Hetzner Server Crashes Randomly

Over the past month I have been using Hetzner to host my server. I purchased the 32gb package (check hetzner.de for further hardware information). I use Debian with only a few packages installed: java, MySQL, screen, curl. I run two servers, a bukkit server and a teamspeak 3 server. The bukkit server is allocated 10 gb of ram, but it usually only uses 1-2. I am fairly certain that plugins would not affect a whole server crash, but if you disagree, I can supply necessary information. I have run a thorough hardware test and found no problems there, so the problem is purely software based. I have also checked over the syslog and kern.log files for clues and found nothing. Hopefully this is enough information for you to help me, now I will outline the problem.

The server will be running completely normally. No one is doing any huge worldedit commands, everything is running standard. Suddenly the server (both bukkit and the computer itself) will become unreachable and will remain that way untill I forceably reset the computer. These crashes also happen very sporadicly. Sometimes it crashes 3 times in one day, other times it doesnt crash for days at a time.

If there is any information/clarification you need, feel free to ask. I saved the whole log folder after a recent crash in case you need any of those. Any help is welcome.

P.S. Could all the small read/writes on hard disk (from the world files) cause this? If so would having a RAM disk setup solve this issue?

 

First off i would not recommend hetzner out of my own experience, they seem to have a lot of packet loss. Second of all, are you being targeted for a dos attack?

Question: Does the server really restart or is it just unreachable and then when you get back the uptime shows that it has not restarted?

Mabye its just their network that is terrible, it feels like they are overselling. But hell, i can be wrong. I've used them once and never again. They are cheap and all, but i don't feel that they deliver what they are supposed too network wise.

 

DDOS usually just lags a computer, these crashes are very sudden, so that is probably not the cause.

Well it doesnt restart from the crash, it restarts when I order the server reset.

I thought that too, but so many people use hetzner and have no problems. I dont want to waste money switching to another provider only to have the crash happen again. If there was even one other person who had this exact experience with Hetzner I might consider it, but so far I have found no one.

 

Well, a dos attack would make so you can't connect to it. You now told me that it did not restart, it is still running when you can't connect.

How would you know that a lot of people doesnt have problems with hetzner? Well i was one of the ones who had issues with them, there for i moved out of there.

Its not a crash if it doesnt let you logon for a while, its a crash when the computer stops or restarts it self.

But in this case that is not the case right? Cause after the "restarts" it has not restarted?

There for you had problem connecting the to server. A Dos or a ddos attack do effect the network, and the computer is plugged into that network. There could be a lot of other computers in your node that has the same issue as you.

But hell, Hetzner wouldnt tell you that

 

How can I check to see if it is a dos attack?

Your right its not a crash it just hangs indefinitely unreachable by any protocol. I searched around google and everyone seemed to be talking about how stable hetzner is and no1 mentioned this error I am having.

What kind of issues did you have with them?

Nobody has any ideas on this? Any help is greatly appreciated.

EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.

 

Try running a traceroute (each way) when it happens then submitting it here or even better to your host to see if you can find what the issue is. I found one time that I couldn't connect to my server while it was still up but others could because of a network issue I had at my house.

 

1st what is a tracerout
2nd Its not just on my end, the server isnt reachable to anyone. I have used ping services that run on off site server and they all say its down, plus all the players that cant connect to the server.

 

Traceroute just shows you the entire path that packets take to get to your server. Basically like an advanced ping.
If the server isn't reachable by anyone then it just looks like their could be major packet loss. Can you get on your server command line and run a traceroute from there to your computer?

 

It is only not reachable when the crashes occur, all the rest of the time the server runs perfectly fine. It goes down, I reset it remotely, it comes back up.

 

Sounds like a network issue on their end. I'd get them to fix it or ask for a refund personally. Having to deal with that is unacceptable if you want your server to be successful.

 

Ok so thats one vote for "hetzners end". Does anyone else have a contrary opinion?

 

ive been ddosed before i use exodus they told me that the server was being ddosed the server ran fine just could not connect it never crashed the server. just the lil ms bar when you connected was at like 4000 ms and after 4 people came on no more could not connect so i think its not the connection..network connections usually dont crash servers just makes them inaccessible

 

Well I cant know for certain that the server is actually down. The company cant ping it, I can't ping it and none of my players can ping it, but it could theoretically still be up and running just not accessible. Is there some way I could know if it is physically down?

 

you sever dont have a console to run it most server hosts offer one like phpmyadmin
or muliticraft

unless you use a vps or dedicated then you have to install one your self but you should be able to see it running via ssh

EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.

 

I am confused now

I can't connect via ash cause it's unreachable

EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.

 

Hetzner would have sent you an automated message if your server had been under a dDOS attack. If you didn't receive any mail from them, it was not an attack that crashed your server.

 

This crash is so mysterious. Would switching to another server at hetzner solve this issue maybe? Could it be the computer that I was assigned?

 

Hetzner is rather known for keeping their hardware in very good shape. Maybe file a support ticket, asking them to check if the hardware is fine?

Alternatively, zap the entire box, and freshly install Linux again (I'd use CentOS, but that's just me).

 

Hi there,
i also would suggest that you write a support ticket and let the hardware be checked through by hetzner.
But you could in the mean time copy the whole server via rsync or what ever to your local desktop,
if no linux setup, use virtualbox etc.. and debug the server locally.

Greetings,
snitride

 

If You read the whole post you will see that I already ran a hardware test. Hetzner won't help with software issues

 

Who suggested bothering them with software issues? Hetzner sells unmanaged servers. Mails regarding software are pointless.

You mentioned a TS server. Turn TS off and see if you still have crashes, just to make sure it's not TS causing the problems.

 

I doubt TS is the cause, but as requested I have shut it down. I will wait and if another crash occurs then we can rule it out.

 

If you have not fixed the problem yet then i got the Solution for you, i have been using Hetzner for a long time, and one thing i can tell you, is that their servers never go down without a Reason, duo to minecraft crash its your Plugins fucking it all up, i had this issue aswell until my Linux buddy told me that Java programs aka Plugins is able to fuck each other up and kill the Minecraft.jar nothing is wrong with the server, you just have to either Update or just remove some Plugins, if you have any.

 

Ok j0ez thank you for the very informative reply. If I send you a list of my plugins do you think you might be able to pick out which one might be causing the crash?

 

We had this issue, adding Xmx and Xms seems to solve it, regardless if whether all that ram is being used.

 

Here is my launch code that I have been using
screen -S minecraft java -Xms512M -Xmx10G -jar CraftBukkit.jar nogui