CPU Upgrade For Vanilla Server With Poor TPS
Does anyone know what kind of single core performance a vanilla Minecraft server needs? I'm specifically looking for a metric in mOPs/second.
Symptom - I recently moved all my homelab infrastructure to a Dell Poweredge R710 (old I know but I basically got it for free) and my vanilla Minecraft server is "struggling to keep up" with a TPS between 60-100. When I run the server my RAM slowly gets eaten up and my CPU load caps out at around 30% so this leads me to believe my single core performance is not up to par.
Proposed Solution - From what I understand Minecraft servers primarily utilize one core. I currently have two E5620's and I plan on upgrading to two Xeon 5680's. I will link a performance comparison chart here (https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/1312vs1249/Intel-Xeon-X5680-vs-Intel-Xeon-E5620), what I have vs what I plan to upgrade to. Would this upgrade let me run my server normally again?
A couple things to note:
- I am running this server on a Windows 10 VM hosted in ESXi 6.7
- I have a stable 1Gbps connection
- I have a Dell SAS6/ir raid contoller with 2 SSD's in a RAID 0. The controller caps out at 3GB/s but my real world performance is roughly 280 MB/s
- The only thing with any large amount of entities in my world is an Iron Golem Farm
Any information/direction is appreciated as I don't have much experience running Minecraft servers in general. Thanks!
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Requested by alaskadtd#0
why a virtual machine
of windows 10?
might as well use Linux
I knew this was coming, it’s just the ISO that I had on hand and know how to work. The real question is: does Linux have any kind of superiority over windows when it comes to Minecraft server performance? Will a Linux Minecraft server utilize more cores or spread the workload out?
it will have less overhead'
and less resources spent on gui etc
If you have an OS like Debian that is clean and problem-free, you can reach 20TPS very easily.
Even with a lot of plugins. But for example, to optimize your server as much as possible, if you use plugins, it's better to use FAWE (Fast Async World Edit) than World Edit.
^ not always no.
FAWE has had memory leaks in the past iirc
better to use WTS with worldedit imo
Thanks for the suggestion, I am not a Linux user so it'll take some R&D but I will look into it. This particular server is just a vanilla server for myself and my S/O.
Sure theres less overhead but with such a high TPS does the GUI really even put a dent in the single core performance? The CPU and RAM usage sits below 10% when idle. I understand I am dealing with old legacy hardware and the CPU upgrade is actually under $100 so I would upgrade in a heartbeat. I just don't want to spend the $70 for the CPU upgrade if it just makes more sense to spend $250+ on a newer gen server if the upgrade wouldn't make much of a difference.
u arent getting 60-100 tps
game is cappeda t 20
at 20
and 20 is the best
Look man I'm just telling you what the server says when I launch with a GUI. I'll provide a screencap later when I get off work. I mean, I believe you but I'm just telling you what I saw with my own eyes.
When I launch with my batch file (which has 12/16GB) allocated to the server the cmd prompt shows "loading spawn region 0%" about 30 times and then skips to 100% and says the server is struggling to keep up. Takes roughly 6000-8000ms to build the spawn region upon launch.
Struggling to keep up is how far behind it is
doesnt have anything to do with getting 60-100 tps (which u arent)
maybe dont use a vm
especially windows
100 tps? I thought mc was limited to 20
it is
oh
I mean maybe I read it wrong, I'll take a look when I get home but I'm almost positive the GUI showed 60.
Are you just a VM hater or do you have any kind of evidence to suggest Minecraft servers run signifigantly better on bare metal?
I'm not a vm hater
but I know for a fact using a windows, especially in a vm doesn't help
theres a reason why majority of providers don't use windows vms
also why vm at all? can't u use host machine
well sure, when you're renting out large amounts of compute and storage (for profit) of course you want to optimize as much as possible. This is just a small private vanilla server for two people. Do you have any kind of evidence that running in a vm and/or W10 signifigantly impacts performance though? Like any personal rhetoric or anything? You completely avoided the primary question to begin with, will the CPU upgrade make a noticeable difference? You are trying to push how you would run the environment onto me but the fact is its my hardware and my homelab infrastructure and a minecraft server is just a small little fun thing I can live without.
I am running a hypervisor, not a baremetal OS. I have many other things running on the same server. Minecraft Server is just a nice benefit.
yes upgrading would be nice
ngl I'm so young idk what even that cpu you're using is
I've seen slight improvements personally moving minecraft server from windows to Linux on the same hardware. But I'm talking miniscule mspt differences personally.
Use what you're comfortable with, honestly.
I run a windows/google work environment with a few linux machines sprinkled in for a living so that's why I went with Windows to begin with. It's what I know best and the ISO I had ready to go. The thing is, if the difference between Linux and Windows is what makes my server playable then I don't even want to run it and I'd rather just upgrade hardware.
Though, there are some limitations to using windows for minecraft.
A) spark plugin is restricted from using the more accurate async profiler
B) some Java flags are Linux exclusive
But, switching to a fabric server jar and installing some optimization mods should make your 2 player server plenty playable
^^
Interesting. Could I import my world if I switched to Fabric? Is fabric optimized better? I really don't want to accept the fact that an enterprise grade server from 2011 is completely incapable of running a minecraft server but if that's the case then I'll have to accept it 😢
Fabric is a drop in replacement to the vanilla server jar
Fabric by itself doesn't do anything special
You need to install the optimization mods on top
@ProGamingDK got the link of fabric optimization mods lying around?
As long as you only install server sided mods you can join on a vanilla client too
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Ohhhh okay that makes sense, I will definitely chase that down thank you! I'm really hoping this will help because I don't want to chase issues with my VM/compatibility. I'd sooner load the server up on an old optiplex i have lying around
also live profiler doesnt work
I know dell r710s are old inefficient hunks of scrap metal and e-waste in modern day, but they definitely have enough compute for a 2p server
arent they also insane power wasters?
That's what inefficient means when talking about computer hardware
ah
Don't get me wrong, plenty good for a free homelab and plenty good for 2p
Well I got the server for free basically. I just bought 3 SSDs and some caddys and she was up and running so its worth the power cost to me.
I'll eventually sell it and upgrade to a newer gen 1u server but this will do for now 🙂
Well thanks for the insight fellas. I'll go ahead and mark this as solved.
!solved
Feel free to give me a tag if you need any more help (: