How to improve Linux Server Performance

[ToeiRei]

I've been working on my ARK Server since quite a while and found a couple of things to make it actually run smoothly:

 

First of all, the number of CPU Cores are never an issue as ARK uses 3 Cores most of the time (Game, Physics and Networking). So if you have the choice of a faster CPU or more cores, take the faster CPU.

Second is the Linux distribution itself. I run my server on a virtual machine and it has been up since 2 years on the island having a HUGE base village on it with not much lag
As distro I recommend Debian due to its stability. I do not recommend Ubuntu due to multiple shenanigans canonical pulled off in the past including an inconsistent kernel which can be a pain in the rear. The Linux install is a very basic one without any desktop environment or *anything* that pkgeselect offers.

Third part is tweaking the Kernel. You can either build it on your own from kernel.org or grab my debian package from Packagecloud where I publish builds for Debian Buster. My Config can be seen at  https://toeirei.github.io/kernel-deb/ - Those changes are actually the 'secret sauce' to make our server feel good even if they are sitting at the other end of the world.

Fourth part: Disk scheduling
If you are running a SSD disk, you do NOT want to have anything working on 'fair' writes. This is even more true for virtual machines as this just slows down things at the wrong end. Remember: We are still running some system that needs to respond snappy instead of figuring out, what's the best way to write stuff on disk. Besides that, if you are on a virtual machine like me, the VM is the least one to actually decide what's being written to disk.

 

Hope this helps some guys out there. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.