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Rafaeltab's avatar
Rafaeltab
5 years ago

Kubernetes for servers

Easier server scaling for apex legends!

As everyone probably knows the launch of season 9 didn't go as smoothly as anyone would've hoped. I thought instead of bashing in the heads of all the developers who "screwed up" I'd give some constructive advice that you could actually do something with. So here goes, it seems that Respawn had a tough time getting the servers backup, presumably due to a lack of server capacity. Thus, I have a little suggestion that has to do with easier scaling for basically any kind of server. Using Kubernetes, this is a tool developed by google (I think) that is used for orchestrating containers, most commonly made with docker. Kubernetes allows for easier scaling of any server infrastructure, it can even happen automatically by looking at the server load.

More thorough explanation

So, Kubernetes orchestrates containers, what does this mean for us? It means that just by changing one number you can say that you need 500 apex servers or 1000 and then the next moment you need 5000 because the biggest streamer in the world is live and all his viewers are trying to stream snipe him. Kubernetes will then after applying the change in number instantly start adding more servers to handle the bigger load. It can also handle multiple different kinds of servers, like a game server, authentication server, databases (this one is a little more tough due to the nature of databases), etc. In Kubernetes these would be called services. The services can be individually scaled up so if a bunch of people are logging in but not actually connecting to games you don't have to scale up everything but just the authentication servers. What does this cost to Respawn? Basically nothing except time, Kubernetes is free, docker is free, software engineers are not free.

Hope you guys found this helpful and are actually able to use this with game servers (I've never tried it with game servers just with simple websites and stuff).

Sincerely, Rafael

P.S. Feel free to ask some questions or say I am stupid xD

gameplay discussion

5 Replies

  • Irres169's avatar
    Irres169
    5 years ago

    Honestly a lot of the "server issues" seem to be the result of hackers.

    But I appreciate your efforts to help rather than just hate.  You are not stupid.

  • Rafaeltab's avatar
    Rafaeltab
    5 years ago

    Kubernetes does sadly not bring much protection against ddos-ing. However, you can limit certain resources per pod (server instance) such as cpu and memory. So if a solution is found for the DDoS (used here as a replacement for any network based attack) attacks then you're good. This way any cpu or memory problems are limited to 1 game server only and this server would then also automatically get replaced by a new one.

    I sadly have no clue how to fix network problems related to hackers.

    Thanks for not calling me stupid! 

  • IMightKickAss's avatar
    IMightKickAss
    5 years ago
    @Rafaeltab But is this DDoS really a thing? All people are screaming around like this was possible to choose someone one a server and DDoS them out of virtual existence. Maybe they live in the 90's, because nuking people can't happen anymore. And for DDoS, there is Cloudflare and so on... I guess EA is network wise enough to know about this.
  • Rafaeltab's avatar
    Rafaeltab
    5 years ago

    Right, that is probably the case. Then I have one question! What is the problem here? There is no problem right? No network issues due to Cloudflare or some other DDoS protection, no memory or CPU problems due to Kubernetes just having a setting that limits the usage per pod. Outside that hackers should not be able to influence server performance at all (I even doubt they could influence CPU and memory so far that it actually causes problems).

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