Community Relations Archive
Thread: Server status ( or lack of it rather )
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Bandito-V-
Thu Jan 27, 2005 9:33 am
#1
I am writing this feedback to express my as well as MANY others distaste for the way you admin your servers.
As a paying customer who pays $15 a month just to play SWG, I would think that what we pay would be MORE than sufficient to pay for a second server for all the galaxies.
While server #1 is online, you apply updates and patches to server #2, and then come 6am eastern time, you take server #1 offline and immediatly put back up server #2 with all the new patches and updates. This would allow for a 95% server uptime for ALL galaxies. I am writing this feedback to express my as well as MANY others distatse for the way you admin your servers.
As a pay customer who pays $15 a month just to play SWG, I would think that what we pay would be MORE than sufficient to pay for a second server for all the galaxies.
While server #1 is online, you apply updates and patches to server #2, and then come 6am eastern time, you take server #1 offline and immediatly put back up server #2 with all the new patches and updates. And then the next day you swap them out again.This would allow for a 95% server uptime for ALL galaxies.
The reason for my feeback submission is due to the fact that I personally work the night shift, and EVERY day come home to play and find that the servers are OFFLINE. So today, I get home...go to sleep and wake up at 11am thinking, the servers will be up for me to be able to play....well...wouldnt you know it...you chose to take the servers offline at 11am,5 minutes after I start playin!! I guess I just cant play the game.
Or maybe it dont matter what time I or someone else gets on to play, you just provide a "Servers are offline" message and thus dont need to provide a server and still collect peoples money per month !
If a second server for each galaxy would be too expensive for Sony to implement, then maybe you should cut back on the total number of servers you DO have up, and take the discontinued servers and make them the backup servers for the remaining galaxies. I am sure that your customers would rather have less galaxies in trade for 95% uptime.
Quite frankly this is becoming rediculas being that I cannot ever play the game but yet still pay you per month. I am sure you can understand my concern, how would you feel if when you went to collect peoples fees every month and got a BANK ACCOUNT offline message all the time.
I truely hope you can find some way to rectify this ongoing issue, not only for myself...but for the multitue of other loyal customers who are tired of this situation.
Syrius_Windrunner
Thu Jan 27, 2005 5:39 pm
#2
To be fair, they have stopped daily server shutdowns, so the servers are now only reset every other day (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, if memory serves), with the exception of patch days.
It also seems kinda pointless to have a "second" server for each galaxy, with exact, up-todate copies of all player and item databases to be brought into use for the hour or so during patches.. besides I think each galaxy is actually spread across several physical servers to lessen load (eg. Space is on one server, and perhaps half the planets on another or something). So a backup would actually involve more than just one server extra per galaxy.
Whenever errors occur (like the other day) I'm sure that they all do everything they can to get it back up as quickly as possible.. I doubt they just sit around drinking coffee, joking about how we can't play! 
*edited for typos 
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Message Edited by Syrius_Windrunner on 01-28-2005 12:50 AM
snipaho
Thu Jan 27, 2005 8:57 pm
#3
Syrius_Windrunner wrote:
I doubt they just sit around drinking coffee, joking about how we can't play!
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Bandito-V-
Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:04 pm
#4
Dont misunderstand me, I commend sony for their achievment handling multiple layers of servers and trying their best to provide the best possible server uptime, I just think that there could be certain enhancements made that would provide for a more sucure uptime. I guess its just frustrating that the servers always seem to be down when I want to play...lmao
Such is life....
Ananais2
Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:20 pm
#5
ok if i understand this you want them to clone every server, each server is run on a cluster btw, it isnt just 1 server per game server, and you want them to swap them 2 times a day,
i dont have much experiance with servers the size it would take to run this game, but i know that what your asking would need the databases backed up and transfered from 1 server to another, and i know this can take a lot of time on even amedium size business servers, so i would imagine it would take as much time transfering everything as it dose rebooting them anyway, but i am by no means an expert in this type of network...
but what i do know is that this would be extreamly expensive, and tbh i dont think any business could justify the expense to have there servers up 24 hours a day instead of 23.
i really dont mean to be negitive here, i know how frustrateing it is, im in gmt and they go down in the middle of the day here as i play on Ahazi, but you do have the option of playing on a EU time based server, they dont go down as the same time as the US ones and it sounds like it would be a better fot for your play times.
in theory id love to see them up all the time, just this way i dont ever see happening.
Message Edited by Ananais2 on 01-31-2005 04:23 AM
Bandito-V-
Mon Jan 31, 2005 6:32 pm
#6
No just swap them 1 time a day would work...lol
As far as playing a euro server to make up for the off times, Although that is indeed an option that I am aware of, I dont feel it indeed a viable option at this point in my toons life span as I have invested considerable time in him thus far, not to mention the fact that I am part of a guild that is based on Bria !
All I am saying is that is seems excessive for them to bring down the servers EVERY day for over 4 to 5 hours a day. And by the way I AM very familiar with clustered servers and what it takes to admin them, speeking as one who went to college and carried a 4.0 GPA in Electronic Tech / Data Communications.
IF set up properly, the servers can be set to syncronize and swap themselves with noone even being there to monitor them.
In regard to your statement about the justification of expenses that a corporation would devote to keep servers online 23 or 24 hours a day. Again, I point to the MULTITUDE of players paying their fees per month to play. I mean after all, is that NOT what we pay for ?
Expenses needed to maintain clustered servers running at a maximum of 23 hours per day =
~Internet backbone connection
~Cost for equiptment
~Cost of electricity
~Wages for guy to sit at desk and read newspaper and play SWG himself.
In perspective, in the whole coorporate world...the major expendature would be the Internet Backbone, and in regard to having a backup for each galaxy it boils down to extra equiptment which is approx. ( now I state for the record I do not know what equiptment they are running ), but approx. 6 to 8k worth of expenses per galaxy...MAXIMUM
Beyond that, electricity is something they pay for on a day to day basis as it is.....
And Bob the janitor is there sweeping floors anyway !
Just my opinion.....and you know what they say about opinions, they are like ******'s, everyones got one, and they usualy stink !
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