My custom map server has been on a crashing frenzy last night. It crashed 17 times at the same map:
Code: Select all
Log: Bringing Level utoxic.MyLevel up for play (20)...
Log: 7547.0ms Loading: Package JCoopZ1SSF
JCoopZ: InitGame: ?Name=Player?Class=UnrealI.FemaleOne?Game=jCoopZ1.JCoopZGame?mutator=CMapFixM.CMapFixMutator,DZMapM.DZMapMutator,WMutate2.PawnReplacer,FactoryFix.FactoryFix,bfix.bfix,MarineHUDJCZ.MHUDMutator?difficulty=3
JCoopZ: Difficulty 3
JCoopZ: Base Mutator is utoxic.jczUMutator0
Log: 7640.0ms Loading: Package JCoopZ1GRP
JCoopZ: Mutators CMapFixM.CMapFixMutator,DZMapM.DZMapMutator,WMutate2.PawnReplacer,FactoryFix.FactoryFix,bfix.bfix,MarineHUDJCZ.MHUDMutator
JCoopZ: Add mutator CMapFixM.CMapFixMutator
Log: 7656.0ms Loading: Package CMapFixM
JCoopZ: Add mutator DZMapM.DZMapMutator
Log: 7656.0ms Loading: Package DZMapM
DZMapM: =======================================================================
DZMapM: DZ Map Mutator v2.2 copyright 2003-2008 By -Zombie (Of DZ) unrzombie@yahoo.com
DZMapM: DZ Map Mutator Now Running...
DZMapM: =======================================================================
JCoopZ: Add mutator WMutate2.PawnReplacer
Log: 8000.0ms Loading: Package WMutate2
PawnReplacer: ***************************************************************************
PawnReplacer: WMutator - Pawn Replacer activated and invoked
PawnReplacer: version 1.0 by (:~WïÑGéÐ_ÜñîçøRÑ~:)
PawnReplacer: ***************************************************************************
JCoopZ: Add mutator FactoryFix.FactoryFix
Log: 8234.0ms Loading: Package FactoryFix
JCoopZ: Add mutator bfix.bfix
Log: 8234.0ms Loading: Package bfix
JCoopZ: Add mutator MarineHUDJCZ.MHUDMutator
JCoopZ: thisMap: utoxic
UdpServerQuery: Bound to port 5556.
Log: Resolving master0.gamespy.com...
Log: Resolving master.gamespy.com...
Log: Resolving unreal.epicgames.com...
Log: Resolving master.qtracker.com...
Log: Resolving master.thenerdnetwork.com...
Log: Resolving master.oldunreal.com...
Log: Resolving hyper.dnsalias.net...
Log: Resolving master.hlkclan.net...
Log: UdpBeacon utoxic.UdpBeacon (Function IpDrv.UdpBeacon.BeginPlay:000E) BindPort: bind failed
ScriptLog: ServerBeacon failed: Could not bind port 7775
ScriptLog: Broadcasting Beacon
Log: UdpBeacon utoxic.UdpBeacon (Function IpDrv.UdpBeacon.BroadcastBeacon:0096) SentText: sendto failed
JCoopZ: ======================================================================================
JCoopZ: JCoopZ v1.0 | jCoopZ1SSF Build 130 copyright 2005-2009 by Zombie (Of DZ) unrzombie@yahoo.com
JCoopZ: Original JCoop v1-5 coding by Joss Liu, September 2002 - March 2003
JCoopZ: JCoopZ ==> Special thanks to: Zora, WingedUnicorn - For Nephthys developer interface support
JCoopZ: Oblivion[CW], Hyper.nl - For ideas, suggestions, and feedback
JCoopZ: JCoop v1-5 ==> Special thanks to: Maniac, Cherokee, Teela, (DarkSW)Wolf
JCoopZ: Zora, Zombie, digital zynthetic, Koopa888, }TCP{Wolf - for ideas and feedback making JCoop better game
JCoopZ: ======================================================================================
JCoopZ: Current password settings:
JCoopZ: PrimaryAdmin[0].AdminPassword=password
JCoopZ: PrimaryAdmin[1].AdminPassword=
JCoopZ: PrimaryAdmin[2].AdminPassword=
JCoopZ: PrimaryAdmin[3].AdminPassword=
JCoopZ: PrimaryAdmin[4].AdminPassword=
JCoopZ: SecondaryAdmin[0].AdminPassword=
JCoopZ: SecondaryAdmin[1].AdminPassword=
JCoopZ: SecondaryAdmin[2].AdminPassword=
JCoopZ: SecondaryAdmin[3].AdminPassword=
JCoopZ: SecondaryAdmin[4].AdminPassword=
JCoopZ: GamePassword:
JCoopZ: TimeLimit=60 minutes, Next Map: ufhub6 (timer starts after a player login)
JCoopZ: ********** JCZLogger PreBeginPlay **********
ScriptLog: [~] starting Server Advertisements version 101
Log: SludgeBarrel utoxic.SludgeBarrel9
Still no actual log end.
Dramatic story Telling:
Unreal 227G is the pride of the OldUnreal community.
The all new generation of Unreal Engine technology combines innovative features with a streamlined rendering engine.
But somehwere, somehow it is heading towards a crash.
In just 8 minutes the fate of the HyperCoop custom map server will be sealed in a dramatic series of crashes.
Now with cutting-edge debugging technology we will reveal exactly what went wrong.
Crashes don't just happen. They're a chain of critical events. Unravel the fateful events in those final seconds before the crash.
Middelburg, The Netherlands. The HyperCoop servers.
Wednesday May 26, 2010.
The HyperCoop custom map server. One of the trusted Unreal servers that has been around for years. Yet in one minute, it will undergo a devastating series of software crashes.
The server seems to be running fine. Monsters are roaming. Players are happily playing around with the Aura toys. Nobody could expect that this was about to be ended soon.
Suddenly, the server enters a crash. Players no longer get updates and all actors appear to move in straight lines over the screen. A few seconds later are all players disconnected.
Player: "I was playing like just any other day when I was disconnected. I quickly reconnected to find out that all my score and inventory was lost. I cried."
The monsters were shocked as well was the world they lived in suddely broke down.
The log folder reveals the severity of the crash. The server did not crash once, but many times that fateful night.
The question everyone was asking was, how could a server running the latest innovative software crash so hard? The cause of the crash is far from being determined. No one knows what happend there at the HyperCoop custom map server. Faulty power? A bad strip of memory? A bug with Aura? An incompatibility between two of the many installed Unreal mods? An Unreal engine bug? A hacker attack?
At this early stage, all options need to be considered. The OldUnreal developer team takes over the investigation. They quickly take a look at the crash logs. The server writes a log file of everything that happens on the server. It acts like a black box of an airliner. It often contains valuable information about the events leading to the crash.
But there is something strange about these particular crashlogs. They appear to be incomplete. Something is missing. But what? Normally, the server core writes a detailed technical log about the cause of the crash. But the end of these logs are missing. They are suddenly cut off. The logging process seems to have been caught by surprise.
But crashes are not uncommon to the HyperCoop servers. The server owner has a reputation of pushing the Unreal engine to it's edge in his attempt to create a action-filled gameplay experience. Sometimes this caused undiscovered bugs to surface. Hyper is running the Aura mod that is well-known for it's beautiful projectile effects. But the Aura mod has a long history of stability issues. Hyper is forces to only use a selection of the mod to avoid problems. Could an Aura bug have caused this crash?
In the weeks preceeding to the crash, Hyper indeed faced a number of Aura crashes. He had installed a new version of Aura which he got from Boodaflow. But in the days before this crash, the faulty version of Aura was already uninstalled and hyper went back to the previous version. A version that was not known for causing crashes like this one. So, an aura crash was considered unlikely.
Hardware and power problems also were ruled out. The server has been running fine with the same hardware for years, anhd other software running on the machine was unaffected. It had to be something in the Unreal server itself.
(To be continued in the next episode of Seconds from the Crash)
