I want to host an IC TF2 server

BobbyDigiBobbyDigi ? R U #Hats !TX Icrontian
edited August 2010 in Team Fortress 2
I have been given 2 Cobalt RaQ 2s and 2 RaQ 4s. I have also been offered the ability to put one in our NOC. Of coarse the first thing I thought of was ICTF2!

So my question is this, Is it possible? I don't know Linux so I would need some help setting up and administering it.

Gentleman?

-Digi

Comments

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    How stable is the connection? Is this something that could replace gameservers for us?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    Ehh, I hate to say it, but even the RaQ 4s are not going to be up to the task of hosting a stable, low-ping game.

    SRCDS is a very demanding dedicated server.
  • _k_k P-Town, Texas Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    vent server
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    You know what we NEED is an IRC server. Now THAT would be awesome
  • BobbyDigiBobbyDigi ? R U #Hats ! TX Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    Ok, IRC, Lets make it happen. I will see when I can get the server in the NOC and they we can start hacking away at it.

    -Digi
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    I'm paging Ardichoke to this thread. He's been sort of handling our IRC potential.
  • BasilBasil Nubcaek England Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    VOIP could work, vent is a no go though as it's limited to 8 concurrent users without a licence.

    Mumble/murmur is easily doable, free and IMO a better product to boot.


    Edit: How much RAM have you got anyway?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    Our 32-person vent server is $5 a month. It's not an issue for us.
  • _k_k P-Town, Texas Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    But that is 5$ going into the TF2 server.
  • pragtasticpragtastic Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    Are there any other voice servers (teamspeak maybe?) that can be self-hosted for free?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    I just don't see the pressure for voice hosting unless there's something I'm missing.

    Where we have pressure is in the lack of an IRC server. Since we switched hosts, we are stuck on Rizon for now, which blows (it's not ours, netsplits, can't IRC during Icrontic events, etc.)
  • _k_k P-Town, Texas Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    But if we drop the vent server and host something ourselves it pays for almost an entire month of the TF2 server.

    This would be something where we get IRC self hosted and then work on getting voice shifted.
  • BasilBasil Nubcaek England Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    pragtastic wrote:
    Are there any other voice servers (teamspeak maybe?) that can be self-hosted for free?
    Teamspeak 3 is free for 32 slots unregistered, get a non profit licence registered with triton and you're good for 512.
    primesuspect wrote:
    I just don't see the pressure for voice hosting unless there's something I'm missing.
    What pressure?
    OP asked what can I do for IC with my free server, VOIP is just one thing he could do (as hosting a game server isn't gonna happen) as is IRC.

    It's not like one precludes the other, VOIP is really only going to use bandwidth, and doesn't have to be done at all.
  • pragtasticpragtastic Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    The only 'pressure' is getting a small cost relieved from the IC community if possible (and as K suggests, to pay for other things). Is there anything saying that Bobby's server couldn't host both?
  • BobbyDigiBobbyDigi ? R U #Hats ! TX Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    primesuspect wrote:
    How stable is the connection? Is this something that could replace gameservers for us?

    Stable Connection 100%, I would trust this NOC with a machine that kept me alive.
    Basil wrote:
    ...How much RAM have you got anyway?

    I hope to plug them in tonight and note the specs. Will report back when I get a chance.

    -Digi
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    Basil wrote:
    VOIP could work, vent is a no go though as it's limited to 8 concurrent users without a licence.

    Mumble/murmur is easily doable, free and IMO a better product to boot.

    +1 for Mumble. I've used it a few weeks playing on Reddit BFBC2 servers and it's excellent. Really low latency and has positional audio for supported games.
  • SpencerForHireSpencerForHire Clawson, MI
    edited July 2010
    pragtastic wrote:
    Is there anything saying that Bobby's server couldn't host both?

    ^
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited August 2010
    Ohai.... I never actually got paged to this thread. Get ahold of me BobbyDigi, I can help get IRC up and running. Unfortunately, my work is dead set on their anti-IRC hosting policy and won't even make exceptions for employees anymore. Too much liability with IRC these days.
  • BobbyDigiBobbyDigi ? R U #Hats ! TX Icrontian
    edited August 2010
    I'll be in touch. I did not get a chance to boot this weekend (But I did get my storage unit cleared Yay!), might have some time over the next couple nights. We'll see whats on there and go from there.

    I hope it works out. Sounds like this will give back to the community more then I hoped.

    -Digi
  • QuadyTheTurnipQuadyTheTurnip Icrontian
    edited August 2010
    MINECRAFT SERVER
  • BobbyDigiBobbyDigi ? R U #Hats ! TX Icrontian
    edited August 2010
    I'm going to hook up the server to see what we are working with tonight after my night shift (9pm PST)

    There, I figured if I throw that out there, I'll actually do it

    -Digi
  • BobbyDigiBobbyDigi ? R U #Hats ! TX Icrontian
    edited August 2010
    OK, I hooked up the two RaQ4s and this is what we have:

    Server A:
    Cobalt RaQ 4r
    2 20GB HDD in RAID
    AMD K6-2 450 MHz
    256MB PC133

    Server B:
    Cobalt RaQ 4r
    2 40GB HDD in RAID
    AMD K6-2 450 MHz
    Two RAM Sticks labeled iw-8g64x16-4n-p1

    I am more likely to be able to get the current login info for Server B. I've gotta take them back to the previous owners so they can try some u/p combos to login and set a password for me. I'm trying to stay away from having to restore to default and go through 1800 patches.

    -Digi
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited August 2010
    Why don't you just reset the passwords on them? I assume they are Linux boxes (since you mentioned that you don't have experience with Linux earlier in the thread). Resetting the root password is quite easy when you have physical access to the server.

    http://www.debuntu.org/recover-root-password-single-user-mode-and-grub

    That said, if the hardware is THAT old, you might want to install a more modern Linux distro on it. Something that is built specifically for servers, doesn't have GUI but is more up to date. Ubuntu server wouldn't be a bad idea. Nor would CentOS (though this is a bit more complicated to install).
  • RootWyrmRootWyrm Icrontian
    edited August 2010
    Ah, RaQ, the bastard children of x86 created by amateurs at the height of the dot-bomb days. The fake-BIOS alone made me want to kill everyone responsible. Resetting the passwords to default requires a total reset, which nukes the patches. Conveniently, it was pretty much impossible to back them up back then too. (And thus we have one of the first failures of "RAID as backup!")
    See, the password that you THINK is the OS, isn't. It's the bastardized GRUB they kludged into playing BIOS. root != admin in reset, and the only way to deal with that is over sercons.

    I think I can port forward my patches to bastardize one further into running FreeBSD 7.2-REL, at which point hyb+services is trivial. Failing that: http://www.rackstar.net/en/downloads/os.php
    ^.^
  • BobbyDigiBobbyDigi ? R U #Hats ! TX Icrontian
    edited August 2010
    So I gather the servers I have are a bit sub par and my lack of experience with setting these up is hindering us getting to a usable point without shipping servers cross country.

    I'm still working on logging into the current OS, though from what I gather this wouldn't do us much good either.

    -Digi
Sign In or Register to comment.