Multiple SL Servers

We had a few problems in SL, over the past few days. A few ppl have mentioned using multi servers that have been done in many online games. Logging into the region, city, area, of choice. This may/may not limit ppl on a server at one time. Thus perhaps reducing server load etc.

I'm just wondering how would ppl feel about this? What are the positive affects of Multi SL servers? What are the drawbacks of Mulit SL servers? Is this an option that LL should look at seriously?

Talk over.

Thanks
Cat

SL already uses mutiple servers, it used to be each sim was on its own, now with more powerfull hardware theres some that share a cupple on 1 server, but they still are suposta out run the single sim/server setups with the older/slower cpu's

Eeep Sorry I wasn't clear enough. Different worlds realy. So that everyone is not on the same world.

Say for example a population cap of 20k per world.

Cat

i sorta like the way Dungons & Dragons is doing it, everyone is in the same world but theres different copys of public places to not stress out 1 area, course with dynamic content of SL i dont see any ez way to do such a thing

You can't really compaire it to an other MMO. SL is a matrix of servers... If there is a huge load in one sim, the one next to it won't be affected because sim #1 is taking all the load. The sims are sandboxed. (ie they can only use a certain percentage of the ressources on the one server)

Something LL is doing; every sim has it's own CPU. Multi-sim servers have as many CPU as sims. (4 currently - class4, the class3 were duallies with 2 sims per server, class2 was a single CPU with only 1 sim)

It wouldn't be SL anymore now would it? Why would you want this? SL is already totally decentralized.

That's right. I'm sure they're decentralized all over their colo's floor. If a meteor the size of a penny slams into Taber over by the fire escape, then Zoe over by the water cooler is perfectly safe!

You just have to hope the colo's power never goes out.

But, seriously, what are the odds of that ever happening... A second time.

I believe this system of multi-worlds works well with games like Star Wars Galaxies, Ultima Online, etc

but this system would never ever work for places like The Palace, Worldsaway, Second Life, There, Active Worlds.

Ok This is not necessarly what I want it's a discussion of ideas for the backend issues in SL k

As for how could it be done?

World 1, create another as World 2, 3 ... Not sure who first brought this up in the last few days but it sparked my interest in the subject. (take credit who ever you are i like ppl who think outside the box)

Why would anyone want this? A cap on ppl would be a cap on objects,scripts, textures and such thus limiting lag. For each world. If one world went down other worlds would remain up.If they were seperate systems.
(although even costco sells generators now )

Would it not? I don't know, that's why I thought it would be good to talk about. What are some options for a better SL, backend wise?

Discuss

Cat

I see no benefit to literal sharding in SL's case. We've already got the benefits of distributed resources. I don't want to have to maintain multiple presences in multiple dimensions of SL.

I see where you are trying to go with this, however sharding SL would no help 'lag'. Because 'lag' or slowdowns in SL are caused (99% of the time), by your own computer that can't render all the prims\animations\etc in your field of view fast enough.

As for being decentralized. If LL would be ready (policy, fees, NDA, etc) they 'could' have other clusters located in europe, other parts of the states all connected to the same grid. The system is build for that. However, logistics of such a thing, at the present time, just isn't feasible for LL.

A second time? 100.00% I think the interesting question is about a third time.

Except a minor component called something like "the asset server", this is indeed true. Oh and the login server which only really gets overloaded after upgrades or system crashes or power failures, but those are very rare. Oh I almost forgot that part that handles teleports which sometimes goes "plink" because it is too busy. Aside from those bits, SL is totally decentralized.

I thought that the asshat server was centralized too. I was corrected this week by the IRC channel and LL, the asshat server is decentralized now. It's not like it used to be. (Remember the 24 hours after every grid restart YEEEEEESH, and you guys are complaining of weekly update NOW! HA!)

There've been rumors of a "distributed grid," but really that sort of thing doesn't appear to be viable presently. At least, from what we've seen...


Perfect example: The inability to separate Wells Fargo from the rest of the world, leading to their exodus. Similarly, the "teen grid" appears only separated in a virtual sense - I recall hearing people able to IM across grids before they clamped down on that.


And being unable to distribute is really the sticking point to why I think SL won't become "mainstream" in the current dev cycle. It leads to a lot of problems that I've pointed out up and down the forums that I'm too tired to repeat here.

Suffice it, it will happen eventually or SL will lose the "metaverse" wars, IMO.

It probably looks something like this. You can see the problem that whilst sims aren't reliant on each other, everything is reliant on the big databases (Assets/accounts) and this is where it bottlenecks and any failures bring the whole thing down.

You could potentially distribute assets but it's a technical nightmare, especially with the massive amount of data in SL.

http://img139.imageshack.us/my.php?image=layout4si.jpg

I totally agree.

Could you elaborate (briefly) on the mechanism? You've piqued my curiousity and I also don't like being wrong due to ignorance. Thanks.