So i'm Greg, the sys admin working on ModDB servers and software. It's a job i've been doing behind the scenes for 8 years now (99.8% uptime last year), and I figured a few might be interested to know what is going on. Hence my post (more will come on a semi-regular basis) if you find this interesting and want me to share more insight into what it takes to run a site the size of ModDB.
Over the last couple of months we have:
- Virtualized and made redundant all web / batch / media and streaming servers so we can add and change our setup with no downtime.
- Cached and spread the load of delivering millions of images across many servers, instead of relying on one EPIC master to do the grunt work. To give you an indication of the impact this has, check out the image below which shows the difference adding 1 webserver made:
We are also shortly about to undertake ModDB's biggest upgrade yet which will:
- Replace our primary database server so it goes from 16 to 24 cores. We are also considering upgrading MySQL 5 to 5.5 which will allow us to utilize all 24 cores (at the moment we only utilize 4!!)
- Replace our monster backend storage system with a SAN that will provide a 5 times increase in storage capacity for everything from files, to videos and more.
This will mean:
- A faster site.
- We can consider upping the image size limits.
- Eventually a better video serving solution.
These initiatives only scratch the surface with regards to what we are going to do over the next few months (i.e. fix dodgy ads, update videos, more download servers), so track this blog for updates.
great stuff, interesting post, thanks for the update ;)
Yes, we will be able to upload larger images! :D
This is great, meaning mods and indie games can post higher resolution, more detailed screenshots and renders :D
And the site will be becoming faster, which is great to hear, as the site is already pretty fast in my opinion.
Your are serving videos from your own servers?
Any particular reason your are not using a CDN (Akamai / CloudFront or something similar)?
We currently use a CDN operated by Akamai, however it is "sponsored" by our Advertising partner.
We used to operate our own Geo-CDN out of Australia, the US & EU - which we are looking at re-visiting due to the quality of the current video CDN's advertising not being what we are happy with.
you soo stole the idea from wolfire :D so it means its awesome ^^
cool!
Its nice to get some insights on how things are going behind the scenes.
yeah ^^
how much electricity does moddb use?
No idea, but we run about 15 servers (mostly for bandwidth) so it would be a decent amount.
Great work!
Great work guys, look forward to working with you!
I never had performance issues, but improvements are always welcome :)
we haven't had performance issues, site should always be zippy (0.05 render times)... but it never hurts to go even faster!
High Five Greg :D
Always been working hard behind he scenes. When we going for another beer anyways?? Haha
Sounds like a plan. Good work.
moddb is spamming now?
"weah22 sent you a message on Mod DB
jeniferweah @ hotmail . fr
Hello dear,
i came across your contact via(moddb.com
)while browsing in the internet
now and it captured my interest and i become motivated to reach you.I'm miss jenifer weah by name,please i will like us to hold a good relationship with a real love,your profile sound so gentle to me that was why i fell very much eager to write you.,contact me through my personal box(jeniferweah @ hotmail . fr) for more introduction,also i will send my pictures to you for this will forster the relationship and also bring us together to know each other better,i look forward for
your response my dear,age or colour even distance can't deny any genuine love,so please lets give our self a trial,thanks till i hear from you
miss jenifer
--------------------
To reply to this message, follow the link below:
Moddb.com
To control the emails you receive from Mod DB, follow the link below:
Moddb.com
Thanks,
The Mod DB Team"
No, we don't spam. This would be another member send me a PM about it please.
Oh god, not that bot again. Same thing happened to me last year sometime.
Almost the same message with minor differences too.
Thanks for alerting us to this, we'll take a look.
ok thanks for the reply just ban that member, bot or whatever them
It's obviously a member-spam,@rellik_pt.The last addition about reply and control your messages by moddb, is only there because you probably read it through your email provider.I had the same message too, btw.
And good to know how these things work Greg, very interesting!I am looking forward to the changes, though indeed, Moddb is quick enough as it is.But still :)
That is some epic CPU usage you've got there :|
any future possibilies to keep track of your comments ?? =,(... I am following so much mods, and when I post a quesion, I can almost never remember for which mod it was, why don't you add a system similar to the one on Youtube? It will be so useful =) !
/me writing down where I posted this comment to check everyday if someone replied...
I agree, ModDB needs to revamp the comment system. Comments are currently a second hand citizen when they should not be. Comments now a day are transforming from comments to conversations and I wish there was some way to track comments as well as replies to comments.
Good stuff.
I really appreciate you guys taking the time to share this info and enlightening us all a bit more about the management and growth of the site. Thanks for adding the all to rare " human to human " communication element that has made this my favorite gaming community site.
keep up the good work :O
zomg its over 130%!
Wow, this upgrade will help a lot!
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