Alpha Load Testing

[John Adams]

Any and all players,
I would like to try and schedule a time when as many of us as possible can jump onto one moderately configured (hardware) server and see how well things are handled. I'd like to get 25+ in a zone at once, hacking, slashing, running around, casting, etc... I'm not interested in collecting stats on how bad each of our clients are (grin), but how the EQ2World executive handles multiple people in one zone, plus zoning around a populated world. I'd like to get this done before we reach our Beta phase (few months away(?)).
Good candidates for hardware would be your average P4 3.0GHz PC-based machine with 1-3gb RAM and a decently fast HDD. Though "average" PC is what I am mostly after since that's likely what most admins will run on. My main server is pretty robust (dual quad cores + 16gb + raid0 x5 spindle), though I do have "PCs" and virtual servers I can use too (Windows and Linux). So I might be able to host on a multitude of [virtual] hardware.
Lethal, if you have any objections or other ideas, let me know. I am thinking either an evening (US time) or a weekend (anytime). I'm not going to structure a specific test plan yet, so really anytime a group of you want to hit one of our servers and beat it down, go for it, and report back here.
Btw, Lethal has told me confidently there are no bugs in his code. I challenge that statement!

[Tyr]

Well, I am rather invested in the idea of having my own fully customized server, so I’ll do anything I can to help within my rather limited ability, just say when and where
Although, on a side note, I plan to do Like Eq1 SoD and have my own fully dedicated server founded entirely on donations. And not the “averageâ€

[Jalister]

I plan to run a low population server on a P4 2.8Ghz with Hyper-Treading, 2GBs of memory, and two drives in RAID0. I have a DMZ on cable internet to host it with. I'm not in a position to get a server populated by the time you need one, but if you need the hardware, I'd be happy to set it up if someone throws a database my way.
I'm also available to help load test, provided I'm not at work.

[John Adams]

That is a good point, Tyr. I am so focused on the functionality of the server exe itself, I do forget that bandwidth might add to any lag the client sees... which is why I said I am not so concerned about client performance as what we can gather at the server side (memory/disk usage, paging, database performance, etc).
Like most other "bandwidth" discussions, I do not believe even a residential cable modem would be a problem for the immediate goal. 25 players will hardly eat up 1mb of bandwidth, you think?

[Jalister]

Currently my internet speed is 6Mbps down, 384kbps up.
I may be upgrading to 8Mbps down, 768kbps up soon. Rumor has it they may be upgrading my area to DOCSIS 3 soon.

[JCL]

hmm, I wouldn't mind hopping on and helping with you are ready to start testing.

[John Adams]

I was thinking near the time when LE is ready to release 0.7, because more functionality will be in place and we can beat up on his network code then. I imagine that is still a few months away, so really if any of you are bored, hit TessEQ2 anytime. I am constantly running performance monitors on that server to catch any odd behavior.
I'd prefer a test of 25 concurrent connections, but I'll take 5 at this point.
(I really should rename my server to something official... lol oh well)

[tornar]

count with me John!!

[Kerbox]

I'll be there, evenings (US Time) and weekends work for me really good.

[John Adams]

We're going to get the two Tutorial Islands configured with quests, scripts, NPC movement, and spell data for classes so we can fully blow things up properly. Look for a call to arms (hopefully) within a few weeks.
But by all means, load test TessEQ2 any time you all feel like gathering. Max online my server I have seen is 5, and by the time I logged in to check it out, 3 logged off lol... we'll get there. Coordination is difficult when we are all over the planet.

[Kerbox]

Is this Alpha load test still going to happen at some point?

[John Adams]

I usually run performance stats 24x7 on my machine, and while there has been no official "ready-set-go" test time, I have been watching things whenever there are 4 or more players in a zone tearing things up.

Anyone is welcome to dog-pile my server and beat the hell out of it at any time. The test is not so much what I see at the console, but how you - the player - feel the game performs when you know the server has 10-20+ players online at once. Which so far, has never happened.

[imagi]

I will be there if u need one more people to test the load of your server !

i have a Quad 6600 with SLI (2X 8600 GT) + 3GB ram and an SATA HDD.

If i can be of any help to get things going a bit faster for having a beta i will do !

(Even if i m not very "good" with english sentences...)

[Atton2.0]

I'm a computer pack rat, SO! Once I get a few more machines on the internet working, I'll install eq2 on all of em and get them all running at once ( Maybe find a way to hook my g15 up to 5 at once) at your server.. I might be able to get some friends to hop on as well.. still it will be a good while before any of this happens.