FTB MindCrack Update Issues

[MagicalMidge]

Hey guys, sorry I cannot make this perfect English but I am in a bit of a rush to type this.

Long story cut short, I just updated my server from about 3 updates ago (I didnt update the last 3 updates) and all was working completely fine, however I just updated to the new one and started her up with the usual min ram 512 and max 3gb (Worked fine for me before) Now it spews and I mean spews "Cant keep up, did the system time change" <-- Something to that effect.

The thing is some will comment saying the server is too weak it really isnt, we have played tekkit on it before, normal minecraft, all manner of other games not just minecraft and it is fine, something must be wrong here.

A quick thing that I noticed (not sure if it was this 'high' before) but I just looked at the server info pannel thing (VNC) meaning the actual gui system minecraft servers provide when you open them and it said for level 1 it was caching 1069 chunks(the tick is sitting at about 200-300ms, that is also very high isnt it?), all the other levels/worlds are fine 1 is sitting at 0 serverchunkcache, -1 (is that the nether?) is sitting at about 6 and level 7 which I am presuming is the twilight forest is sitting at 2.

If the server chunk cache is my problem how do I fix it? I tried using the /chunkloaders in the game but I have removed all but one chunk loader (surely one chunk loader isnt loading 1069 chunks to load, chunks are like 16x16 right?)

Again sorry for poor structure but really am in a hurry. Thanks for anyone willing to attempt to help, although saying the server isnt good enough will help no one ;P



EDIT -
Okay a bit of an update, I went on the server and just to make sure it wasnt anything hardware related (making sure the server is as powerful as I thought it was) I created a new world booted it up and did the general block lag test sure enough the server was acting completely fine (not one single "Did the time change server cannot keep up" message, the messages that are spewing out like once every 3 seconds on the other server map) So then I thought about doing some more hardcore tests, gave myself the electrical equipment that I use on the normal server (just to see if the electrical jetpack/armour/tools were bugged) ran around with quantum leggings (fast leggings) with a Vajra and experienced no lag whatsoever (server and client) Still the server not complaining about not keeping up.

(Many will say these tests are not good enough because I am doing small time processes where the normal server will have to contend with machines, power all sorts of other things) So I then thought to myself I need to create a whole bunch of processes to really test the servers meet (the best way I know how to do this in minecraft is entity lag, each one has their own process create hundreds of thousands of those and you get the answer if your server really is as meaty as you think it is) So I set of 90 nukes placed apart from each other and the server was blowing them up and then created about 120,000 entities (at this point my client was getting 1fps but we are not here to talk about my bad pc) the server admittedly at the point of explosion printed one of those "Did the time change or server cannot keep up" messages but after that nothing, I let my client sit their for 5 minutes whilst they were de-spawning but the server was keeping up fine, that one message from a huge load compared to that same message once every 3 seconds, there is something completely wrong with that map and I would like to find out what it is exactly.

 

[Mr Chris]

If it is the "Chunk Loader" block they can load a variable amount of chunks as set in their GUI so you might want to delve deeper into that. A tickrate of 200-300ms is very high in the fact that it equates to around 4 ticks per second when Minecraft is meant to run at 20TPS. Im not really familiar with the Mindcrack pack so unfortunately thats all I can give you.

 

[DZCreeper]

I know this isn't the response you wanted, but FTB will crush the crap out of most servers. Even servers that could run Vanilla, Bukkit, or Tekkit quite well. However, you sound confident in your hardware, so lets look at the software.

First, whats the content of your startup script? Maybe your garbage collection is not turned on, or is failing, thus you end up with a bunch of extra loaded, unused chunks. Second, are you using a normal jar with Forge, BukkitForge, or MCPC+ ?

Third, what version did you move from? Because Minecraft can sometimes just crap itself and not work well when jumping version without creating a new map. Lastly, if you have not done so already, running a profiling tool like:

http://www.reddit.com/r/mindcrack/comments/1f7vqi/introducing_tickprofiler_a_bit_late_but_better/

May help find laggy areas.

 

[MagicalMidge]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies, as for startup script I am just using a simple sh file (like a batch file in windows) I am using ubuntu 12.04 and it starts with min (used to be 512 but is now 1g) and max 3 gig, a minecraft server hosting only one person at a time (usually) should not need more than 3g in my opinion.

I will try that link you gave me and tell you the results I kind of wish Slowpoke and Guude would of recorded/ gave the community some advice on these things as I know the Mindcrack server has been having the same sort of issues and it looks like they have got that fixed now.[DOUBLEPOST=1370048579][/DOUBLEPOST]

If it is the "Chunk Loader" block they can load a variable amount of chunks as set in their GUI so you might want to delve deeper into that. A tickrate of 200-300ms is very high in the fact that it equates to around 4 ticks per second when Minecraft is meant to run at 20TPS. Im not really familiar with the Mindcrack pack so unfortunately thats all I can give you.

Yeah I was apparently loading the max chunks on mine so I lowered it but it really didnt do much as the chunks the chunk loader was loading I was loading anyway because that is my base (it is all pretty central so the only real benefit to me lowering that chunkloader was the server has less to deal with when I am offline. I destroyed everyone elses chunkloader on the server for the simple fact that if I don't find the fix soon I am just going to forget about FTB or do a new map. I really don't have time for the trouble shooting, it seems most community tools are nice things to help but we haven't got a solid answer to why these servers are suffering such lag issues (especially when you have one as powerful as mine, not saying it is a beast but more than enough to run minecraft with a few mods)

Thanks for the reply I will try and do more troubleshooting in the near future

 

[MagicalMidge]

Okay a bit of an update, I went on the server and just to make sure it wasnt anything hardware related (making sure the server is as powerful as I thought it was) I created a new world booted it up and did the general block lag test sure enough the server was acting completely fine (not one single "Did the time change server cannot keep up" message, the messages that are spewing out like once every 3 seconds on the other server map) So then I thought about doing some more hardcore tests, gave myself the electrical equipment that I use on the normal server (just to see if the electrical jetpack/armour/tools were bugged) ran around with quantum leggings (fast leggings) with a Vajra and experienced no lag whatsoever (server and client) Still the server not complaining about not keeping up.

(Many will say these tests are not good enough because I am doing small time processes where the normal server will have to contend with machines, power all sorts of other things) So I then thought to myself I need to create a whole bunch of processes to really test the servers meet (the best way I know how to do this in minecraft is entity lag, each one has their own process create hundreds of thousands of those and you get the answer if your server really is as meaty as you think it is) So I set of 90 nukes placed apart from each other and the server was blowing them up and then created about 120,000 entities (at this point my client was getting 1fps but we are not here to talk about my bad pc) the server admittedly at the point of explosion printed one of those "Did the time change or server cannot keep up" messages but after that nothing, I let my client sit their for 5 minutes whilst they were de-spawning but the server was keeping up fine, that one message from a huge load compared to that same message once every 3 seconds, there is something completely wrong with that map and I would like to find out what it is exactly.

 

[Alchemist]

Alright, here is the deal, fire up your server WITHOUT chickenchunks (Move it out of mods folder), disable RC's chunkloaders through the config file, and tell your clients to disable their quarries(They have to break the quarry to stop the chunkloading mechanic of it), and tell them to stand in one specific location (Preferably spawn point), now keep an eye on /tps and the console for the spammy message, if everything is fine, then it must be the quarrys, RC' Chunkloaders, or some chunkloaded area with tons of multiblock structures.

 

[MagicalMidge]

Alright, here is the deal, fire up your server WITHOUT chickenchunks (Move it out of mods folder), disable RC's chunkloaders through the config file, and tell your clients to disable their quarries(They have to break the quarry to stop the chunkloading mechanic of it), and tell them to stand in one specific location (Preferably spawn point), now keep an eye on /tps and the console for the spammy message, if everything is fine, then it must be the quarries, RC' Chunkloaders, or some chunkloaded area with tons of multiblock structures.

Thanks for the reply, we really only have 2 players that have been on the FTB server (we own a private server so it isnt like we have millions of players) however I do thank you for your idea, I will disable the chickenchunks mod and report back here, as far as the quarry situation I believe myself and the other player have just been using computercraft turtles for the quarrying (I bloody hope they do not cause lag) I once lost one with a solar panel on his head, I was trying to create a script to cut down and replant redwood trees unfortunately I didnt have enough time to check if it was working (he went up and down fine but I had him waiting 30 minutes before he would plant another) anyway I logged on the next day to find he wasnt there I must of made a mistake somewhere and I just thought he would reach unloaded chunks and stop, bear in mind this was ages and ages ago and the lag only came when I updated kind of like an on off thing before we had no lag, after we have tons

 

[Alchemist]

Good luck with that, as far as I know, there is a chunkloading module for turtles, maybe you can look into that, too!

 

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

Ok, there is definitely something going on with the latest update and no one has figured it out yet. I'm having the exact same issue. Before the update my server used only about 16%-60% CPU time no matter how many were on at a time and there was never an issue. After the update I noticed CPU usage was bouncing rapidly between 60%-99% and the log was spamming the Can't keep up error. I can stop and start the server and it's perfectly normal at first, but without even a single player joining it will eventually start again. Here's just one more thred talking about this but there are a few others: http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/mindcrack-server-lagging-after-recent-update.22617/

 

[MagicalMidge]

Thanks for all the help guys, I never did locate the problem sadly (never just took away one block and it was all better), it eventually just went away. although as Urufu_Shinjiro said above CPU usage is far higher than normal so there is still definitely a problem somewhere but my server seems to be coping.

The chunk cache is still in the 1000/2000 which I can not see being correct or if it is, then it needs fixing... but the problem at least for time time being is not impacting playing anymore but I would still like to help the community that are still having this problem and maybe locate it on my own server (as like I just said, I still think I am having the issue it just isnt showing when playing on the server)

If anyone knows anything new please dont hesitate to post on here!

 

[jp694]

yup ever since the update my server keeps lagging alot and crashing also.

 

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

I ended up just restarting the map entirely. Was about time for it anyway and it hasn't had a single issue since.