FFXIV ARR is 3 this year, Server upgrades?

[Kosmos992k]

FFXIV ARR hits 3 years old in the late summer this year.

The saying goes that a year is a long time in technology, never mind 3 years; you could put off buying a new PC and within as little as 6 months the one you were looking at will be completely outclassed by something else at the same price.

So with that 3 year mark advancing upon us, I wondered about server upgrades for FFXIV. With increasing network bandwidth and better server hardware, how many of the limitations we hear of might be overcome?

What do you think? Could the advancement of technology lead to better servers for the game, and better models for characters and gear?

What else might be improved as technology advances?

[Ragology]

Are you willing to postpone content updates for a server overhaul?

[Kosmos992k]

Are you willing to postpone content updates for a server overhaul?

Are you willing to stagger onward with old server hardware? Servers age, and need refreshed, it's a fact of life with infrastructure.

[Dualgunner]

Are you willing to postpone content updates for a server overhaul?

I would be. A little sacrifice in the short term would lead to huge benefits in the long run.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Servers dont generally get updated like home computers do.

Cost is a big factor, as well as how much of an improvement a new unit would actually be.

For example, lets say the servers that run XIV are currently using about 40-60% of the CPU, maybe 60% of the RAM, and 50% of the bus bandwidth. With these numbers, there would be no reason to upgrade the servers, since they still have overhead in case the needs expand.

Most of the "server/memory" limitations you hear about are not actual server HARDWARE limitations, but SOFTWARE limitations. or Client side limitations, as in, our minimum spec can't handle more than what we have, so we can't add this, that, and the other or that player would no longer be able to play without a pc upgrade.

Also, SE's side of things, and the datacenter where the servers reside are not where we see networking difficulty, but the ISP that controllers the backbone in the Montreal area. SE upgrading the networking they have in the datacenter would do nothing to relieve the dropped packets by the network infrastructure outside their control.

[Moonleg]

I didn't realize SE was so strapped for cash that the software programmers are also the hardware infrastructure guys.

[Kosmos992k]

Servers dont generally get updated like home computers do.

That'll come as news to the infrastructure guys where I work since servers have a life-cycle just as desktops do.

Most of the "server/memory" limitations you hear about are not actual server HARDWARE limitations, but SOFTWARE limitations. or Client side limitations, as in, our minimum spec can't handle more than what we have, so we can't add this, that, and the other or that player would no longer be able to play without a pc upgrade

Almost every time limitations come up, with regard to player character data, the biggest limitation mentioned is always the ability to write back a complete copy of the live character data to the database every 15 seconds. The memory budget is tight both to keep client side requirements lower, but also to keep the data below a critical threshhold that prevents the constant backup of character data.

**snip**
Also, SE's side of things, and the datacenter where the servers reside are not where we see networking difficulty, but the ISP that controllers the backbone in the Montreal area. SE upgrading the networking they have in the datacenter would do nothing to relieve the dropped packets by the network infrastructure outside their control.

The biggest networking issue SE has with Level 3 is not bandwidth it's latency. Upgrading their internal backbone for the servers dioes have an impact, but it won't help latency as long as Level 3 are out to lunch.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

That'll come as news to the infrastructure guys where I work since servers have a life-cycle just as desktops do.


The biggest networking issue SE has with Level 3 is not bandwidth it's latency. Upgrading their internal backbone for the servers dioes have an impact, but it won't help latency as long as Level 3 are out to lunch.

I mean, most of the servers I service are 3+ years old. I actually work on far fewer new ones than old ones. You'd be surprised on how many companies still have 10 year old servers doing mission critical work. What I meant was more in the sense of gaming desktops, where people upgrade hardware every 1-3 years depending on how into the best they are.

Also, your latency increases when you cap out your bandwidth. Hence people lag when watching netflix and why the stop downloading porn comment gets thrown out so much when people stop lagging.

The issues with Level3 arise when their networks are at bandwidth capacity, and after that, we get latency issues and dropped packets due to the overload on their infrastructure.

[Kosmos992k]

I mean, most of the servers I service are 3+ years old. I actually work on far fewer new ones than old ones. You'd be surprised on how many companies still have 10 year old servers doing mission critical work. What I meant was more in the sense of gaming desktops, where people upgrade hardware every 1-3 years depending on how into the best they are.

OK, although 10 years is a hell of a long lifecycle for a server doing anything significant. Our RDBMS servers are on a much shorter leash. Mission critical stuff often involves legacy software that can't be changed, and requires maximum platform stability. We still have mainframes running decades old code because replacing it is seen as cost prohibitive until such time as a failure forces the issue. When that happens, I want to be in the meeting discussing it, because the opportunity cost of waiting for a failure would be quite extreme, and I want to hear how the managers involved justify saying that earlier action was cost prohibitive...

With regard to gaming PCs, gamers might not upgrade their entire PC every other year, but I bet the switch their GPUs more often than their whole rig, given the influence the GPU has on performance.

However the intent of this topic wasn't to have a back and forth about server life-cycles (important though that is), it was more about speculating over what improvements would be possible with improved server infrastructure.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

However the intent of this topic wasn't to have a back and forth about server life-cycles, it was more about speculating over what improvements would be possible with improved server infrastructure.

In that case, really the only thing we would see is increased processing speed and amount of data in cache, since they probably have the servers tied to large storage arrays. They could update the controller caches and add more server memory, but I think mostly SE would have to do re-coding of the software in order to get more of what you guys are looking for.