How To Choose A Server Optimized For Game Hosting Providers Game server hosting providers have a unique set of requirements for the hardware that hosts game servers for their customers.

How To Choose A Server Optimized For Game Hosting Providers

Game server hosting providers have a unique set of requirements for the hardware that hosts game servers for their customers. Low latency is perhaps the most important factor: gamers expect high network and disk performance. But other factors also contribute to building and optimizing a dedicated server suitable for hosting multiple concurrent game servers.

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In this article, we''re going to look at what makes a server suitable for hosting a large number of game servers and what you, as a game server hosting provider, should look for when choosing a server. We''ll show you how to select a server that provides the best possible experience to your game server hosting clients and to gamers.

Determining Server Specifications For Game Servers

It is impossible to give an all-encompassing recommendation on the best specifications for a host game server. Which dedicated server is right for you depends on the number of game servers the host will support, the games on offer, the mods used with those games, and the number of players connected to the server at the same time.

Recommendations for Server Requirements

Before choosing a dedicated server''s specifications, look at the requirements of the game you are looking to host for users. This will not only help you choose a dedicated server, but also determine which plans to offer users and how much server resources to include in each plan. It is worth looking at the offerings of your competitors and doing a Google search for "game-system requirements" to get an idea of the market.

Did you know? The ServerMania Knowledge Base includes dozens of articles that explain what we recommend for different game servers.

The game type can also impact the resources required by a game server host. A relatively light game such as Counterstrike requires significantly fewer resources than expansive open-world games, which demand much more memory, processing power, and storage. If you book a server consultation, our game server hosting experts can offer guidance on optimal specifications for your use case.

General Game Server Recommendations

At ServerMania, we have provided dedicated gaming server hosting for game server hosts for nearly two decades. We''re always happy to advise our clients about the appropriate specifications for their server, and to build custom dedicated servers with the exact specifications game hosting providers need.

As a guideline:

- When it comes to dedicated servers for Game Server Providers, the more RAM the better. It is not unusual to see 128GB-256GB of RAM on a gaming node. - Many games still only leverage the power of a single CPU core, so a server with fewer CPU cores at a higher clock speed is common. - Many GSPs host a large number of servers with smaller processors such as the E3-1270v6 rather than fewer servers with a larger processor. This helps to spread out performance and increase redundancy. Solid State Drives, or SSDs, can read and write data much faster than traditional hard drives. SSDs and NVMe drives that are faster can significantly improve load times and performance for games with many assets.

Determine Bandwidth requirements

The bandwidth available to your dedicated server also impacts performance. Gaming may be affected if the bandwidth available to your dedicated server exceeds the network interface''s capacity.

As with all specifications bandwidth requirements depend on what games you intend hosting and how many players. For example, Steam recommends at least 1140 kbps for a Half-Life Dedicated Server instance with 32 players. GSERVERS Higher requirements may apply to modern games. Minecraft recommends at most 15 Mbps to host a server that has more than nine players.

ServerMania dedicated servers are equipped with a 1Gbps network interface, so they are capable of supporting many such instances. We also have 10Gbps connections available in some locations.

It is important to optimize performance for all gamers by using game server configuration variables to limit players in each game and to use your game servers control panel to ensure that resources are not oversubscribed.

Low Network Latency

ServerMania Data Centers can be found in 8 locations around the globe to provide low latency worldwide.

Three primary factors contribute to network latency between gamers and the host running the game server they are connected to.

- Physical distance. There is no way to overcome the limitations of physics. Data takes time to travel across the network. The latency will increase the further the distance between the server/gamer. - Network distance. Network distance can be thought of as the number of hops a packet of data takes to get where it''s going. Each hop adds some latency. Network distance is related to physical distance, but they aren''t the same. A poorly optimized network route can involve a great number of hops, even if the physical distance is short. A well-optimized route that makes use of major bandwidth carriers might have a shorter network distance, even though it is closer. Bandwidth capacity. Overloaded network interfaces may drop packets or slow down to a crawl. A server hosting provider that tries to squeeze too much data through a weak network interface will result in a poor gaming experience.

When choosing a dedicated server host, a game hosting provider should look for redundant connections to major bandwidth providers, data centers in proximity to the largest clusters of gamers, and network interfaces capable of supporting the network traffic generated by game servers with potentially thousands of players. ServerMania offers servers in 8 data centers to meet the needs of GSPs.

Many Game Server Providers optimize server performance by setting up dedicated servers in locations throughout the world. Users can choose the most convenient location for their group and enjoy the best performance when they checkout.

Optimizing Game Server Operating Systems

Game server hosting providers have the ability to optimize their servers at the operating system level. Default OS settings are intended for general server workloads, and game server hosts can improve performance by adjusting some network and storage options.

This is a complex topic. There are many possible tweaks that a host might make to their server operating system. Let''s look at two recommended network tweaks for game servers that run on Linux.

- Increase UDP receive buffer size. Game servers typically communicate with UDP, and the standard configuration for UDP packet buffers may result in lost packets. The rmem_default parameters are used to configure the buffer size in the /etc/sysctl.conf. - Busy polling. While busy polling can reduce latency and reduce packet processing delays, it also increases processor utilization. This setting is not available by default in most distributions. It can be turned ON by adding a value in /etc/sysctl.conf to the busy_read & busy_poll parameters. 50 is a safe default value.

These parameters have many influences on gaming performance. You should test them to ensure a better gaming experience.

ServerMania dedicated servers are specialized for game-server hosting with Intel Xeon processors, ultrafast SSD storage, 20 TB of included bandwidth, and a 100 percent Network Uptime Guarantee. For a free consultation about your game server, please contact us today.