PZ HomeLab [discussion]

[Primal]

Hello. I'm looking for the best possible server creation options. By this I mean the hardware and software part. I saw different topics and applications on this issue. In my opinion, the information is scattered, and in some places outdated. it would have been known in advance that this was possible. Gradually, I began to form a table and instructions.

 

Let's take a server for 32 players as an example. No mods. Maximum population. Maximum loot.
1) What hardware will be optimal?
Processor (number of cores and clock frequency), memory (volume and clock frequency), storage (speed and volume).
Surely some tests were carried out and there is an understanding of what can be considered recommended.
2) Which operating system is better?
There are many Linux distributions to choose from, as well as Windows.
As I understand there is nothing better than Linux in this matter, but which one?
So that you can run the exceptional bare essentials.
3) What about Docker? If we have n-th number of servers - would it be reasonable to contain each server in a container for: a) security; b) ease of use and maintenance. Won't docker create ping problems?
4) Third party software. I have seen that there is at least one application - the owner of the creation and use of the server. It definitely works on Windows, is there a source code for the same Linux and is it convenient?

 

I need to find ground so that I can better understand this and be able to formulate new questions. Thank you.

[Shakesbeere]

1 - I run a 6 core, Zomboid seems to prefer 2-3 cores but will use all 6 under heavy use. Generally higher clockspeed is preferable over more cores on comparable processors for game servers. But more importantly processor architecture matters way more nowadays, gone are the days of the GHz race. Pick the newest if you want performance. There are not many tests carried out for 'optimal' as far as I'm aware. There do be some variables and you'd need a lot of hardware. Such is the life of server hosting.

 

Last I read it was recommended to have 2GB + players * 0.5 in memory. I run nowhere near 32 players, no idea how well it scales. Don't be too worried about RAM frequency, servers often run ECC memory which is a tad slower anyway at standard JEDEC speeds. I think you'd have to run a pretty strange setup to run into massive memory speed bottlenecks.

 

2 - Linux has less overhead, that is an advantage. I doubt there'd be much difference for actual server performance but on windows you'd need to add a bit more RAM.

 

If you are completely unfamiliar with linux and terminal, probably go for Ubuntu Server and prepare for a lot of googling. Main advantage of Ubuntu over Debian is it's a bit less barebones and not so outdated on the package management side. Not really an issue but nicer if you're new. Regardless go for a well supported distribution/OS. I'm sure there are some small distributions that try and lure people in with promises of bare essentials and highest performance but you will require some help and an answer to a question at some point. That is a lot easier when you can just google "Debian steam.sh spitting out error X".

 

3 - No idea. The ping/latency problems should be negligible though.

 

4 - You really don't need third party software. But if you want there are some examples on these forums of discord bots, third party apps and whatnot. Personally I just use a small bash script to check/start/stop/update the server. You really don't need much at all, CRON or Windows Task Scheduler will do the heavy lifting for you.

 

If you are unsure about this I would highly recommend just dipping your toes in the water, host a small server just for yourself and/or some friends, get familiar with the ins and outs of your chosen setup. Afterwards you can always scale it up, make it more complicated/convenient (those two go hand in hand) and invest more money in to it if needed.

[Primal]

Personally, I chose Proxmox 7.3 VE. This gives me the ability to keep multiple operating systems active(work, tests, PZ). I chose the installation method on top of debian 11. This allowed me to do a point-by-point partitioning of the hard drives. I moved all partitions with writable files to a second hard drive (Micron) that can handle frequent write-overwrite. And this is very important for me. Now I want to make a virtual system with PZ. I'm thinking about choosing a system.
You are giving correct advice. Community support is very important. This is clearly one of the criteria to consider when choosing an OS.
Now I will describe my hardware so that you can understand my logic.
Server platform: Intel R2208WFTZSR;
Processor: Intel Xeon Gold-6230, 2.1GHz, 20C/40T, 27.5Mb, TDP-125W, LGA3647, tray;
Memory: Micron DDR4 RDIMM 2x64Gb, 2933MHz, CL21, 1.2V, Dual Rank, ECC Reg.
System storage: Samsung 500Gb 970 EVO Plus, 2280, M.2, NVMe (Speed is the main criterion)
Data storage: (SSD) Micron 12.8Tb 9300 MAX, U.2 2.5", PCI-E, NVMe (His endurance. As you can see in the screenshot, he is a tough guy.)

As I understand it, the moment of reading and writing is very important for Project Zomboid. Is there any theoretical limit to this? Can I calculate how many possibilities of ssd Micron will consume 1 server.
I'm also interested in the possibility of splitting server files - is it real? Does it make sense in terms of:
1) Loading all libraries from a fast system disk;
2) Reading and writing game content on the 2nd, more durable ssd.
Thanks

Edited December 3, 2022 by Primal

[Primal]

I remember 1 more thing. Speaking of security. Apparently partition encryption is not suitable for us? I met information that this reduces the speed by about 15%.

[Shakesbeere]

Hey! I completely forgot about your question about storage!

 

Zomboid will mostly be writing and reading from the same set of files (the save/map information). But yes the saves and actual game files are already split by zomboid. You'll find the gamefiles whereever you installed zomboid with steamcmd and the server/saves in ~/Zomboid. I believe you can change the Zomboid location using the -cachedir= launch option.

 

I quickly checked disk utilization for you. I run on nvme (can't remember the model right now) and loading into a new, fresh, chunk peaked around 2MB/s read and write for less than a second (more limited by the iotop refreshrate I imagine). Worst case scenario I can imagine is all 32 of your players entering a new chunk at the exact same time. Although another bottleneck might hit you at that point.

Of course writing becomes less and less important as players explore more, but using this I suppose you can see if the 15% hit from encryption is workable. I can't comment on that.

 

I'll also add: my game files take up about 14.4GB, my current savefiles about 7GB. But the latter heavily depends on your server/backup tendencies.

 

Good pick on proxmox, by the way! Use that on my main server as well!