FTB Server Dedicated Server Admin Help

[Math]

I am relatively new to the Minecraft community but I have fell in love with the game and would like to take it to the next level.

My Experience: Running a small server on a linux vps for a small group of friends using McMyAdmin & command line tools

What I want: To host a large group of FTB users on a Dedicated Hosted Server (not-vps) with a great performance to user ratio. Tools to support the mods and admins (example Anti Griefing, and server management tools). Not sure that it matters but I am not looking to make money. The server will be totally funded by me. This is not a business plan its a service I will provide because I love the game.

I would also like the ability to create event worlds to host pvp weekends or build contests etc.. but the primary playstyle would be non-pvp, I would like to keep in a certain number of world anchors maybe one per person. I love The Twilight forest so I would prefer to keep that but maybe figure out a way to disable the x-ray recipes.

As of right now I have the server its a dedicated linux 3.3ghz 6-core server with 16gb memory hosted at a major datacenter in the US 100mbit internet and I am close to finishing the website and I am doing tons of research on tools.

So why am I creating this thread? I need help... Basically I just don't have the experience from a Minecraft mod and tool standpoint to support a large group of people. I am looking to you guys to help point me in the right direction. I don't mind reading and I am fairly certain I can comprehend what I am reading but there are just soo many ways of doing things with the different flavors and peoples takes on how to best accomplish something. I want feed back specific to FTB modpacks and servers.

Really I am looking for specifics and opinions on the following:
-What FTB modpack should I use? (I understand this is likely opinion but i would like to know yours and why you would use it)
-What mods and recipes would you disable? i.e. portalguns, gregtech, certain recipes, etc...
-How many users can I realistically support at any given time with the hardware and FTB modpack you suggest
-What management tools should I use McMyAdmin, Multicraft, just command line etc..
-What is the best way to handle griefing currently with what is available to the FTB community i.e. hawkeye, fihgu's command, etc..

I am certain with great feed back from you guys and a lot of research I can make a solid server to handle some of the FTB load and create a great community platform. Thank you so much for taking the time to read through this and I am looking forward to your feedback.

I am also looking for moderators so if you are looking for a new FTB server you could help mold into the type of game you would love to play please feel free to contact me.

(bolded the important bits in case you didn't want to read it all)

 

[Belone]

I'll give a stab at giving my opinion where I can.

-What FTB modpack should I use? This is really down to you, try all the available modpacks and see which you prefer, personally I like DW20s pack. I can imagine (based on nothing other than a hunch) that maybe Mindcrack's pack is better for servers, since DW's was really made for SSP.

-What mods and recipes would you disable? I think the general consensus is to disable being able to craft Mystcraft ages (if you pick a pack with these), as these can hog a lot of resources, then just having the admins create a couple of stable ages for people to use.

-How many users can I realistically support On your rig, quite a lot. I'd recommend starting with a relatively low number, perhaps 25 concurrent connections, then increase it in increments of 5, if you have no problems.

I can't really help with the other two though I'm afraid as I only manage a small whitelisted private server for a few friends so don't worry about griefing or management tools (though I do use McMyAdmin, but never shopped around so have no real opinion). I know in terms of anti-griefing there is some debate, but Fighu's and ForgeEssentials seem to be two of the most popular.

I think apart from the "How many users" question, everything really comes down to you, have a play around with the different options (you've clearly already some research into this) and see what you can come up with.

 

[Math]

Thanks for the quick feedback, I am leaning toward Mindcrack at the moment and I was looking for any unbeknownst to me reason I should choose something different in particular for a large pop environment, so your comment there was in line with my thinking. I was planning to start with 30 users and work from there as well so that again is right in line with my thinking. Sometimes it just helps talking to others, i do tons of research but when you make decisions solely on reading others issues, concerns, and solutions you sometimes just want affirmation that the path you are going down is the best one.

I am really motivated to get this going so again if anyone out there managing large servers can clue me in on their opinions of management software/mods etc. I would be forever grateful.

 

[lisim]

you will find that an basic out of the box server config for FTB will peak perfromance wise at 25 Users maybe some less, CPU;s at that stage seem to max out the core

 

[DylanGore]

I would advise you to wait for a while as there are new FTB packs on the way which may or may not be better on your server. Also if you are looking for help I would love to lend a hand, I know a good bit about FTB and running servers as I run my own small FTB server for my friends and I. Also there is a mod out that will allow certain Bukkit plugins on vanilla servers. Some me the more advanced plugins will not work but the mod author has ported WorldEdit, Essentials and voxelsniper. If you need any help please pm me.

 

[oliverc21]

I would go with the Mindcrack pack personaly as it has alot of good mods to choose from and it does not have mystcraft which could give you a TON of lag.

 

[dc0110]

once you do decide on the mod pack, look into it a lot.
I'm using the Mindcrack pack and I'm thinking maybe it wasn't the best choice, there are things I want in, and things I want out.
For me, I'd like to have EE in and the Gregtech not on hard mode, but I'm not 100% sure I can alter these afterwards, and I'm pretty sure there's no way I'm starting over again at the minute.

 

[Johnley]

Just a few tips that I have learned recently:

• TickThreading, while extremely experimental, is totally worth it on multicore machines. I now can get 20.x tps on what was formerly known as "the shitbox." Make sure you know what you are doing, however, and do FREQUENT BACKUPS. I cannot stress this enough. If you don't know how, find someone or learn.
• Dynmap is fun, but users find it irritating. checking in on your friends is all well and good, but the minute you have a feud on the server, it becomes a nightmare. just make sure your users can disable themselves on the map and everyone should be happy.
• Forge Essentials is basically in the final stages of beta, the only major bugs are in the world protection and world editing sections, otherwise it works well. make sure you set up permissions! /echest is super OP.
• Even if you don't use tickthreading, check out the suggested launch params from his github, they can eek more performance out of any rig.

And of course, read my thread and skim the suggestions. i may get around to updating it this weekend with autostart scripts and such, so hold me to it!

 

[Marczone3]

I have some experience with setting up servers, and i am doing it right now for some friends of mine.

• I would indeed recommend ForgeEssentials, just because it is getting better and better and wil do most (probably all) of the things you need.
• On the tick threading part i totally agree with Johnley it works really well on a machine like yours. And raisses the amount of players your system can handle at a give time. When you are looking into making backups I can ask a friend of mine if you could use the code he uses for his server (also Linux).
• For multiplayer i would suggest the MindCrack pack. As it is made with that purpose in mind.
• The management tools are in my humble opinion secundair. If you like one and it works with your system use it. They do not really add system performance or other important options which cannot be controlled using the command line.
• For your receipe problem, think of things that you would use as a glitch and disable them. If someone used something as a glitch, which you did not think off, the person was lucky he can use it but as soon as you find it disable it. On gregtech, it adds cool things to ic2 but it makes extremly hard to do certain stuff, check out the receipes yourself and ask yourself: is the upgraded cost worth the machines functions.

I hope that i gave you enough information

MarcZone3

P.S: I am willing to help you with yout moderator problem if you want, i am/was mod on a couple servers so i do have experience.

 

[Math]

Johnley and Marczone3 if you guys submit an app with your info (minecraftcreeps.com) I will whitelist you on the server and we can go from there. So far so good on the server I have added a few people and we have been testing/playing on it and I think I have gotten through most of the issues.

I still haven't added tick threading yet but I have been keeping a close eye on the development of the tool. I think it's getting really close to being ready for primetime.

 

[Math]

Johnley and Marczone3 you guys are approved sorry it took so long work has been killing me.