Running a master server

[vonunov]

I'm playing around with a master server, mostly to demonstrate whether a server can run on the same address as its master server, as someone claimed that it can't.

Here's what I have:

My IP address:

[SELECT ALL] Code:

[asscube@cubic ~]$ ifconfig eth0 | grep inet
        inet 108.166.173.92  netmask 255.255.255.248  broadcast 108.166.173.95
        inet6 fe80::20c:29ff:fe29:a16b  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>

Starting the master server:

[SELECT ALL] Code:

[asscube@cubic assaultcube]$ authbind ./ac_master ./ 80 108.166.173.92

Verifying all is well on that end:

[SELECT ALL] Code:

[asscube@cubic assaultcube]$ tail master.log
*** Starting master server on 108.166.173.92 80 at Sat Apr 14 19:01:19 2012 ***
reloading master.cfg

Verifying port 80 is OK:

[SELECT ALL] Code:

jack@archeee ~ > nmap -p80 108.166.173.92

Starting Nmap 5.51 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2012-04-14 19:18 CDT
Nmap scan report for cust-108-166-173-92.corexchange.com (108.166.173.92)
Host is up (0.0086s latency).
PORT   STATE SERVICE
80/tcp open  http

Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.26 seconds

Testing using a local server:

[SELECT ALL] Code:

[asscube@cubic assaultcube]$ ./3server.sh
reading commandline parameters from file 'config/3servercmdline.txt'
logging started: console(INFO), file(DEBUG, "serverlog_20120414_19.20.36_local#2121.txt"), syslog(DISABLED), timestamp(ENABLED)
Apr 14 19:20:36 logging local AssaultCube server (version 1104, protocol 1132/104) now..
Apr 14 19:20:36 read 28 map rotation entries from 'config/maprot.cfg'
Apr 14 19:20:36 read 11 admin passwords from 'config/serverpwd.cfg'
Apr 14 19:20:36 read 711 (778) blacklist entries from 'config/serverblacklist.cfg', 0 errors
Apr 14 19:20:36 read 138 + 262 entries from nickname blacklist file 'config/nicknameblacklist.cfg', 0 errors
Apr 14 19:20:36 dedicated server started, waiting for clients...
Apr 14 19:20:36 Ctrl-C to exit
Apr 14 19:20:36 looking up 108.166.173.92...
Apr 14 19:20:36 WARNING: could not connect

Testing from an external server:

[SELECT ALL] Code:

jack@nobelium ~/assaultcube > ./2server.sh
reading commandline parameters from file 'config/2servercmdline.txt'
logging started: console(INFO), file(DEBUG, "serverlog_20120414_19.21.12_199.167.135.91#28763.txt"), syslog(DISABLED), timestamp(ENABLED)
Apr 14 19:21:12 logging local AssaultCube server (version 1104, protocol 1132/104) now..
Apr 14 19:21:12 read 9 map rotation entries from 'config/maprot.cfg'
Apr 14 19:21:12 read 11 admin passwords from 'config/serverpwd.cfg'
Apr 14 19:21:12 read 11 (11) blacklist entries from 'config/serverblacklist.cfg', 0 errors
Apr 14 19:21:12 read 0 + 1 entries from nickname blacklist file 'config/nicknameblacklist.cfg', 0 errors
Apr 14 19:21:12 dedicated server started, waiting for clients...
Apr 14 19:21:12 Ctrl-C to exit
Apr 14 19:21:12 looking up 108.166.173.92...
Apr 14 19:21:12 WARNING: could not connect

I noticed that I can't ping 108.166.173.92 from the external server:

[SELECT ALL] Code:

jack@nobelium ~ > ping 108.166.173.92
ping: icmp open socket: Operation not permitted

So I tested from my own computer in case that was the point of failure for the external server:

[SELECT ALL] Code:

jack@archeee ~ > ping 108.166.173.92
PING 108.166.173.92 (108.166.173.92) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 108.166.173.92: icmp_req=1 ttl=47 time=11.2 ms
64 bytes from 108.166.173.92: icmp_req=2 ttl=47 time=11.3 ms
^C
--- 108.166.173.92 ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 1001ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 11.242/11.293/11.344/0.051 ms

[SELECT ALL] Code:

jack@archeee ~/1.1.0.4 > ./server.sh
reading commandline parameters from file 'config/servercmdline.txt'
logging started: console(INFO), file(DISABLED), syslog(INFO, "AssaultCube[local#28763]", local6), timestamp(DISABLED)
logging local AssaultCube server (version 1104, protocol 1132/104) now..
read 58 map rotation entries from 'config/maprot.cfg'
read 0 admin passwords from 'config/serverpwd.cfg'
read 0 (0) blacklist entries from 'config/serverblacklist.cfg', 0 errors
read 0 + 0 entries from nickname blacklist file 'config/nicknameblacklist.cfg', 0 errors
dedicated server started, waiting for clients...
Ctrl-C to exit
looking up 108.166.173.92...
WARNING: could not connect

I can't forward the necessary ports where I am, but if failure to ping was causing the failure from Nobelium, I should have received a different error message from ArchEee.

Same issue when:

- Running "./ac_master ./ 80 108.166.173.92" as root
- Running "authbind ./ac_master ./ 80 127.0.0.1" and starting a local server with -m127.0.0.1
- Running "authbind ./ac_master ./ 80 localhost" and starting a local server with -mlocalhost
- Using -mexample.com where example.com has an A record to 108.166.173.92
- Using "authbind --deep ./ac_master ./ 80 108.166.173.92"

I don't know what's supposed to go in master.cfg, so my strongest suspicion is that I'm missing something vital there.

Touched master.cfg, same issue.

Added "clearbans" to master.cfg, same issue.

Any ideas?

[Jg99]

use this: \config\master 28760 localhost

[Ronald_Reagan]

For AC, the master server is hardcoded (in everything except for the actual MS) as running on port 28760.

[jamz]

Yeah, port 80 was your problem.

[vonunov]

Oh, okay. I got some misinformation that the port was hardcoded to 80.

http://forum.cubers.net/thread-3675.html

Maybe I should have checked the source. :P

Thanks.

And it turns out that you can have a server reporting to an MS at the same address.

[tempest]

That thread was (or turned into something) about the old (pre-1.1) master server, where it was indeed port 80.

[vonunov]

Cool, then. Was it changed because residential users generally can't use 80?

[tempest]

No, it's because AC now uses a completely different master system. The old master was a ASP.NET application running on an IIS server (or something similarly horrible, you get the idea), which clients and servers communicated with via HTTP GET requests. 1.1 uses a new, much more streamlined and smaller master server which was backported from Sauerbraten. Now, it's just a barebones protocol based on one-line text commands.

[vonunov]

Oh, awesome. I bet the old one was a pain to deal with. Thanks.