I'm currently working on deploying a Steam Cache server into my home network for LAN parties. For ease of setup, I followed along with the docker instructions mentioned in this article by Ars Technica: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/01/building-a-local-steam-caching-server-to-ease-the-bandwidth-blues/ I finished the configuration and have begun observing the logs as I attempt to install games and write data to the cache. The logs are currently showing that my two clients are only pulling from the outside steam servers and not the cache even though I've already installed the game, removed it, and installed it again with the cache running. I have my DNS information pointing to the cache server currently. I'm running the steam cache on Ubuntu Server 17.04.
Looking to see if anyone would be able to help me troubleshoot this issue for I have a LAN party coming up in about a week and would like to have this fully operational by then. Your assistance is greatly appreciated
After reviewing the documentation a few more times, I realized that I had forgotten to set the folder missions correctly for the cached data to write to disk:
sudo chmod -R 777 /srv/steamcache/data
Now that the command has been entered, It appears to be working just fine now.
So the hardware I'm using is probably considered overkill for such a project. My setup has three components: Storage Server, VM Server, and the switch. For my storage server, I have FreeNAS as the OS and for the hardware, I'm using a used Dell PowerEdge R510 rackmount server. That server has dual 8 core, 16 thread Xeons, 64GB ECC memory, x6 3tb HGST NAS drives, 250gb SSD for caching, and a 10 gigabit NIC. That Storage server is being used as an iSCSI target to my VM Server which is using VMware ESXi 6.5 as the Hypervisor. That server is a used Lenovo Thinkstation D30 which also has dual 8 core, 16 thread Xeons, 64GB ECC memory, and a 10 gigabit NIC. Those two devices are interconnected to my 10 gigabit switch for high transfer speeds between the storage server and the ESXi host.
I too will get some speed dipping with my setup, but not usually as low as your numbers. Typically the lowest I see is 50MB, but it's usually at 80+. It depends on the game sometimes because it will shift from using the network connection to using your disk read/write speeds. The thing to be looking at is where the bottlenecks are. Is it the server, your PC, the hops in between your PC and the Steam Cache? Do you see that low of performance when downloading from the Steam Cache to an SSD?
I tried downloading a free2play game called Dungeon Defenders II, 4,1gb, and it rarely got above 10mb/s. Games from Origin, i can download with 50-70 Mb/s.
I've definitely looked into the LANcache before and might be something I implement later, however, Steam is the major one I care about right now. For LAN parties, I mainly use Steam, Battle.net, and League of Legends. The Battle.net stuff can simply be copy+paste onto other LAN PC's in no time at all.
The two server setup is by design. I would not recommend my setup unless you are really comfortable working with FreeNAS, ESXi, Server Hardware, and advanced Networking. I also use the setup for running other virtual machines not just the steam cache server. That's just one of the VMs. Another note would be that the r510 is pretty loud so you'll have to take that into account if you're looking into a similar solution. The D30 is near silent which is great, but when it's next to the r510, that no longer becomes relevant lol. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about my implementation.
Are you using SSD for storage ? And what kinda filesystem ?
I actually managed to tweak my setup to get around 20-50 mbs from steam and 70-95 mbs from Origin, simply by using 2 network cards. Im gonna try a quad port Intel Nic the next few days to see if i Can boost steam up a bit.
My primary goal is to cache steam games and deliver the updates to the clients fast as possible, then Battle.Net Games. But since im not seeing the speeds i want to, i have decided to upgrade my comp to a real server like yours..
I found 3 possible servers..which one would you go for ?
Dell PowerEdge R420 2 x PDU 2 x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2407 @ 2.20G 98GB RAM ECC (12 x 8GB) 2 x 300GB SAS 15k 6 x 300GB SAS 10k 2 x onboard NIC 1G 1 x Dual port 1G Intel server NIC monteret iDRAC 7 (remote installation / reboote etc.)
Do you have links as to where you would be getting these from? Are you using the server for just running the LAN cache or I guess I should ask what all are you going to be using the server for?
Thank you for providing the links. They seem like good prices, however, I do need to ask how you're planning on setting everything up if you were to use these servers. The Fujitsu and the Proliant although are good servers from a RAM/CPU perspective, they do only support 2.5" drives and not 3.5". The r420 does support 3.5", but only have 4 slots. If we were talking about ordering the r420, I'd say you'd be better ordering a r410 cause that'll save a lot more money. I have one of those laying around as more of a lab server running VMware ESXi 6.5. Remember that my setup is using the dell server as just a storage box and does not actually run the steam cache server. The ThinkStation is doing the CPU/Memory work for that. Unfortunately, I don't have immediate access to Microsoft Visio to draw up a topology of my exact setup to better explain how everything is setup. As mentioned before, my method for laying this out is a bit more complicated than your average guide will have you do and I'm not sure what your comfort levels are with working with these kinds of things. I've used FreeNAS for a few years prior to setting this up along with having my CCNA Routing & Switching. I'm also super comfortable working with VMware ESXi for I've worked with the product for several years. Once I gain a better grasp as to how you're going to lay everything out, I can then provide you with a better recommendation.
Tbh i dont have a clear idea atm as how i would set it all up.
We're 15-20 friends that meet up once or twice a month and play games all weekend long. The way im doing it now is 1 computer which is updated, and then use Robocopy to copy out all games to everyone. It works...but its time consuming.
My idea was to use Lancache on a "server" and then everyone could update when they wanted to. I tried my setup a few days back, and while it did work... it was really really slow.
I dont have any experience with Freenas or Esxi, but if thats what it takes to get things going, i dont mind working with it, I am a bit tech savy
Ill see if i can find a R410 and link the specs, otherwise ill make the guy with the R420 an offer and see if he accepts it.
Even with this, i only get around 35-40 mb from steam. I have tried pulling from a SSD and a regular 7200 rpm hdd, and it dosent seem to have any effect.
Did the caching server save all the files without problems? I still have the problem that the server is downloading something but when I lookup the folder, it is still empty and when I re-download that game it doesn't use the caching server.
