Server Hosting

#1 Kevin there is no one correct answer to your question. Let me try an explain...

Game servers are really setup to meet the needs of the game and it's players. Gameserver architectures can be as diverse as games themselves and are a combination of function and sytle. Depending on the game you are designing, it can be simple as a single server to as complex as hundreds of servers. Most of the time during game development the complexity of the game servers is minimized.

A good example of server complexity can be found here:

http://www.garagegames.com/blogs/4280/10708

Believe it or not, this is a setup of mild to moderate complexity. When setting up game servers, they can be pretty much be broken down into three catagories:

Front-end Servers
Application Servers
DB Servers

When building a server infrastructure for you game, the following should be taken into consideration:

Security
Amount of Users
DB Scaling
Storage
Applications
Backbone
websites
encryption
clustering
high availability
load balancing
disaster recovery

And the list can go on and on. I would start development on a single server that you can set up at your house then build up the infrastructure as the game grows. When you are ready to test your game over the net, then look for a hosting company that can handle your aniticipated server infrastructure needs.

#2 Hey Jon,

I think I understand the concept now and thanks for explaining this to me! Alienware lets you configure Gameservers, do you think thats any good?

Greetings,

Kevin Erkelenz

#3 Honestly...

Alienware is way over priced. I would just get a system that you can afford with your server OS of choice, I do Win2k3 or Linux. Then build it out with the approriate software somponents that you need, for example web service or DBs. If this is just going to be a back end server, you do not need a high-end graphics card. RAM, CPU, and storage will be your main concerns.

If you want to test a tiered architecture, and are not concerned with performance in the short term, use software like VMware to build each infrastructure component as an instance on your server.

#4 I have an Alienware computer and I actually scored a good deal, or course I didnt have to pay taxes because my dad wrote it on his company but yes, they are kind of expensive! And thanks again for the advice on game-servers. I really appreciate it!

Greetings,

Kevin Erkelenz

#5 [rant]I have some advice - NEVER buy from Alienware! There are much cheaper alternatives for the same hardware, not the least of which is buying the parts yourself. I recommend www.newegg.com/ for hardware, their prices are ususally much better, and most products are rated and reveiwed by a customer. Or just check out a local computer market.[/rant]

Also, Have you considered renting a server? It can be very expensive running your own server, and most ISPs block outgoing port 80 to prohibit this. I know Optusnet do ;)
There are ways around this. but it gets tedious, and even more so less legal if you use it for a commercial game. Check your ISPs Terms of Service before starting.

#6 Oh ya that is a thing I havent thought of, Alienware is expensive mostly for its advanced silencing and cooling systems and the performance improving chassis but the place I live in in Germany has a very good and cheap computer store where I will upgrade in the future.
I wasn'n really thinking about running my own servers quite yet for a little while or at least until I am old enough to move out of the house and can co to high school, well actually it's two more days til' i get out of school and off to 9th grade! :)
I also have never thought about my ISP having some issues with this, thats a great point and thank you for reminding me! If I manage to create an MMOG that is worth playing I will consider renting a server, thanks a lot for your advice Mincetro, I really appreciate it!

Kevin Erkelenz

#7 My $0.02.
If your going to write a serious game, and host a serious community, you buy serious hardware. My preference are IBM core Servers, but ~s/IBM/VendorOfChoice/. The difference is looking at the I/O capability of the solution. Things like running all RAID, Multiple Power Supplies, Redundancy in networking, OS disks, and proper management facilities, failover strategies, colocated service nodes, and storage I/O seperation from Operating System. Its actually not as expensive as people think to get solid Rackmount hardware, that has been drilled through testing to be stable. IBM X365 Server: $2500 .. Pretty damn cheap insurance policy.

Rodney

#8 I'm also looking into renting server space. Does anyone know of a company that has a good price for what they offer?