by Chacal » Sun Dec 14, 2008 10:11 am
It depends on what you want to do. There is much misconception about the "distributed" nature of Uru servers. This is not SETI. From the limited time and resources Cyan had to transform UU into MOUL, we can assume it is not drastically different.
Testing your own Age on your home network, with perhaps two client connections: maybe your home PC would do it. Don't expect to run the client and the servers all on the same PC though.
Running a public server means (presuming the MOUL architecture isn't too different from UU or ALcugs) running one or more auth servers which will allow players to login, one or more lobby servers that manage connections, messages, linking, etc, and one or more data servers that actually serve you the Ages you're linking into.
As you can guess: forget doing that on your setup. At most you could run a data server on a shard that's not too popular IF you have a very good and stable connection, but good luck if more than 2 or 3 players want to join an Age on your server.
For that you need more bandwidth at a more stable QoS than your average high-speed connection can provide, and more importantly no cap on total bandwidth usage. Most providers have started capping monthly usage for home connections. So a public Uru server will have to sit in a provider's datacenter.
For stability and performance, it will have to run on a server operating system, either Windows 2003 or, when porting is done, Linux or Unix. It will also have to run on some serious hardware, multiple-core CPUs with lots of RAM. It is too early to talk about 64-bits and multiple-core-aware code and OS.
Such servers need configuration and maintenance skills that require experienced server admins. All Uru servers will have to be started as services and configured for optimal use of CPU, memory and storage resources. They also needed to be monitored round the clock (well maybe not for a test server), backed up regularly, updated, patched, etc. Security is a serious concern. I have been working with an Alcugs shard owner and obviously there will be a need of an application-level firewall for detecting and filtering out packets before they can do damage, without having a performance impact. I'm thinking of the fly-mode problem here. Also, MOUL downloads all Python and SDL files from the server, in addition to the data downloads that UU and Alcugs already do. Managing the library on the servers is going to be a lot of work because each new Age will bring new files.
With all those requirements, you can expect to pay several thousands of dollars a year for each physical server in the shard. Start shopping on provider web sites and look into dedicated servers. Don't get misled by great offers on virtual servers or "virtual private servers", those won't do.
A few of us are lucky enough to have more-or-less free access to such resources, by being professionally connected to providers. The rest will have to shell out the big bucks and try to get money from players, which will bring other nightmares ("hello? This is the IRS. We'd like a talk with you").
There is always the possibility that a GSP (game server provider) would want to include Uru in its services and charge a monthly fee directly to the players. But when they'll see the market they'll run away screaming.
Hope this helps.
Chacal
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong."
-- Mahatma Gandhi
I just felt sorry for the ones who might feel strongly about those things and found themselves called "idiots" 
