Valve, with Server Farms in mind, programmed a feature into their L4D2 Dedicated Linux Server platform that gives operators the ability to run up to 5 separate servers (child) from just 1 distribution and have all those servers manageable from one console (parent). "What is WatchDog?", you may ask? I'll tell you, but I have to explain a small bit of detail first. My stubborness rears it's ugly head again: On second thought, I'm gonna skip detailing the next 15 hours and get right to the crux of what caused this mess in the first place: WatchDog. The following week I got reports on occasion that the server had crashed, but it was averaging less then 1 per day. Hence MetaMod was reverted back to 1.10.3, addons installed, and everything seemed well. The MetaMod version installed on Bastards #4 was 1.10.0, while the version now installed on Bastards #3 was 1.10.4: the same version installed on Last Regret. They were virtually identical with the exception of one key element. It wasn't until another server owner, Sophia (Bastards #3), started having this type of problem with her server except that her server wouldn't start at all! Through the course of our conversation I was made aware that the Europe Bastards server (#4) and it's contents were essentially ghosted from Server #3. A month of this debugging type shit and I was reserved to let the damn thing sit as it was bugged and only half the addon king it used to be In fact, the custom campaigns installed on the Chicago server matched the New York server to a T. The big mystery here is that this campaign, although has custom content, didn't cause the server issues before. A campaign beginning with L was causing the server to crash TheBloodyMoors. That worked, but my stubborness wasn't gonna let that stand! So a painful round robin of moving stuff in and out of the addons folder began no doubt angering some of you and some of your friends.įast forward nearly two weeks with this garbage going on behind the scenes and the server was finally stable with addon campaigns beginning with letter A-K. The intermediate solution was to remove every addon campaign on the server until the problem could be resolved.
![sourcemod l4d2 custom commands sourcemod l4d2 custom commands](https://www.gamemaps.com/imgmgr/limit/img/addons/l4d2/ss/left4pie_-_l4d2_console_command_interface_15684_1.jpg)
Other times it would fail to even connect the lobby to the first map. For instance: Load a stock valve campaign and the server would crash when trying to load map #2 or map #4 of that campaign. The crashes seemed to happen at random, but other times there seemed to be a pattern. This solution had worked up until this point. Verifying the problem was easy: Remove the most recent campaign(s) and see if the server crashes or exhibits the same behavior. Sometimes campaigns, namely those with custom content that overrides default characteristics of the game (specials, music, scripts, ect), can cause issues or crashes when mixed with the stock Valve campaigns or other custom campaigns installed on the server.
#SOURCEMOD L4D2 CUSTOM COMMANDS SOFTWARE UPGRADE#
A little under a month later the server received a software upgrade for both Metamod and Sourcemod, MM.10.4 and SM1.6.3 respectively. It all started after the server was moved from New York to Chicago.
![sourcemod l4d2 custom commands sourcemod l4d2 custom commands](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zucSs1TEwms/maxresdefault.jpg)
As many of you know, I was nearly driven insane by a siege of server crashes during the months of December and January.