As you all might have noticed, we've been changing our server setup and configs in the last couple of weeks. Also we have encountered some server hardware problems.

We've pretty much sorted out the TF2 server setup which will remain as it is now.

The current server list contains three TF2 servers for all maps, one TF2 server running bball2, one TF2 warserver, one TF2 cup server and one SourceTV server to stream the cup matches. We might expand a bit on fun type servers like bball2, but for the regular servers this will pretty much remain to be it.

Our server 3 is based in the UK and runs off a rented server. Unfortunately this gives us less control over the server, with a lot of downtime as result lately (Third party issues). We hope the server will remain stable from now on. If this is not be the case, we'll most likely look for an alternative UK server.

Our servers 1 and 2 are run by ourselves, from our own hardware. Here we have some good news; today we've ordered our new machine, which will replace the current config. We expect to have the server in at friday (10th of October). We'll use the weekend to experiment around with it, and will place it in the datacenter most likely somewere in the comming week.

The upgrade should have as result that servers 1 and 2 will run more smoothly, and we'll have around 8 times more capacity to be able to host new games. Without going into too much details (exact details can be found on the forums), this will be the new config;
2x Intel Xeon Quadcore
8GB 1333Mhz ECC mem
1x SAS 15.000 RPM harddisk

Before the weekend we experienced some nasty issues on our webserver. The harddisk is showing signs of failure and partly broke down. For now we've been able to restore everything in order, but we expect the HDD not to survive much longer anymore. Once we've installed the new gameserver we'll be ordering 3 new harddisks to build a RAID1+0 configuration to ensure stability, speed and backups. If one of the disks would die in the future, we'd simply only need to replace it and have the server to rebuild its RAID. In a later stage we'll also be adding an extra disk to our gameserver to provide external backups aswell.

As you can see, we're preparing for a more professional and stable hosting environment to keep hosting the current games we do, and to expand in the near future to new games which will get released.

Enjoy playing at SpecialAttack, we'll frag you ingame!

Posted on behalf of Saint K.