Counter-Strike: Source - Unexpected Lag / Pause

[RackGaming]

Hello everyone,

 

We are currently setting up a new test server, details below:

 

Intel Xeon Quadcore 1.6

2GIG ECC & FB-DIMM RAM

2x 74GIG 10K Raptor Drives

100 Uplink Ports (Duel Nix)

 

We have 5 game servers (3 COD4 & 2 CSS) running in a development enviroment.

 

Only 1 server is open to public (16 slot CSS TXT2 Server)

 

 

The thing we are having issues with is basically you play for about 10 minutes with a ping of 11ms and everything is perfect. Then all of a sudden you "Freeze" or "Warp" as people say and then after 5 seconds continues.

 

We have disabled the stats gathering on TCA and all other things we belive could cause this issue. But I am at a loss as it did not work.

 

does anyone have any input to add to see if we can resolve this issue?

 

Thank You!

[KennyM]

That sounds like the same problem I was having with my Xeon 5130 from ThePlanet. The CPU usage was at about 60%, and it would play fine for a few minutes, than the FPS on the server would drop to about 250 for 3 seconds than it would come back up. This was very annoying and I just got rid of the Xeon 5130.

[RackGaming]

My FPS on the servers are all set to 300. CPU uages is about 15 - 20%

But either way I can't see that being a real issue for the current problem.

 

Any other ideas m8 ?

[xpservers]

what is your tickrate set to along with FPS settings ?

what plugins you running ?

 

10-15% cpu on idle is abit high also, theres obviously no bots right ?

 

Were on dual Xeon 3.2, 4G ECC and our source 600fps 100tick idle at 2% when no one is playing, can go up to 20% on full 25 slot

 

Is this a fresh install on these production boxes ?

[adamnp]

sounds like the network is throttling.....

[RackGaming]

What do you mean by throttling and how can I stp this from heppending? FYI we own our servers and co-located in RapidSwitch DC UK.

[RackGaming]

what is your tickrate set to along with FPS settings ?

what plugins you running ?

 

10-15% cpu on idle is abit high also, theres obviously no bots right ?

 

Were on dual Xeon 3.2, 4G ECC and our source 600fps 100tick idle at 2% when no one is playing, can go up to 20% on full 25 slot

 

Is this a fresh install on these production boxes ?

 

 

Well we have 2 servers up now for fps testing:

 

The one which is causing most issues is:

 

66tick 300FPS we have another which is 66tick 128FPS also causing issues.

 

Idel(no used slots) = 0% cpu. A full server of 16 slots = 11% - 16%

 

these 2 test servers are running on:

 

Intel Xeon Quadcore 1.6

2GIG ECC & FB-DIMM RAM

2x 74GIG 10K Raptor Drives

100 Uplink Ports (Duel Nix)

 

No bots allowed on our servers.

 

The server has fresh install OS, installed ALL windows updates for server 2003 standard and also used the Windows Security Wizard to lock down the server and open up all game ports. Everyhting which is needed is open so there is no conflics.

 

If any of you are willing I could talk with you on msn or teamspeak and give remote access to see if you can figure out whats going wrong.

 

PS never heard of network throttling.

[rich835]

If you are with Rapidswitch, it's unlikely to be their network. Those guys are really on the ball, they will tell you if there's a network problem before you even realise it.

I would look at what else you might have running on your boxes, shutdown any unnecessary services, turn on the windows firewall and see if anyone is having a pop at you.

[adamnp]

Throttling is a common term basically meaning exactly what it is...To throttle,is to choke or suffocate in any way....Basically saying the network is burping, choking, spiking.....Causing loss of packets, and your jumpyness... This can be caused by many things....We recently had an issue with a machine dropping packets at the nic like crazy.....Have you used procexporer to get a better indepeth view of how the process is running?

[RackGaming]

Hey guys thanks for your replys.

 

Indeed RapidSwitch are great but as adamnp said its probibly throttling and in which case the DC declined on those thoughts, They said their network is 100% perfect, no reported issues and they don't throttle their networks. But if this is the only reason why this would cause such a strange issue then its obvious we have to change providers, I was looking at PundHost but they charge much more. Were currently paying £55 per month per dedi and thats for 1.1amp power 3000GIG b/W and 1u.

 

Windows Firewall is on and controled by Windows Security Wizzard that comes as standard with Win 2003 standard, it allows all game traffic through and a few web stuff and ftp for TCA but anyhting else gets blocked. We also have Avast running and has been giving out worrying reports of someone trying to hack into our services via DCOM exploit. I can pass you the logs if you like maybe you can shed some light onto that also ? For now were just logging everything as long as avast keeps them out.

 

Back to the css issue, this unexpected lag only happends no and again and in 5 rounds you will only see 1 once but belive me when I say its very bad when viewed by a client and they instantly think that they have a poor provider which is untrue.

 

We are running each dedi in optimized services enviroments meaning we have disabled all other uneeded services. We have not touched the registry as Im not sure if it needs to be.

 

I'll download that program procexprer now and see what it is and maybe pass you a screenshot or something.

 

Again thanks very much guys for yoru continued reponses I only hope we can fix these small issues before we go full steam ahead with our advertisments.

 

Thanks!

 

EDIT: Uploading ProExplorer Screenshot. Does this help? I dont know how to work this program sorry

 

EDIT: Uploading Avast Screenshot of DCOM exploit.

[RackGaming]

HLSW TraceRoute Graph uploaded.

[RackGaming]

Any ideas guys?

[Daersun]

I will tell you what I want to tell my customers.

 

Stop the porn downloading when trying to play a game.

[RackGaming]

LOL Nice

 

Anyway I had a meeting with a long time respected community member last night (HIS-MOTHER) and he assured me that I setup the servers perfect give or take a few undeeded services and a change in security protocol.

 

Please consider this thread closed, & thank you to those who gave their 2pence