It depends on how many cores/CPUs you have. In the SMP world, you can run 4 processes at 4 cores at the same time without any problem. Your load average is 4 or less, depending on how much load they consume.
Optimum: load average <= cores * CPUs Overload: load average > cores * CPUs So, optimum for one Quad Core CPU is: load average <= 4 * 1 This means not you can only run 4 L4D servers on one Quad Core, you have to look how the load is, because the servers does not run all the time, they take some milliseconds sleep and other processes can run. Maybe you can run 6 or 8. > Keep in mind that load average is an expression of queue depth. Some > types > of servers can handle deep queues with no visible impact shown to the end > user. Gameservers are not that kind of animal. They require constant, > nearly instantaneous updates in both directions in order to have truly > smooth, seamless play. In the past, any time I saw load average above one > I > saw an impact of some sort. > > A load average above 3 seems to manifest itself in L4D servers in some > unpredictable ways that can generally be ignored by most players. > > If you don't want to keep sending jarring notes that throw your players > off, > you really want to see your load average below 2. This should be true > regardless of the number of CPUs that you have in your box. Thus, my > comment in an earlier email about converting one of my public servers back > over to Steam group only. Having 2 dedicated to just the Steam group will > still let people fill up the public servers first and use the two > semi-private ones as relief. > > > [snip] > > >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> Message: 3 >> Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:28:11 +0100 >> From: "Ronny Schedel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] -fork configuration tip >> To: "Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list" >> <hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.com> >> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; >> reply-type=original >> >> >> You have only 4 cores, with a load of 8 your server is overloaded. CPU >> usage >> does not matter these days, any new multicore CPU can handle Source >> servers. >> If you want lag free and smooth servers, your load average should not >> exceed >> your amount of cores. >> >> >> > Our load average goes up to about 8. Given that we're running 12 >> > instances >> > on a quad-core, this doesn't bother me, and certainly performance is >> > fine... >> > I've seen the blood spatter effect too, but I don't think that's >> > specifically performance related, it's just a glitch ;) >> > >> > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > please visit: > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
