MythBuster Hortus says "No PTR caused lag"
by Adam Holisky 
Feb 12th 2008 at 2:30PM
When I woke up this morning I was greeted to two things: a fist full of WoW news to report on, and my daily dose of MythBusters. Interestingly I found that our chummy Blizzard PTR forum poster Hortus has taken up dispelling some myths of his own. This myth is so epic that I think it would make for a good computer nerd edition of MythBusters.The myth is this: every time the PTR goes up, my server slows down.
I play mainly in two different servers, Anvilmar and Eldre'Thalas. I've heard it claimed often enough on both servers that the PTR seriously effects stability. Most people claim this is because the PTR and the server hardware are on the same "rack." Most servers are just a small gray box with a few blinking lights on the front of them, and lots of connection ports in the back. When making a server farm, like Blizzard has scattered throughout the country, they physically put the servers in clusters, called racks (no, not that kind of cluster, well kind of, but that's beside the point).
Today Hortus has dispelled the myth. The PTR servers are on a separate rack from any live servers. So it's just a coincidence that we're having all these connectivity issues, right?
Sigh...
While it's nice to know that the servers are at least physically separate from one another (not that it matters much in the first place), we can reasonably assume that the PTR is at least housed in the same complex as some live servers. This means that no matter what, the data center where the PTR servers are housed will see increased traffic. While we like to think of bandwidth as an unlimited commodity, if even 10% of the World of Warcraft user base wants to get on the PTR, that's still a million new people traveling to that data center, which will lead to decreased speed throughout. So perhaps this isn't a coincidence after all? Could this explain all these server issues as of late?
So at least the myth of the server rack space has been busted. What remains is to find out which servers are in the same data center as the PTR. Then we'll really know which servers to roll alts on when the PTR hits.
Have you noticed your server failing since the PTR hit? Give details, like what server you're on, what battle group, and what time zone.
Updated 2:53 p.m. EST: Jasperwind provided a great link to a WoWWiki article that shows the PTR is in the LA data center.
Filed under: Realm News, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Bugs, Realm Status, Odds and ends, News items, Hardware, Rumors
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Wes W. Feb 12th 2008 2:39PM
My server has been lag ridden the last few days, I noticed this when the 2.4 hit the PTRs.
Server - Deathwing
Battle Group - Nightfall
This is all on a US Pacific time zone.
Jasperwind Feb 12th 2008 2:48PM
"What remains is to find out which servers are in the same data center as the PTR."
http://www.wowwiki.com/US_realm_list_by_datacenter#Los_Angeles_datacenter
Battlegroups:
Bloodlust
Cyclone
Reckoning
Vengeance
Adam Holisky Feb 12th 2008 2:51PM
Dear Jasperwind,
Wonderful link. Thank you for sharing. Updating the article. =)
Best,
Adam.
Jasperwind Feb 12th 2008 3:02PM
Adam,
I actually got that link off the forum link you had in the article. Post #19 by Kaydeethree of Medivh (3 posts below Hortus' blue post). =D
Nandini Feb 12th 2008 4:47PM
I originally created that page on WoWWiki in October, 2007. While information for the PTRs has been added since then, it's unclear if the data for other U.S. realms was updated at the same time.
As with any information obtained from a wiki source, readers may be well served to verify it themselves.
BillDoor Feb 12th 2008 2:55PM
Mine was laggy last night, but only when looting. I blame the Valentines Day stuff.
Pandemona Feb 12th 2008 2:59PM
Server: Aerie Peak
BG: Nightfall
Server lag until around 9pm pst is horrible - a lot of those "stop and start" issues where you swing your weapon or get cast-locked and 30 seconds later the server jumps back and either you or your mob is dead - really annoying. Looting is a bad issue with lots of lockups.
Battlegrounds are fairly bad too - if you can get in.
Tychon Feb 12th 2008 3:02PM
Just wondering what character you have on anvilmar, I playing on Anvilmar as well.
Rudolphe Feb 12th 2008 3:01PM
I seriously doubt 10% of the player base is trying to access the server at the same time... can the thing even support 1 million players at once?
Swarfy Feb 12th 2008 3:03PM
Before 2.4 hit the PTR My server (Balegun - US) was running smoothly, had the occasional peak of 200 on rare days. Once 2.4 hit my latency spiked upwards towards the 1500-2000 ms range. Instance's aren't much better either.
I'm not the only one either. A couple friends live about three blocks away and have a different ISP and they're having the lag issues too. Also happening in Minnesota from what some other friends have told me.
Spoony Feb 12th 2008 3:33PM
Kalecgos has been ridden with horrible lag issues since the PTRs launch.
We barely downed our raid bosses from people constantly disconnecting during the fights for the last couple nights.
Chidori Feb 12th 2008 3:22PM
While it's theoretically possible for PTR traffic to slow things down, Blizzard has enough bandwidth in their data centers that it seems unlikely. The company I work for shares an AT&T data center with Bliz, and the data center itself has four 10gb Internet pipes coming in (OC-192), of which Bliz has 6gb of guaranteed bandwidth.
Jamesisgreat Feb 12th 2008 3:29PM
Definite increase in lag for me in the last few days. I'm on Aggramar - EU, though I play from the States nowdays. Therefore I'm used to a little latency around the 500ms mark (which doesnt really seem to affect me at all). The last few days however, I've been bouncing between 2000ms - 3500ms. Now that does affect me - I've died about a dozen times in Skettis since my latency shot up!
Druid dude Feb 12th 2008 3:31PM
Icecrown got destroyed last 3 days.
Strangely, thats the Boston data center.
I work in IT, and no I'm not gonna spout off some garbage "ZOMG I knows servars, theys is brokeded!" However, when something goes south on a large scale, one of the first things you start looking at is recent changes. If you find one that corresponds to the start of the issue, no matter how improbably or illogical, its pretty likely to have something to do with the problem. PTRs up, realms down. I don't know their infrastructure, I would be guessing like any one else. However, this is a repeated issue, timed closely to PTRs going up. I can't see how the 2 could possible *not* be related.
Isambaard Feb 12th 2008 5:12PM
Alleria has been having intermittent issues since before the PTRs went up. They haven't increased in frequency or severity.
Furthermore, I really doubt a CM would be posting so definitively and giving realistic sounding info if it wasn't sanctioned by Blizz IT as accurate, or at least not a lie.
I also work in IT and while what you said is logical since there's contrary data and otherwise Blizz's IT looks highly competent and almost certainly sanctioned his statement I'm betting they have a real reason to believe it isn't related. When you look at the scope of what they do and how well they do it the last couple weeks on Alleria have been wildly out of character, probably why so many of us are so upset.
Ruby Feb 12th 2008 3:54PM
What's the difference between players in live and PTR servers? There's the same amount of people online as usual anyway, just on a different server; it has it's pop limits just like any other. And Illidan - US is having problems for a long time... I'm not blaming the PTR because it happens since Illidan exists.
robotrock Feb 12th 2008 4:37PM
every time the PTR is up the BGs seem way too laggy
emodeathmachine Feb 12th 2008 4:45PM
Arthas and a few others have been down for the last twenty minutes. For me at least.
= /
Nardore Feb 13th 2008 12:19AM
Hey from what comcast says that AT&T is the slowest internet around well atleast in there commercials. LOL
Bunny Feb 12th 2008 5:03PM
When I logged on last night my latency was at 13000. It could have been the Valentine's holiday rush but I usually get below 200 latency at any given time...