COD BO Issue list & Fixes

[jimbouk1977]

Bare in mind these dates are in american format


11/10/2010

Updates for 11/10/2010

Browser issues: The latest update is that there is progress on the in-game browser in displaying all of the servers. ETA is still unknown but this work is at the highest severity levels to have completed.

In Game Lag: A rollout of an increase to the sv_maxRate from 5000 to 25000 will be issued today. Instructions on how to do this on your server will come once it has been rolled out. Keep in mind that this parameter tune will help with some aspects of lag that has been seen.

11/10/2010: 6:35pm EST - The changes to all subscriptions have been done to enable sv_maxRate of 25000

In order to activate this change, simply restart your server at your convenience. On restart, the server will come up with the new sv_maxRate Setting


Pending orders: An email will be sent out to those that still have an order in pending to give an estimated ETA on activation. The vast majority of the servers in the 25 locations have been installed and running. Please note that your billing start time does NOT start until your server is activated.

RCON Tool connection issues: Work is being done to look into the cause for the rcontool connection issues that have been seen. Updates will come once we have more info




11/9/2010
Here is a summary of the current hot topics that we have been seeing in our support systems and community forums. We will do our best in keeping this list up to date and to add additional topics to this list as they come. Feel free to reply to this thread but be sure to keep things as constructive as possible. We have a direct line into Treyarch for any and all issues that we see and they are listening loud and clear.

Please keep support specific questions to support tickets, we will not be able to offer sufficient support through the forums at this time.


- Can't find my server in the browser

Due to huge volume of traffic that is occurring on the back-end systems, a temporary fix was put into place to randomly limit the amount of servers that are listed on the browser. This is a temporary fix and we will provide an update once it has been fixed.

- Can't connect to my server using the RCON Tool

We have been getting reports that there has been connection issues between the RCON tool and servers. We are still investigating this issue and hope to find the root cause shortly.

- My hostname gets overwritten after setting it in the RCON Tool

A fix for this should be coming in on 11/10/2010. Changes to your hostname via the my.gameservers.com control panel will work through the same mechanisms as the RCON Tool which will in turn preserve any hostname changes that you make even on reboot.

- Servers crashes

We have seen a few reports of server crashes, but compared to the quantity of servers that have been deployed, the percentages are low. However, logs will be examined on all reported cases in order to isolate any possible issues.

- Server Lag

Reports of lag occurring in game has been reported and we are taking a very serious look into this. From a server perspective, we do not see any evidence of any resource utilization issues on the hardware that the servers are running on. There has been questions regarding our hardware and to address that, each server that is running Black Ops is brand new built specifically for Black Ops.

- How do I use reservedslots

In your my.gameservers.com control panel, you will be able to edit your reservedslots.txt configuration file. The file should be written in the following format:

password1
password2
password3
password4
password5


Currently, 5 reserved slots are supported.

The server will keep the list of reserved slots. Each slot is identified by a unique password specified in the reservedslots.txt file. If a server is full and a client joins with the password, the slot for that password is used. A random client is picked and kicked. If two clients use the same password, only the first client gets the reserved slot

- My server is still in pending status, when will it come up

As of this posting, 98% of all servers have been installed and activated. If your server is in a pending state, rest assured that server provision is near the top of our list of priorities to complete.


- Can I run Zombie Mode or Wager Matches on my rented server?

You can not run Zombie mode or Wager Matches on your rented servers

- How do I change my playlists

Playlist changes should be done by using the rcon tool

- My RCON password is not working, how can I reset it?

In order to reset the RCON password for your Call of Duty: Blackops server you need to log into your members area at then click on CONFIG next to the subscription. Then modiy the field that is next to ' RCON Password: ' then press ' Save Changes ' and it will update it for you.

[jimbouk1977]

Black Ops Server Browser

Nov 11, 2010 - 10:45am EST

The recent patch is CLIENT SIDE ONLY. Please do not open tickets asking for the upgrade. This new patch includes the updated RCON tool. It may take up to 2 minutes for the tool to connect to your server, but it should now fix the issues with being able to connect. Any further information we find on this patch will be added here.

[jimbouk1977]

11/12/2010

Updates for 11/12/2010

Server Browser appears to be showing all servers in the list now!

We would strongly recommend adding your server as a favorite. I do not foresee any issues with the browser listing at this current time, but it's always better to be safe.

There has been reports regarding the location of servers based on the server's IP address. Please keep in mind, as part of our roll out, we have announced our US based network prefixed globally. When doing this, the IP address will still have a originating record as being US based, but the server is 100% located in the region that it was installed to.

As a verification, the best way is to run a traceroute to your IP. This will show you exactly where the last hop for your server.

In windows:

Press Start->Run->cmd.exe
On the resulting command line prompt, type in the following:

tracert <IP ADDRESS>




Here is an update on the known issues that were discovered since launch:

Browser issues: The browser is currently displaying all servers properly

In Game Lag: Increasing the sv_maxRate setting in combination with the latest client patch has proved to be very successful in removing the in-game lag that has been seen at launch. Please keep in mind that you will need to restart your server once to have the sv_maxRate changes take effect.

Pending orders: An email will be sent out to those that still have an order in pending to give an estimated ETA on activation. The vast majority of the servers in the 25 locations have been installed and running. Please note that your billing start time does NOT start until your server is activated.

RCON Tool : A new Call of Duty Black Ops RCON Tool has been released into the Steam tools section. This version has proved to be very successful in allowing admins RCON access to their servers. The connection issue for the most part has been resolved.

[jimbouk1977]

13th Nov 2010

Updates for 11/13/2010

The browser is currently not showing all results again. The party that deals with the browser (daemonware) is aware of the issue and is currently working on it.

On our end, we are taking a close look at certain servers in locations that has a 100% working network, but showing ping variance.

Traceroutes that have been provided for each of the locations have been submitted into the networking teams at each of the locations to check on possible issues with their routing.

Overall, we have been pushing over 11,000 servers servicing a peak of 105,000 players!

While there are some problem servers, we are determined to get to the root cause of each and every issue that arises.

If you have noticed, some of the locations are now on a waitlist which will have the actual ETA on new servers. Our provisioning department is working as quickly as they can to add additional servers to each of the locations along with additional network gear.

[jimbouk1977]

The hardware has been updated in almost all of our locations now, there is one or two that are awaiting upgrades. All our Blackops servers are running on the latest dual Intel Hexcore X5650 2.67 Ghz, 24 GB DDR3 RAM which are not evening reaching 20% CPU usage during peak times, in EVERY location we are hosting Blackops in.

[jimbouk1977]

Security patch being applied to all Servers
Nov 16, 2010 - 12:06am EST

An emergency security patch is being applied to all Black Ops servers to fix an exploit that has been discovered. Your server will automatically restart once to apply the patch.

[jimbouk1977]

19 Nov 2010

Updates for 11/19/2010


Black Ops patch looks to be on schedule for tomorrow!

Browser is still only showing 50% of the results back

[jimbouk1977]

A new patch will be released tonight in the coming hours. Because this is a client side patch, all servers will need to be patched as well. We will be applying the patch to all servers globally. During this patch application, your server will be restarted once in order for your server to take the update.


EDIT What Steam SAY:

A Steam client update is now available. To apply the update, click the File menu inside of Steam and then select "Check for Steam Client Updates...". The specific changes include:

Steam
Fixed Steam Cloud showing as endlessly syncing for some games
Fixed a case where Steamworks matchmaking could lose some keys set in the lobby, when running against the new matchmaking server
Fixed an issue where some windows could appear briefly before they were ready to be shown
Fixed game download stalling for some users when downloading games with DLC
Windows: Fixed Steam client update stalling for some users with HSDPA modems
Windows: Fixed compatibility for in-game overlay and games calling GetRawInputBuffer
Windows: Improved performance of .dmp file writing on client asserts/crashes
OSX: Improved retail game install to minimize amount of game data that needs to be downloaded after initial install
OSX: Fixed badge count listed as

[jimbouk1977]

22nd Nov 2010

Updates for 11/22/2010

Browser - in-game browser is still showing 50% of all servers in the listing. Daemonware, the company that is handling the backend as an open item to get this resolved.

Patch - the patch has been applied to all servers. We are seeing some reports of increased lag due to the patch that we are investigating with Treyarch

Reservedslots have been confirmed to work properly on all servers.

Server "Crashing" issue - we have been getting reports that some servers are crashing when full. We are sending crash dumps over to Treyarch for further investigation.

[jimbouk1977]

22 November 2010

Updates for 11/22/2010

Our main focus over the past few weeks have been directed towards stabilizing Black Ops in each and every region that we have deployed into. Many of the issues have been resolved with a few that still exists. With the direct support from the developer Treyarch, we are confident that any and all remaining issues will be resolved in a timely fashion. While there are issues, as expected for any new game launch, the vast majority of the servers with a total of over 17,000 servers with about 120,000+ concurrent players at peak are running very well

In addition to server stability issues, all constructive posts have been passed back to Treyarch (e.g. Joker's compilation of admin requests) which will give the developers a different perspective in terms of what admins would like to see added to the game.

In regards, to slower than expected ticket response times, now that many of the issues are identifiable, we expect to have our response times to be greatly improved. As with many new game title releases, there will be issues that occur that is specific to the title itself which also requires a learning curve for our support staff to overcome. Now that issues can be properly identified as well as properly categorized, our support staff can now properly address each issue. With that said, there are still some issues that still need more time for a resolution - with these types of issues, the response times may still be longer than expected as we are working towards a fix.

Of the known issues, we are still waiting for a fix for the in game browser display to show 100% of the servers instead of the 50% that is it currently showing. This fix needs to come from the 3rd party back end company Daemonware who is very well aware of the problem and is working towards a fix. GameServers,com does not have any control over the browser display.