UT99 Server Setup *Brainstorm* 15/01/15

[Wises]

would be a great resource to have a thread here @ut99.org which shows some step-by-step tutorials on setting up a descent server from Start to Fin.

few things to perhaps include in your Setups could be;

Spoiler

# Best Operating System (OS) to use including;
- Tools for Monitoring the server (VPS/Dedicated) DDOS protection / Monitoring.
- Security Patches for the OS itself (windows/Linux)
- Firewall Setup for said OS (IPTables/Windows Advanced firewall) settings or scripts.
- Bandwidth and Min/Max Server resources (RAM/CPU) needed for xx Player Games.

# Actual Proceedures for installing the Server including;
- Mods , ServerActors/Packages , MapVotes etc .
- Server Protection Packages and which one's go with each other ie; ADV_Patch , ServerCrashFix , Etc
- Admin Tools to monitor Server Activity and hopefully working Links to these tools (would be appreciated)
- Etc.

hopefully we can get all kinds of awesome configurations for differing Game-Types and Server's as a resource for even ourselves in the years to come


Shall edit as info is provided

Linux Server Links external:

Skills Linux server setup (old) @ unrealadmin.org
noccer's UT99 Linux Install Debian (recent) ~German
r3uk very detailed Linux Server install

Windows Server Links external

mistrealm Windows Server install

Complete Server Downloads

Medors Preconfigured Server Downloads | Mirror ut-files.com
Duel Windows / Linux Server download | Mirror#1 | Mirror#2 ut-files.com
More info & support

Testing Server for properly redirected files

Spoiler

here's a basic test.. have provided this method for solving non-redirected files many times before.

temp - rename your UT/Cache folder..

connect to your server - and watch downloads...

you will see which files are missing easily.. make a note and see what can be done.

! sometimes the file downloading slow is not the culprit but rather the one before it.. so F10 / Reconnect or ;

Console:

Code: Select all

set input up reconnect
set input down disconnect

^ press up to 'reconnect' lol

sometimes it is the smallest of files before a larger one which is not redirected.. these 'non-redirected-files' will cause all consecutive files to download slowly.

! we do need a patch for this ^ client/server-side ...

if for some reason you can't upload file.u.uz due to mismatches.. then make sure that it is last 'Package' to be sent.
So place at end of list in ServerPackages=

^this way it will not slow down all other file's which are in queue to be sent.

* Also you will need to do the test for all "Game-Types" , is a bit of work but worth it in the end.

after done testing and finding non-redirected files then you can delete newly created Cache Folder and rename old one back
^ and your config will be as it was before testing.

I understand that you may be using a Shared Redirect Server (Yay, GameServers.com) which means certain files cannot be uploaded..

best way around this is to a.) stop paying them for semi-function Redirect Service & rent a cheap $10-$20 hosting account from godaddy or other and use that as personal Redirect.

hope that helps.

[UT99.org]

Wait is this placeholder thread? I'll try and help with this one "- Bandwidth and Min/Max Server resources (RAM/CPU) needed for xx Player Games." since I'm tired of playing on under-resourced servers with too many player slots. placeholder post

[Chamberly]

Imo, it depends on what the server admin want to do. That's all. lol.

[Wises]

@Billybill , YES indeed , reserve your spot and fill it in at your leisure , ofc these things take time to 'write-up' and reserving a placeholder is very smart indeed.

@Chambaz , that's quite specific lawlz..

>> These types of 'Topics' are best done in Notepad / Other and then Copy / Pasted to the 'Placeholder' Later

[UT99.org]

Well you had better hurry as placeholder threads are against forum rules

[papercoffee]

Well you had better hurry as placeholder threads are against forum rules

Exactly...

But I must admit, I've never seen a real placeholder thread till now.

[Wises]

well technically a lot of posts ie; some cool mod (post #1)
are so-called 'Place Holder' posts.. aren't they?, simply because the author creates the post then returns often to update it?..

either way.. here is as good a place as any to share methods in deploying UT servers using the latest mods to-date as many are either depricated / merged / obsolete in terms of security / server stability so I guess a good starting point for someone would be to recommend which mods should be installed for optimal server performance? (windows/Linux/other)

vps/dedicated/home whatever.

[UT99.org]

that wiki page you link to in the first page is very bad, and outdated. Maybe there is some use in a thread like this

[Wises]

yes it poses as an example only one which I myself have used many times in the past.

edit: perhaps you could provide a better more recent version for us ?

[noccer]

Best operating system:

The most used server OS is Debian/Linux, which i personally prefer against Windows Server. I would not change to Windows Server so i run UT Servers on Linux without any problem.
But you must care for lower/uppercase, so the BlaBla.utx MUST be BlaBla.utx.uz and must not be blabla.utx.uz

For Linux servers security: fail2ban, iptables, no ssh root login
You can run virtualization to make the server even more safe. One Virtualization for UT, one for the web...

Bandwidth? 100mbit/s is old fashioned, gigabit is in

Since the DoSed server can not protect itself from DDOS you have to pay a lot of money for protection or you end up in Null routing.

UT:

Your favourite UT version, 436 451, whatever you want. (I did not see differences when playing)
Somewhere in the forum one said he used 440 (iirc) for Linux which is (for his needs) best and very stable.
Mods: Your choice
Server Protection: Anticheat: All bypassed. You will only catch noobs with their public and some private shit.
ServerCrashFix - NOT for Linux
Cronjobs for UT server in case it crashed.
Let fail2ban help you to enforce UT bans

Extremely important: a fake player mod (and then call your server Dawns whateverbigshit or dFb)

[UT99.org]

I'd skip all this "First and foremost, you need to create a regular user. **DO NOT** use ROOT to run the game server!! " That takes a few steps out. A linux user can make a judgement on their own, maybe keep the advice but lose the steps. There's way too much crap there. The texture stuff is outdated and no longer needed

Do people really need a start stop script like that when they are using command-line anyway? Does the script work where it says it fixes the bug of when the game uses too much CPU it restarts the server? Does killing it use the "kill -9 XXXX" linux command or regular stoppage? I believe it does rotate logs and auto-deletes old ones, so a small note that if anyone wanted the log file swapped and cleared they can use that script. Without a start stop script the server should not crash on it's own! And if one was worried then a bash script with only a couple of lines would restart it when it crashed

I'd put more focus on setting up the ini, get them uplinked properly. Security patches to prevent it being crashed by third parties like you mention. Have them make the choice to disable webmin or set it up since the default ini allows them in by default. Show them how to allow older versions of the game in and any bug fixes for any problems that could result from this. I'd keep it as vanilla as possible.

Adding ACE, Pure or whatever can all be optional and not part of the main guide. I wouldn't even advocate Nexgen/Asc because it's opening security holes by simply adding it

Let's see what other people think of all of what I just said though before action taken

The most used server OS is Debian/Linux, which i personally prefer against

There's no reason any other distro couldn't be as good as debian, also what version of debian? I have heard something about kernels being indifferent though

But you must care for lower/uppercase, so the BlaBla.utx MUST be BlaBla.utx.uz and must not be blabla.utx.uz

That's not true, for example a quick edit of the apache config can make it not case sensitive

Extremely important: a fake player mod (and then call your server Dawns whateverbigshit or dFb)

Weren't you the guy who PMed me saying a 100% uscript UT mod worked on one OS but not on another. And I asked for evidence and am still waiting?

Edit: Here's an example bash script which I'm writing off the top of my head so tell me if it don't work

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
while true
do
./ucc-bin server DM-Deck16][?mutator=game= -nohomedir -lanplay
done
exit 0

I guess you could have a tutorial of a few lines explaining how to give each server it's own CPU core with the "taskset" linux command

[Wises]

so.. nexgen is still vulnerable to your knowledge and has vulnerabilities easily exploitable?

there are several popular servers running this system ie; sp0ngeb0bs and I think Sam's.

re: webadmin default settings lol.. yes I remember this one.
^ Remember to change these or disable.

allowing older versions of UT to access server ie; 4.00+? how do we achieve this?

Server Protections ;

Linux .. {what do we need here}
Windows .. ^^

Timing fixes ie; TickFix2 (TF2) or 3 or XC_GameEngine or?

Adv_patch and ServerCrashFix12 or 13 or? - Still relevant?

Ipserver {just me} ?

Securevalidate? or XserverQuery?

optimum tickrates ie; newnet 40-60?

netspeeds and the likes...?

optimum server.ini settings and so-forth.

just a few questions that come to mind.

ok.. so in short .. let's say;

Vanilla Linux server (any flavour CentOS,Ubuntu,Debian,Gentoo)
^ What mods / Addons are NEEDED to keep it humming along smoothly - blocking as much *Trouble* as is possible?

Same with Windows / Server.. What is suggested for these Rigs?

in this day and age..

edit: also where to download the best Server Version of UT with anti-skid textures and relevant CityTxt.utx? etc.. vaguely remember issues with all this crap years ago .. ie; Skating players and skybox issues etc.

[UT99.org]

I submit the thread have the word brainstorm in the title somewhere, you can then re-write it for the tutorial section

so.. nexgen is still vulnerable to your knowledge and has vulnerabilities easily exploitable?

It has many problems that could cause harm to a server. Security-wise any IDs can be lifted from players when they join other servers and then used on that server. With Nexgen/ACE integration plugin this problem is worse and not better. Something I was stressing a long time ago but fell on some deaf ears. I believe one of the later versions fixed a bug where a banned player could change their nexgen ID and/or IP and rejoin the server with someone elses name thus creating a new ban for when that player did eventually join the server

there are several popular servers running this system ie; sp0ngeb0bs and I think Sam's.

That's their problem, never knew the author of Nexgen and only really liked the plugin system

re: webadmin default settings lol.. yes I remember this one.
^ Remember to change these or disable.

allowing older versions of UT to access server ie; 4.00+? how do we achieve this?

Under the same section as all the actors and packages MinClientVersion=400

Server Protections ;

Linux .. {what do we need here}
Windows .. ^^

I have no idea about windows servers, there was some external fix needed IIRC it's to fix that 'bad boy'/'hell's bells' ddoss whatever it's called. Probably the ADV fix or ServerCrash or both. And I know AnthraX hex edited some linux file. Frankly I'm not sure if it's needed, I run vanilla and change a setting that prevents a crashed client from causing lag. (Unless it prevents fake player joins, I usually set a max players from ip address to a lowish value which solves it from being an effective attack and more a player increaser )

http://www.unrealadmin.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3759
The fix:
http://forum.ragezone.com/f328/ipdrv-tc ... gs-717325/
You should also disable logging of port unreach

Timing fixes ie; TickFix2 (TF2) or 3 or XC_GameEngine or?

The TickFix forces the server to try harder to retain the tickrate you set, thus it may seriously stress a CPU. Or not, someone with better engine knowledge can help you there. A 20 tick linux server apparently runs a few ticks lower than 20

Adv_patch and ServerCrashFix12 or 13 or? - Still relevant?

Ipserver {just me} ?
Securevalidate? or XserverQuery?

All solve that udp crash bug if set up properly. Must udpserveruplink through it as well as udpserverquery. XServerQuery has excessive logging that may or may not be easy to turn off

optimum tickrates ie; newnet 40-60?

Depends. I'd vouch 20 is fine. Increasing it for NW would require a mod like newnet or even better Independent Tickrate weapons like ClanBase Fall cup mutator abbreviated CB12

netspeeds and the likes...?

I have a bunch of guides for this, but my math is bad. I'd say maxclientrate should never exceed 10000, and if you have a busy server then a couple or a few thousand lower. I'm not including mods like newnet that bypass this

optimum server.ini settings and so-forth.

We just covered everything

just a few questions that come to mind.

There's a few left unanswered (or unclear) throughout my post

[noccer]

Spoiler

Bla bla
Blablabla Blabla
Blalalabababbelbla

1. Since you started to insult me in private message, your messages are moved to /dev/null
2. If you want to talk to me, send me a PM
3. see 1

A little tutorial about setting up a UT 99 server on Linux (so far only Debian) is here:

http://utwiki.noccer.de/index.php/Linux ... stallation (German)

And for sure: http://wiki.unrealadmin.org/Server_Install_linux (english)

[Wises]

*Brainstorm* appended as suggested

also.. great advice being posted by BillyBill and thanks also to Noccer for inputs

personally: always wondered about how these guys setup these co-op servers , not to sure if they are different to UT or what?

later on (Looking at you Chambaz lol) we'll need an expert BT admin to fill in all the mods etc for these servers as well
ie; does Newnet would ok now with BT or are there still issues in certain area's ?

Mr loathesome could prolly input into co-op and also the use of the Linux 440 version as well.

there could be some chaosUT veterans to input about that mod and so-forth.

Edit---------------- by papercoffee *cough*

A little tutorial about setting up a UT 99 server on Linux (so far only Debian) is here:

http://utwiki.noccer.de/index.php/Linux ... stallation (German)

be good if translated to english lol.. I guess Google translate may help here.

re: fake player mod is just a modified ipserver.u file iirc

^ be warned tho that it empties servers faster then a skunk in a whorehouse (u have been warned)

it would be better if you had marked bots in the browser which could be toggled on/ off as players joined.. we did start working on this exact mod a while ago and with a few tweaks it could work quite well..

basically the mod would add xx bots to the server when 1 player was present - keeping them entertained until another joined.. the mid would be smart and detect how many players were online and adjust the # of bots as the server filled.. or simply remove them.. however I think for memory that it would just kill the bots if/when 2 or more players were present , which didn't always help with keeping the server populated.. as the players themselves usually preferred playing against the bots then each other lol.

I did think having some kinda small !bots cmd which like mapvote could either vote off or on the bots depending on the players at the time but it never was completed.

here Is the mod mentioned above here: MyBots
would be awesome if someone could implement the vote thing in some way so that players could choose by voting if bots go or stay I guess.. 51% vote wins just like mapvote kickvote lol.

this was the time when ferbotz started to take off and would have been great or still could be

I will hunt down the mod later and commence some kind of structured mod (addons) section in original post probz split by (spoilers etc)