Problem Fresh Monster server: TPS issues

[Dyger]

I'm currently using my laptop to run a dedicated server for my family, but I'm some issues with tick rate. When people break blocks on the server, the GUI reports that the average tick jumps to around 120ms/tick. I've checked my CPU usage, but that's hovering around 20% on all four cores, so I don't think that's the issue. Then again, I'm rather new to the whole server thing.

Any advice on reducing tick lag to playable levels? Or can it not be done on this system? BTW, this is a fresh world, the most advanced thing we've built is a wooden door.

-Server OS: Windows 7
-Server Type: Lenovo ThinkPad laptop
---Specs:
CPU: Intel Core i5 running at 2.6GHz
RAM: 16GB
Display: Intel HD Graphics 4000
Hard Drive: Some HDD, whatever came standard with the system. No Ram Drive or Solid state...
-Server FTB version: Monster 1_1_1
-Added Mods: None
-Batch File:

"C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin\java" -server -Xms4G -Xmx4G -XXermSize=512m -jar FTBServer-1.6.4-965.jar

 

[Connor Gavitt]

Running FTB on a laptop is usually a bad idea, especially monster with its 220+ mods. We are going to need more then how much ram you have and that it lags, provide the server.log and actual processor model and we can go from there.

 

[psp]

It has 182 mods the be exact.

 

[Dyger]

Fair enough.
Processor model: i5-3230M

As for the server logs, are these what you're looking for?

 

[Connor Gavitt]

I'm not downloading a .zip from this site, please use pastebin.com

As for your CPU it has a single thread rating of 1637 from CPUBenchmark.net which i would not suggest it be used for FTB, also minecraft only uses 1 core so if all your two cores are at 20% then you have other application.

Also make sure the mods folder and server.jar are in the same folder as it is. Also adding the flag -nogui to the end of the startup arguments could help performance a bit.

 

[Dyger]

The pastebinned log: http://pastebin.com/TCxBX6b2

And according to your chart, my laptop CPU outperforms my desktop CPU by quite a bit, but I've not had any problems running FTB before on the desktop on a single player world. Is this because clients and servers have different needs? Like I said, I'm new to this.

Back on topic, I'm assuming there's not really much that can be done (apart from buying a new laptop)?

 

[Kirameki]

Things to check:
1. What is your baseline TPS? As in, nobody online, server running, no chunk loaders, go to the server console and type /cofh tps to get your baseline. This will help you to see if any performance increasing measures you take have any effect.
2. What other programs are running on the laptop? Only let the server run, disable all noncritical system services (run services.msc), system tray programs, etc. Do not run the client on the same machine.
3. Try allocating the java process to only a single core and see if this changes performance. (You can do this via task manager>processes>rtclick>set affinity.)
4. Does the ForgeModLoader-Server-0.log (or -1.log) say anything unusual? server.log isn't really helpful for debugging Forge-reated issues.
5. Try using Windows Performance Monitor (perfmon.exe) to see what your system is doing. Pay particular attention to things like page faults/sec, disk queue lengths, and read/write byes/sec. I say this since you're unsure about your HDD; laptop HDDs are generally 5400 RPM which is relatively slow (In terms of non-SSD, desktops usually run 7200RPM, higher tiers go to 10K RPM and 15K RPM. Generally, higher RPM = faster read/write speeds) and may be your bottleneck.
6. What's the laptop's heat situation like? Make sure the processor stays cool, excess heat can severely impact performance.
7. Is the laptop set to maximum performance, not underclocking the processor to reduce power consumption?

 

[Dyger]

Well now I feel like a complete doofus... #7 on your list was probably the issue, though the TPS still isn't perfect. Base TPS seems to be good (5ms/ 20TPS) but it degrades pretty rapidly when a person logs on (goes to 40-50ms if not doing anything, breaking blocks spikes over 120ms). I'm also starting to wonder if the network might also be an issue... I'll have to check that out. Still, thank you all for your patience, help, and advice!

 

[Connor Gavitt]

Things to check:
1. What is your baseline TPS? As in, nobody online, server running, no chunk loaders, go to the server console and type /cofh tps to get your baseline. This will help you to see if any performance increasing measures you take have any effect.
2. What other programs are running on the laptop? Only let the server run, disable all noncritical system services (run services.msc), system tray programs, etc. Do not run the client on the same machine.
3. Try allocating the java process to only a single core and see if this changes performance. (You can do this via task manager>processes>rtclick>set affinity.)
4. Does the ForgeModLoader-Server-0.log (or -1.log) say anything unusual? server.log isn't really helpful for debugging Forge-reated issues.
5. Try using Windows Performance Monitor (perfmon.exe) to see what your system is doing. Pay particular attention to things like page faults/sec, disk queue lengths, and read/write byes/sec. I say this since you're unsure about your HDD; laptop HDDs are generally 5400 RPM which is relatively slow (In terms of non-SSD, desktops usually run 7200RPM, higher tiers go to 10K RPM and 15K RPM. Generally, higher RPM = faster read/write speeds) and may be your bottleneck.
6. What's the laptop's heat situation like? Make sure the processor stays cool, excess heat can severely impact performance.
7. Is the laptop set to maximum performance, not underclocking the processor to reduce power consumption?

If he is only running a small server and nothing else at most the disc would need to do is write a max of 20-30MB every now and then which 5400rpm can easily do so that's not the bottleneck.

The "can't keep up is the server overloaded or the time changed" message means your CPU is the bottleneck here. However as for #7 that may be the case and if you have that enabled and disable it the server might run fine for a while but the heat will become a huge problem for you.

 

[Dyger]

Yeah, disabling that setting helped, but didn't eliminate the problem. I might have to try this again when I can donate a more powerful computer to the cause. Or if I can find a job that gives me a nice enough paycheck

I could probably scale back the mod pack being used as well...

 

[Connor Gavitt]

You could try using a host.

 

[Dyger]

That's true... Is there one you can recommend to start off with? I'm looking at Creeperhost atm...

 

[Goshen]

Disable mods you are not planning to use, change the .jar to .jar.disabled

Less mods means faster load time as well.[DOUBLEPOST=1405274596][/DOUBLEPOST]The other thing that we have found since day 1 was disabling the Atg mod greatly improved performance, I hear it has been improved but we still keep it disabled.

 

[Goshen]

Also if you want to improve performance install cauldron it has optimizations from the spigot project that help quite a bit, this will also allow you to run plugins, one I would highly suggest would be world border, you can use this to pregenerate the chunks though the night so they will already be made when you want to play.

 

[Dyger]

Atg mod? Which one's that? Not sure I've heard the term before.

 

[Goshen]

Alternate terrain generation, it changes how your world is created, which takes more processing power to gen chunks

 

[Dyger]

Ahh... I can see how that might be a problem then, lol

 

[Connor Gavitt]

Removing it after you have made your world could cause some very bad things to happen, I don't suggest doing it unless you want a new world.

 

[Dyger]

Good to know. Since I was just starting the server up anyways, I could just wipe the world and try again.

 

[DZCreeper]

That's true... Is there one you can recommend to start off with? I'm looking at Creeperhost atm...

There are only 2 hosts I even consider anymore after comparing them to everyone else I have tried hosting with. A dedicated server from OVH or a VPS from Linode absolutely kick ass.