Assessment of difficulty, to run as a host

[gravitydk]

Hi all,

I maintain a DK tank blog for WoW, and am considering offering Murmur servers for members.

I'm not super technical. In the old days, I was a DBA but that doesn't help me with Linux or RPC or Ice. That's stuff I've never really used.

I've read every 'how to' guide I can find on the net.

However what I cannot deduce from it all, is how hard is it to set up Murmur so I can create instances of it (or whatever correct term is), each with their own Administrator who can create their own 'rooms' within. The outcome would be: I can create a 30-slot server for members as required; one for each of their guilds.

I have a dedicated Linux server with cPanel WHM. I have full control of the box.

The idea of using SSH to install the server scares me, to be honest. I can ask my host to install it for me, but if the install procedure is overly complicated they'll reject the request (they provide a fully managed service, but this would be pushing the SLA).

I have read that cPanel's game server control panel will have Murmur support one day, but doesn't yet. I don't have that CPGS anyhow.

I read also that installing QT is either an issue or a server-dependency that a few writers didn't like. I can't assess if this is a problem or difficulty or not.

So hopefully that's clear, I'm not looking to be spoon-fed, but for some commentary on:

a) the complexity involved in setting it up

b) complexity of creating new server instances (30-slots) as required.

Thanks in advance.

[kissaki]

The way to go is to somehow get your server running (install linux package and start, or download and unzip the static binary file and run).

So far for the server process.

You then use some Ice interface to administer your server and create multible virtual servers as well as set the SuperUser Password (account which will give full control to the user) and maybe set some config values (slots etc).

For ice interfaces see

http://mumble.sourceforge.net/Running_Murmur#Web-Interfaces

and following.

You may use a web-interface or standalone app, etc.

[gravitydk]

Thanks, although the heart of my question is still unanswered, around difficulty. Does raise another question: is an admin interface like your MumPI easy to install, or take some fiddling and technical Linux/php skills?

You did tell me something I wasn't sure about though: one binary install will allow me to create multiple virtual servers. I presume each uses its own port number, but they all share the same IP address?

[mistagee]

How difficult this is, depends on what setup you have to begin with. :)

On Debian Squeeze, you can just simply type "apt-get install mumble-django", and it will pull in the Mumble server and a web interface completely. Then type "mumble-django-configure" afterwards, answer the questions by hitting "enter" as the defaults are fine, and you're done. This won't take longer than five minutes.

If you have to go the manual way, you'd have to set up Murmur which is easiest done using the Static package. You'd have to download it, extract it, run "./murmur.x86" - and that's it. I wouldn't expect that to take longer than 10 minutes.

Setting up Mumble-Django as the web interface is described in detail here: http://bitbucket.org/Svedrin/mumble-django/wiki/Installation

It's somewhat hard to say how long this will take you; I've heard everything from 5 minutes to a day. :)

[kissaki]

I presume each uses its own port number, but they all share the same IP address?

 

Yes.

 

is an admin interface like your MumPI easy to install, or take some fiddling and technical Linux/php skills?

 

mistagee described the install of mumble django (didn't know there was a repo-package on Debian).

For MumPI you'll need a webserver with PHP and the ice-php extension.

On Debian you'll just have to install php-zeroc-ice.

Then you edit your php.ini (or in your /etc/php5/conf.d/IcePHP.ini) and add the path to your Murmur.ice file as ice.slice, eg:

ice.slice=/srv/www/mumpi/libs/Murmur12_fixed.ice

And it should work.

[gravitydk]

I see. That doesn't sound too hard really.

If any maintainer for the project reads this, the take-away is that:

the home page needs a short one-pager which explains, to the lesser-technical community like me, not how to install it, but explains how straight-forward it is.

[gravitydk]

I have another question.

Is there a best practice guide (I can't see or find one) and if not, are there any really important installation factors I should know about? I have a dedicated CentOS 5 server with gobs of bandwidth and 2GB RAM.

If no generic answers are possible, please help me with the first one at least about IP address.

For example:

• if you have other services (like I have forums) on the same dedicated server, should Murmur be given its own dedicated IP address?
• if not, its assumed sharing the IP address of the forums/wordpress and others on that host is fine
  
• are there any performance tuning recommendations related to voice or scalability of virtual servers
  
• I know it doesn't take much CPU or memory
  
• any other 'best practice' tips?

[kissaki]

That's a pretty basic hosting-question.

IPs are used to address your server (computer), ports are used to address the process on that server.

So no, no don't need another IP address.

Forum and wordpress are handled by your webserver, which probably is port 80. Murmur will use it's own port. They won't collide like that.

For your webinterface you'll just have to set your webserver however you like it to be (subdomain, other port, path for webinterface).

Other tips?

Not really… Can't think of any

[gravitydk]

Thank you. I didn't want to make any assumptions, since voice comms are very new to me.

[hacst]

Is there an ice-php/python rpm on CentOS 5? Because if there isn't you would have to compile that yourself which isn't that "easy" (it isn't hard if it works but if you run into trouble it might take a lot of knowledge to make it work). So best to make sure first.

[gravitydk]

I've no idea, but because I'm on a fully managed box, it has a lot of things installed that are used in a hosting environment.

Thank you though, I'll ask my host company if they have one (perhaps they have for other clients).

[tomdarkness]

Don't underestimate the bandwidth needs, especially since it seems like you are intending to give them out for free. I've got a small box that just runs two 10 slot instances of murmur (Since your into WoW they are for two 10man guilds, so only really used in the evening) with nothing else and here is the b/w from last month:

Total In: 6,035,836.82 (KB)

Total Out: 30,800,121.29 (KB)

So in total around 37GB.

Since you are running larger slot instances and, I guess, more of them then you can expect a lot of bandwidth to be used.

[gravitydk]

Thank you, yes, I did some maths on the bandwidth too. It does add up.

In my circumstance, I have way more quota than I need.