Can anyone be so kind as to offer a poor bloke some help with upgrading his modded server?

[IndecentIronman]

Hello, everyone!
I run a small Tekkit Classic server for some friends, but I want to upgrade it to a newer version of Minecraft, and would prefer it run the FTB Ultimate pack as well. I originally started with FTB when I made the move to Minecraft modpacks, but when I started my server, I wanted Bukkit support and at the time Tekkit Classic was the only feasible option for me in this regard.
I recently heard, however, about Bukkit (more specifically MCPC+ 1.4.7, I think) working with mods and whatnot, and it piqued my interest. That said, I'm somewhat at a loss for where/how to begin converting my server. I have many questions and can't seem to find much information; and, for that matter, each source I do manage to find gives me a different strategy... Some questions I have include:

• Is it possible for me to use WorldEdit/MCEdit or a similar program to save some of my server's builds and import them into the new map? (I don't want to keep the old map, because I'm excited to use ExtraBiomesXL) Or would the modded blocks/1.2.5-1.4.7 switch prevent smooth conversion?
• I use PeakHosting as my server host (they have dedicated MC server hosting), and FileZilla to access my server files. How would I go about setting up the basics? (i.e. would I set up a basic FTB server first, then add MCPC+, or...?) I apologize if this is a dumb question, but this stage of the setting up of my current server was as simple as a dropdown menu selection of "Tekkit Classic", so now I'm lost...
• Is there another server host you would suggest? I chose PeakHosting because of their affordability, ready-to-be-loaded modpack options, and willingness to help with mod-related issues, however they recently blocked use of the DynMap plugin, something I used frequently, so I'm currently looking for a new host.
• Do any of the several custom world-gen/biome programs like BiomePainter work with ExtraBiomesXL?

I'm truly sorry for the novel I'm presenting, but I'm hoping someone has some useful advice for me, or can answer some of my questions...I really am at a loss for where to begin.
Many thanks in advance!

 

[IndecentIronman]

UPDATE: I found this link - http://forums.technicpack.net/threads/mcpc-bukkit-plugins-on-tekkit-lite.36732/

So if I'm correct, I would set up a normal FTB Ultimate server, then use a FTP program like FileZilla to swap out the minecraft.jar for the downloaded mcpc-plus...etc... .jar, install the plugins I want and restart the server? Correct me if I'm wrong on that note, but it seems that that answers my second point above

I would still love some help with the other points I have, though...any help will be much appreciated!

 

[Sketaful]

MCPC+ 1.4.7 need the mods to be ported for it. Remember it worked for most. But if you're looking to update Minecraft to a newer version. Why 1.4.7? Isn't that the same version you're already running?

 

[IndecentIronman]

No, Tekkit Classic runs on 1.2.5, so 1.4.7 would be a big change for everyone on my server And several mods that I and many members of my server use regularly are not yet compatible with 1.5+, it seems, RedPower 2 being the most important...

As for the "porting" bit, at the link below, it says that the mods no longer need to be ported unless listed there:

http://mcportcentral.co.za/wiki/index.php?title=Mods_and_Plugins_for_1.4.7

That said, I suppose I'd need to get the ported versions of IC2, BC3 and Mo' Creatures (something I currently have added to my Tekkit Classic pack), but according to that page, wouldn't the rest of the FTB Ultimate pack be fine as-is? And on that note, in regards to dealing with the ported mods, at what point in the setup I described above would I replace the stock mod .zip files with the ported ones?

 

[IndecentIronman]

A whole week with no other responses?

 

[Francis Baster]

You should be able to run MCPC+ for Minecraft 1.4.7 without using any ported mods or plugins, I certainly have in the past. The "ported mods and plugins" listed for Minecraft 1.4.7 are no different from the standard ones that come with FTB, with the exception of Buildcraft. That list simply acknowledges features that developers have included to ensure they work well with MCPC.

Installing MCPC+ is a straightforward process, after you've set up your standard FTB Ultimate server, just replace the Minecraft server jar with the MCPC+ server jar. Run the server and it will generate a plugins folder. Drop your plugins in there and you should be good to go. This can all be accomplished with FTP access.

Using MCEdit to transfer across structural builds is possible, but I don't think you can do it for machines or tile entities. At least, not easily. When I moved from Ultimate to Unleashed I converted all modded blocks at my spawn to vanilla block placeholders with WorldEdit, then loaded it up in Unleashed and WorldEdited the blocks back into their original modded forms. That worked well for transferring structural elements.

As for changing your hosting, my one recommendation would be to avoid managed Minecraft servers and just grab a generic Linux based VPS. I can't speak for them all, but most managed Minecraft server hosts provide VPS with limited CPU performance. They price their plans based on the amount of memory your VPS receives and don't even attempt to quantify the CPU performance. Usually because its rubbish . As you no doubt are aware, with memory you either have enough or you don't, so it certainly shouldn't be the main focus when selecting a hosting plan. Modded Minecraft can certainly benefit from some grunty single threaded CPU performance. I'm told that in this day and age you can get some virtualized servers with great processing performance, but you are unlikely to obtain one from a Minecraft host. Also managing your own Linux server with root access gives you a great deal of control (and it's fun). A non-Minecraft specific VPS provider might be able to cater to your needs and offer you a VPS with something a bit more impressive under the hood if you ask for it, although I don't have experience with such matters. I went straight from a managed VPS to the cheapest dedicated server I could find. The performance increase was staggering, twice the cost but the performance gains were certainly greater than twofold.

Wow, after that wall of text I just realised you already have a dedi from PeakHost. I'm not sure what plan you are on, but I can recommend the KS 2 here: http://www.ovh.com/us/dedicated-servers/ks2.xml. It doesn't say on the page, but the processor on mine is an Intel Core i5-3570S CPU @ 3.10GHz. As you can see from the single threaded CPU benchmark I linked above, it certainly ranks well. And for $49 / mo it is similar in price to the Atoms from Peak Host (and will destroy the Atoms in terms of performance). It certainly won't come with FTB ready to play, in fact it is unmanaged and you will need to do all server maintenance yourself. Personally I wouldn't have it any other way, you certainly won't get someone telling you that Dynmap is offlimits, and you won't be forced to use software such as MCMyAdmin either. With Linux it is a very moderately simple process of logging in using SSH, installing Java and then downloading a FTB server and running it. There should be lots of guides showing you how to do this. Personally I prefer not to use MCMyAdmin, instead I use a more light-weight wrapper called Minecraft Remote Toolkit to monitor my server and do automated restarts, so this may be something you want to consider as well.

I would probably not recommend using Bukkit based world-gen plugins with ExtrabiomesXL, but honestly I have no idea what would happen so feel free to experiment. My once piece of advice is STEER CLEAR of Multiverse. It will change things under the hood and cause strange behaviour in Forge mods (notably Wireless Redstone and IC2 machines).

Ha and you thought you were presenting a novel.