Causes for Lag

Discussion in 'Bukkit Help' started by MissPicket, Feb 26, 2012.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Offline

    MissPicket

    Hi :)

    Our (hosted) server gets insane lag and we don't understand why. We have 1.4G of RAM and while the CPU is probably not the best out there, it's supposed to be a dual core 2.6MHz, which should be enough for what we do. Yet, we get "warning, can't keep up" console messages constantly, and there can be some really bad (10 sec +) chat, command, and build lag. It gets better on restarts, but not for long.

    Here's our plugins :
    Essentials
    Ess Chat
    Ess Spawn
    Ess Group Manager
    Ess Group Bridge
    WorldEdit
    WorldGuard
    WorldBorder
    SuperSpawn
    StarterKit
    Lockette
    Precious Stones
    AuthMe
    RollingMinecarts
    NoLagg

    Any of these create lag more than others?

    Also, we rarely have more than 5 players on at the same time.

    These are the different causes I've thought of, please correct me if that stuff just doesn't cause lag :

    1. Weirdly, there's more lag when certain people connect more than others. Could it be their mods? Maybe their internet connection? Their distance to the server?

    2. I screwed up a bunch of chunks with a hazardous WorldEdit, but I regenerated them and there's no console error. Could it still have created a lag problem?

    3. We have weird block errors such as : SEVERE Block at -158,63,701 is FURNACE but has null. Bukkit will attempt to fix this, but there may be additional damage that we cannot recover.
    Could that cause lag? (By the way, if anybody's got a fix...)

    4. Our host is in the US, and most of our players are either in Europe or New Zealand.

    Or maybe our host is just crap. In any event, I'm stumped, I've been trying everything since it started 5 days ago and I've pulled most of my hair out, nothing's worked.

    If anybody's got suggestions or could even point at a direction on what causes lag, I'll give them 64 cookies.

    Many thanks :)
     
  2. Offline

    Nathan C

    1. No. Players location, mods and all that have absolutely no effect on the servers performance.

    2. No

    3. That's a normal error in Bukkit R4. Does not effect performance.

    4. Again, location will not in any way impact server performance.

    Need more information though. Who is your host? Is it a dedicated server, VPS, or gameserver? How many players are on during the lag?
     
  3. Offline

    MissPicket

    Thanks a whole lot. That narrows it down, and you have no idea how helpful that is! When you're a noobie "owner", setting shit up and troubleshooting can get really complicated. Our host is MCProHosting. We have the coal plan. I'm sorry if I can't answer your question more in detail, I'm assuming it's a VPS but I don't know enough to be sure. Maybe you can tell me after visiting their site, and I'll be able to answer people better in the future :D
    They moved us to a better "node" last night but I barely see any difference. Especially since I installed AuthMe (we used to have xAuth but it was creating console errors.)

    I almost never get lag when I'm on my own, and I do a lot of worldediting. However, it can get bad if even one more person connects - but then, sometimes not. There's rarely more than 5 of us on, I'm not opening the server more until we've fixed this...

    Also, NoLagg gives me 19 or 20 ticks most of the time. I monitored a couple of times when it was bad, but I have no idea how to open the log files :D (damn noob)

    Yesterday tech support mentioned we may have to change or reset the map. Could THAT have any influence on server performance? Because we have an awesome map, and we've built a ton, so it would suck to change it.

    Any further thoughts? I'm on the verge of changing hosts, but if that doesn't help, it's a lot of trouble for nothing...

    Many thanks again, Nathan :)

    PS: As far as mods go, we started getting lag while also getting a lot of "xxx moved wrongly", about 5 days ago. That was fixed when I told people to only use Zombe. But the lag and warnings about not keeping up continued...

    Here's an email I just got from support - do they have a point? Because resetting our map would just be an absolute nightmare, I think I may even quit playing (we've put so much work into building an awesome world...) :

    This seems like you might have a world error, if you can try resetting your map, this might fix the problem. Also try deleting all your plugins and test it, sometimes plugins don't give errors but cause lag. Also make sure you download the map to your computer before resetting it as it might not fix the problem, and your going to want your map back if it doesn't fix the lag. This is the last option we have right now, as all our servers on that same node doesn't have any lag at all. CPU, RAM, bandwidth usage is very low on that node, it has a 1GBPS connection up and down. With a top notch xeon processor, the rest the specs can be found on our FAQ page, your on node 21.

    EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 24, 2016
  4. Offline

    MikeA

    You shouldn't need to reset your map. Usually when the host doesn't know what to do they say that :p. Also the CPU they use isn't the best, like you said. Other servers on the same node can cause lag on your server too in certain situations. So it might just be temporary unless it's been like this for a while.

    I recommend using BeastNode.com for hosting, they generally have good reviews and their servers are good. It might cost a few more bucks but it's worth it in my opinion. You also get a free Mumble voice server with it.
     
  5. Offline

    MissPicket

    Thanks a ton Mike, I'm currently downloading python stuff to check the world files (anything but resetting that map!) and my brain's about to explode :D

    I'm going to check with BeastNode tomorrow.

    Many cheers again :)
     
  6. Offline

    MikeA

    If you want a discount message me (I am not affiliated with them), also you could try using Chunkster to repair the world if it's messed up. (Unless that's what you were talking about in python)
     
  7. Offline

    MissPicket

    Yeah, I was looking at Checkworld (by the guy who made WorldEdit) but then realized it was outdated. Then I found chunkster, but i can't figure out if it only checks a map or will start repairing it automatically, and all I want right now is confirmation that the map is corrupt, not a fix, so I'm waiting for a reply on their forum. If anyone has a suggestion, by the way, on how to just scan a map for errors... would be most welcome. That would be my first step before erasing everything.

    So much work, this admin thing!

    Thanks, I will send you a message if we move - we'll def go to BeastNode, everyone recommends them.

    :)
     
  8. Offline

    MikeA

    What exactly do you mean "without repairing it"? All it does is check if anything is wrong with the region/chunk files. If something is wrong, it will fix it automatically. It won't mess up anything.

    java -jar Chunkster.jar <world dir>
     
  9. Offline

    Afforess

    #3 is actually a serious performance drain and I've seen it bring an i7 to its knees (2 tps).

    Update to the R5 builds...
     
  10. Offline

    MissPicket

    Ah ok, cool - I was afraid it would regen the chunks, like worldedit does. I don't want to lose any of the builds!

    Do I just install Chunkster and run that command from MC client? Is the <world dir> related to the Chunkster location?

    I don't understand anything you just said :D

    Isn't R5 for 1.2?
    :-p

    (nooooooooooob)

    EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 24, 2016
  11. Offline

    MikeA

    Hmm, you
    If your current host doesn't give console access you need to ask them to do it, which they should as it only takes a minute to do. Which means you need console access. You have to upload the Chunkster.jar to the same directroy as the world then run that command through console (Not Bukkit console).
    You could download the world folder to your PC and run Chunkster locally too, if it's not too big of a world.

    X.X-R5 is for 1.1 "R1-5" is just like a secondary build for the main version.


    Afforess; I've generated hundreds of chunks on my server with no lag problems? Could it be a certain version maybe?
     
  12. Offline

    MissPicket

    Ah, awesome! I tried to upload it in the root, then in the plugins folder :-p
    And I was running the commands from MC. I'll try now from the console.

    I also have a downloaded backup of the world, so I could do that. I'm sorry to be a pain, but how would I go about it? Where do I install chunkster, where do I run it from then? I'm in the complete darkness :D

    I'm sorry if I sound like an idiot, but their instructions are so short, for noobs like me they make absolutely no sense...

    (Do I upload the whole folder with the jar and the bat, or just the jar? Man, these instructions are not detailed enough...)

    And then how do I give it my world directory, if it's in it??? :'(

    LOL - I really can't seem to get this done correctly. Anybody here would take 10$ to do this for me? :'(

    EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 24, 2016
  13. Offline

    MikeA

    You don't install anything. Just put Chunkster.jar onto your desktop then open Command Prompt (CMD) and type the command I put above.

    If your world folder is on your desktop it would be "C:/Users/<Your User>/desktop/world/"
     
  14. Offline

    MissPicket

    I'm on a mac :D

    I just found a youtube tutorial (for macs), will try that out. Damn, this is like a full time job!

    Thanks so much for everything, Mike, you've been really kind to help out. :)
     
  15. Offline

    MikeA

    If you use Mac I can't help anymore lol, never used any mac operating systems.. [tnt]

    Also, depending on how dedicated you are, it is basically a full time job. :p
     
  16. Offline

    itorrent

    +1 on the fulltime job :p
     
  17. Offline

    MissPicket

    LOL, yeah - especially when it bugs like this!
    Okay, followed a good tutorial from youtube and ran chunkster, it was going for a loooong time oO

    I uploaded the new world folder, and the lag is still massive (unless I did something wrong... I just uploaded the unzipped world that Chunkster worked on. I hope I got this correctly.)

    I'm getting 9K - 21K pings. I have an inkling it's the host, now. ;)

    Can you help me with Beast Node?
     
  18. Offline

    Nathan C

    Yeah, that is definately the host..

    Try contacting them and asking them for help on what the issue is.
     
  19. Offline

    MissPicket

    Oh, I did - they "worked" on it all weekend. They even changed our server node to their most performant computer, or so they say. They just keep blaming my map... but unless I didn't do chunkster correctly (maybe I'm not supposed to reupload the unzipped world file, who knows?), the world should be fine now. This is a real hair-puller!
     
  20. Offline

    Nathan C

    I can tell you that it is definitely not your world, because you are not getting corrupt chunk errors, right?

    Also, how big is the size of your world? If it is too big, and lots of exploring is going on, then that could be the issue.
     
  21. Offline

    MissPicket

    I never got any chunk errors - I did screw up a few chunks last week with worldedit (edited too low...) but I regened and it worked just fine after that. I go to that area all the time and don't get any warnings.

    My world boundaries were set too large (8000) and I'm going to reduce them to 3500. Unfortunately I can't reduce them more because one player has built all the way to 3200... and I don't want her to lose her house :D
     
  22. Offline

    MikeA

    My server runs 5 worlds and our main world is 18,000 x 18,000 dimensions :p
    Send me a message about BeastNode, I am getting off in 30 mins or so.
     
  23. Offline

    Nathan C

    Ok, yeah that can be an issue.

    Here is what I would do (in sequential order):

    1. /wb set 3500 to set the border to 3500
    2. /wb trim world
    3. Edit the NoLagg config, so that there is a max of 750-800 mobs and animals spawning in the world. May seem low, but trust me, I have ran so many servers off so many different specs, that it is not even funny. For shared hosting this would be a good number, so that he mob count is decently high for the map size and it should not create high CPU use.
    4. /butcher to kill all the mobs.
    5. Restart the server.
    6. Should run smoother.

    Let me know if that helps (it should).
     
  24. Offline

    MikeA

    I think changing hosts would be the best bet for her lol.

    MissPicket send me a message and I'll help you out with beastnode and get you a special discount.
     
  25. Offline

    Nathan C

    Yeah, I was going to say that, if that didn't fix it.

    I though he was on beastnode already though?
     
  26. Offline

    MikeA

    She*

    No, she uses McProHosting I think it was...
     
  27. Offline

    Nathan C

    Oh.........sounds trashy.

    Yeah, move hosts for sure!
     
  28. Offline

    MissPicket

    I didn't want to use the mob limit because on a server I used to play on, it would regularly kill off everybody's sheep and cattle and it was a massive pain. But if it makes a huge difference, I guess I don't have a choice...

    Trying to run the server without any plugins atthe moment to see if it makes a ping difference. I can't believe the amount of things I've tried and tested in the past 5 days! Thank you so much to both of you guys. Will be in touch shortly about BeastNode ^^

    LOL, it is obviously trashy, those guys are super nice but I think they're 12 :-p

    EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 24, 2016
  29. Offline

    MikeA

    Ping won't be affected by plugins :p (I think?). It's probably your hosts servers :>
    A good host even with hosting 20 servers should be under 200~ at all times..
     
  30. Offline

    MissPicket

    And it's not like I can consider running it without plugins anyway ;) Just thought I'd try, one last shot ...
     
    MikeA likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page