Dedicated Server Crashes

[zyklone]

Is anyone else who's running an Arma dedicated server seeing unusually frequent crashes?

Mine seems to currently crash atleast once per day which is much worse than the OFP dedicated server.

(The arma.exe is crashing, not the server itself.)

[Sickboy]

Is anyone else who's running an Arma dedicated server seeing unusually frequent crashes?

Mine seems to currently crash atleast once per day which is much worse than the OFP dedicated server.

(The arma.exe is crashing, not the server itself.)
I'm running an ArmA Dedicated Server, for 1 week now... my arma.exe process crashed once, just after starting up... This is under Vista PRE-RTM (build 5840). Have been playing coop with generally 3-5 players, and max 7 for now...

So my best guess is.... check ur CPU & Memory stability http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
CPU, try prime95 on benchmark mode (torture test)
MEM, try memtest86+, and run it for 12 hours straight to check stability. (Usually test 5+8 are marked as good stability testers)

[zyklone]

Is anyone else who's running an Arma dedicated server seeing unusually frequent crashes?

Mine seems to currently crash atleast once per day which is much worse than the OFP dedicated server.

(The arma.exe is crashing, not the server itself.)
I'm running an ArmA Dedicated Server, for 1 week now... my arma.exe process crashed once, just after starting up... This is under Vista PRE-RTM (build 5840). Have been playing coop with generally 3-5 players, and max 7 for now...

So my best guess is.... check ur CPU & Memory stability http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
CPU, try prime95 on benchmark mode (torture test)
MEM, try memtest86+, and run it for 12 hours straight to check stability. (Usually test 5+8 are marked as good stability testers)
Well, it's unfortunately not the hardware.

I suspect it's because I'm running a public server. Very many connects and disconnects...

[Sickboy]

Well, it's unfortunately not the hardware.

I suspect it's because I'm running a public server. Very many connects and disconnects...
Got a point there http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif I will post more info when we can run our colocated ArmA servers

[Sickboy]

I had to exclude arma.exe in the DEP settings of Windows...
We are running with Windows 2003 Server, but the setting is the same for XP aswell http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif

Check this site, it contains info about DEP, and how to exclude processes!
http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/howto-25.html

This saved crashes for us at our colocated dedy servers

[Mobious]

Are you guys running a dedicated server on the machine you are playing on or a dedicated box?

Has anyone rented a dedicated box from some host with a good connection to run a server yet?

[Sickboy]

Are you guys running a dedicated server on the machine you are playing on or a dedicated box?

Has anyone rented a dedicated box from some host with a good connection to run a server yet?
I was running a dedicated server at home, without playing the game on the same machine.
Now we are running 2 dedicated servers on 2 colocated servers, but they are privately owned by us and just hosted in The Netherlands at redbus.com and we-dare.com
I don't think there are hosting companies who host ArmA yet due to the need of the dvd in the server for now http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
But I guess we're going offtopic http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif

[Skunk Monkey]

Over at SES we are pretty sure the server crashes have been down to user-made missions. There seems to be some secret we havent yet worked out. The BIS missions are very stable, try running just the original missions and see if you still have a problem.

We have purchased a slimline DVD for our rack-mount backbone sever, should be up in a few days.

[Sickboy]

Also check firewall configuration, one of our servers could not connect to port 80 (http) to the outside, this server seems to crash way way way more often than the other one ... (Probably with trying to contact the squad url etc...)

[whisper]

Also check firewall configuration, one of our servers could not connect to port 80 (http) to the outside, this server seems to crash way way way more often than the other one ... (Probably with trying to contact the squad url etc...)
Awww, OFP linux had issues with HTTP port too, looks very similar http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/sad_o.gif

[zyklone]

The crashes of my server has magically stopped.
Possible it was some player with a bad xml that was causing it..

[whisper]

In which case I suggest you simply prevent your server to open HTTP connections.
Sure, no clan tag, etc....
But, when I had this issue on OFP Linux dedicated, before patch, it made the server stable

[Placebo]

Moving to ArmA:MP http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif

[Sickboy]

In which case I suggest you simply prevent your server to open HTTP connections.
Sure, no clan tag, etc....
But, when I had this issue on OFP Linux dedicated, before patch, it made the server stable
That's what I was saying, our firewall Blocked/Prevented outgoing port 80 connections, and that server was actually the most crashing ones http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif

I will disable the squad url at the players that have it, but dont know a server setting to completely disable it http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif

[MachoMan]

In case you can't disable it you may be able be able to remap port 80 to a local machine, running a http server. Next you create some squad XML file on the server, which you will feed to your OFP server. If you're running Apache, you can use .htaccess files to map any url to a specific file. That way you'll be sure the XML file is working okay.

[Sickboy]

In case you can't disable it you may be able be able to remap port 80 to a local machine, running a http server. Next you create some squad XML file on the server, which you will feed to your OFP server. If you're running Apache, you can use .htaccess files to map any url to a specific file. That way you'll be sure the XML file is working okay.
Great idea! Thanks m8! Let's see what patch v1.01 brings us though http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif

[whisper]

In which case I suggest you simply prevent your server to open HTTP connections.
Sure, no clan tag, etc....
But, when I had this issue on OFP Linux dedicated, before patch, it made the server stable
That's what I was saying, our firewall Blocked/Prevented outgoing port 80 connections, and that server was actually the most crashing ones http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif

I will disable the squad url at the players that have it, but dont know a server setting to completely disable it http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
Ooops, sry I completely misunderstood then http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/crazy_o.gif

[Sickboy]

That's what I was saying, our firewall Blocked/Prevented outgoing port 80 connections, and that server was actually the most crashing ones http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif

I will disable the squad url at the players that have it, but dont know a server setting to completely disable it http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
Ooops, sry I completely misunderstood then http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/crazy_o.gif[/QUOTE]
No Biggy http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif


Both our Colocated dedicated servers have many crashes all over the place, happening at random moments...

Our first server, the one that can not do outgoing http connections crashes every few minutes when players are on.
Our 2nd server, the one that CAN make outgoing http connections crashes less, but still frequent and usually 10-20 minutes or so... even with original missions http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif

Is there anyone else that is experiencing all these crashes constantly? Are there servers that run 24/7 stable or near-stable?

How is the server running of the topic maker at the moment?

[whisper]

You can't find any common factor present during each crash? http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/sad_o.gif
- last person to log in
- last mission played
Things like that...
Also maybe verifying memory free is still enough.

[Sickboy]

You can't find any common factor present during each crash? http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/sad_o.gif
- last person to log in
- last mission played
Things like that...
Also maybe verifying memory free is still enough.
It happens with any group of players playing on our servers, so not every time the same persons are in, but the crashes are there, even when ur with only 2 players.

Last Mission Played is totally random, server crashes... server gets started again, we pick another mission usually, few minutes later... bam, crash.  Sometimes the server crashes while going towards the briefing, sometimes just somewhen in the mission, also pretty random.

Memory is free on both servers, got 3GB and usually there is about 500mb free on the servers, also verified while we were playing.

I was hoping v1.01 would fix it all, but not the case :|

Both Servers are running Windows 2003 SP1, ISA 2007 Firewall and some other stuff. The hardware is a Dual AMD Opteron and a Quad AMD Opteron.
The funny thing is... when I was hosting a server @<hidden> home on an older Vista Installation of build 5840... that server was rock solid, crashed like 1 time in a week...

Server hardware it can&#39;t be... The servers run 24/7 high cpu and memory usage, multiple game servers, everything runs just fine but not ArmA http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif (Which is merely a substitute for the OFP servers we were running before, stable)

[whisper]

Did you set specific affinity for the ArmA processes?

[zyklone]

1.01 seems to be crashing more than before. http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/sad_o.gif

There doesn&#39;t seem to be any useful debug output from the crashes either. Hope BI will be able to figure it out anyway.

[Sickboy]

Did you set specific affinity for the ArmA processes?
On the quad I set the affinity to 2 cpu&#39;s, on the dual I left the affinity to 2 (both) cpu&#39;s. (I usually don&#39;t assign the game processes a definate cpu as there are not always players on the different servers, so the servers can pick any cpu where the most is free http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif)

I will put them on 1 cpu to see if that changes anything, stupid that I didn&#39;t think about that yet :S

On both servers there are proper drivers/patches installed for dual-core/cpu systems.

[whisper]

1.01 seems to be crashing more than before. http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/sad_o.gif

There doesn&#39;t seem to be any useful debug output from the crashes either. Hope BI will be able to figure it out anyway.
Yes, message log and debug from OFP dedicated has never been really helpfull, it says very little, when it even says something http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/sad_o.gif

[Sickboy]

Guys I might have an idea where the problem is coming from, I thought I post it even while we are still evaluating it ourselves, maybe so others can see it too if the crashes go away or to a bare minimum:
The problem seems to relate to the ingame voice system. When we didn&#39;t use this and explicitly told everyone NOT to use it, we were playing for 20 minutes, switched mission to another mission without any problems etc. etc.
Please let me know what you guys findings are&#33;

[Captain Data]

I think than Netcode is not finished yet. Okay, sometimes there are guys hosting a server with DSL 1000 or so, so they cant bear more than 5 additional guys. Others with real good broadband-servers (100Mbit+) can&#39;t even host a 10-player-match ... feels like OFP earliest days.

Big Problem too: Even if you can&#39;t "feel" any lag, there is always some kind of "desync" lurkin&#39; out there. Example: You can get killed by someone you can&#39;t see, just because he killed you 20s earlier. Coop seems to be fine, at least it doesn&#39;t produce "desyncs" that often. PvP is almost useless atm, especially because most weapons are way too accurate at greater distance (especially NON-sniper-rifles)

Just nice to know: ArmA is NOT using Dualcores properly (means BOTH Cores @<hidden> 100%). Hope BI will release a patch soon to support BOTH Cores at full speed @<hidden> Bit.

[Sickboy]

Latest findings:
- Ingame voicechat doesn&#39;t seem to affect it, wrong conclussion..
- What seems to have helped is disable the server&#39;s firewall statefull packet filter (excluding arma or opening all ports did not help :S), and bind the server on 1 cpu-only.
- The server still seems sensetive for players joing while going from assigning into briefing, or joining while the briefing is on or it&#39;s just going from the briefing to the game..

[[AKF]STG77]

Hello,

I have also 3 Arma Servers running,and the same problems...
Gamepower.at Public 1
Gamepower.at Public 2
Gamepower.at Public 3

the servers crashes on the way in the briefing... or after playing 10 mins on it...

server specs: Amd 64 4600+, 2Gb memory, 80Gb Sata2, on 2 1gb connections. Also arma cs in the drive.

Before the Patch 1.01 cames out the server crashed after 35mins playing... now they crash after 10mins or earlier...

i did a game today in the morning, on one server, for 48 mins and that was quite long... also with ingame voice etc... after 48 mins server crashed...
restarted again... and played again 48 mins....

intresting thing is only ppl with german versions played in the 2x48mins&#33;&#33; in my eyes it seems that there is a compatiblity problem with german and czech version...

in my eyes it has nothing to do with our servers and their hardware or the connection... seems a problem with the serversoftware...

btw one server crashed today with that message:
Subprocess monitoring failed due to subprocess is no longer active. The subprocess is probably dead. Restarting the process. Error detail: N/A

Regards STG77 Gamepower.at Team

[Sickboy]

STG77 @<hidden> Dec. 02 2006,16:05)]Hello,
..
Regards STG77 Gamepower.at Team
Our server 1 now runs stable without crashes as reported in my post above yours, could you verify that you are playing under same conditions (Did you try setting the affinity of arma.exe to just 1 cpu? Did you try disabling stateful packet inspection firewall software, if you have it?), and also mind the part about where the server seems to crash when players join while the server is just moving from assignment to briefing...

We have been player for hours and hours, no more crashes

[[AKF]STG77]

ive tried the game running on cpu 1 or 2 doesnt matter.... on both the same... we got a firewall, but the ports we use, are forwarded and open&#33;

We got a Halo Server also running on it... Halo is running without any probs...

ive also tried to lock the server when im alone on it and went into the briefing... receiving data... server was gone...

also tried it with DEP, didnt help...

Regards STG77 Gamepower.at Team

[Sickboy]

STG77 @<hidden> Dec. 02 2006,16:52)]ive tried the game running on cpu 1 or 2 doesnt matter.... on both the same... we got a firewall, but the ports we use, are forwarded and open&#33;

We got a Halo Server also running on it... Halo is running without any probs...

ive also tried to lock the server when im alone on it and went into the briefing... receiving data... server was gone...

also tried it with DEP, didnt help...

Regards STG77 Gamepower.at Team
Then all that remains is removing the stateful packet filtering firewall to see if it helps, opening ports was not enough, we had to remove it&#33;

As that is the only real difference then apart from hardware itself.

[Wildgoose]

SES server was having instability troubles for what feels like a while http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/banghead.gif

Narrowed it down to RealVNC memory leak, stopped the service and all is well.
Maybe for others use task manager and look in running processes to see memory usage, if anything else is hogging the system RAM, then ArmA server will not be very happy&#33;

[Sickboy]

Then all that remains is removing the stateful packet filtering firewall to see if it helps, opening ports was not enough, we had to remove it&#33;

As that is the only real difference then apart from hardware itself.
Our final conclussion is the following:
- Firewall didn&#39;t have anything to do with it
- Making sure the game only runs on 1 cpu also after restarting is what all the crashes really quit
- Players joining, crashing or leaving otherwise during the moment the server goes from assign--&#62;briefing or briefing--&#62;game seems to have also been problematic sometimes, but besides that, our crashes on both servers are gone.
- As Goose noted, memory trouble can also crash your server, make sure you have enough free and monitor the usage/free while playing/testing, check for programs with abnormal memory usage
- Disable DEP protection, altough I think the server still crashed as much except with the DEP message :P

[rekster]

Quote[/b] ]- As Goose noted, memory trouble can also crash your server, make sure you have enough free and monitor the usage/free while playing/testing, check for programs with abnormal memory usage

How much memory is recommeded for a Armed Assault Server? We are looking to upgrade the memory on our server, plus I think some of our crashes are do to us not having enough memory. (Hours just has 1 gig)

Could anyone with a stable running server post there server.cfg? Want to make sure I did not do something with my server.cfg that could be causing crashes.

[jimbojones]

Quote[/b] ]Could anyone with a stable running server post there server.cfg? Want to make sure I did not do something with my server.cfg that could be causing crashes.

I would be interested in this as well

[Placebo]

We can stick to one deddy thready now http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif (http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard311/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=73;t=55569)