrstats webfront and it doesn't seem to see the mod_rewrite stuff? I've tried adding a .htaccess file to the root of the xlrstats folder but it doesn't make any difference. I've also tried to put it on our game server site, but the same thing occurrs. Can you suggest anything I can possibly try to get the prog to recognise the mod_rewrite stuff? and thx in advance.

Zac.