A creative Minecraft 1.20.4 server for transportation and city-building enthusiasts.
A creative Minecraft 1.20.4 server for transportation and city-building enthusiasts.

Delta Server Migration FAQ

by |Published

TL;DR:

  • The Delta migration will begin on Monday, October 16th at 4pm UTC and finish by Saturday, October 21st or earlier.
  • The Purge event will begin on Saturday, October 21st at 7pm UTC.
  • The version of the Minecraft server will still be 1.20.1. We will update to Minecraft 1.20.2 sometime after the migration.

What is Delta Server?

Delta is the next dedicated server machine that will host all MRT services, including the Minecraft servers and various websites. Delta will be the 6th server machine to host the MRT and will replace our current machine Zeta, which has been running for more than 3 years since February 2020.

What are the technical specs for Delta? / How much faster is Delta over Zeta?

  • Intel Xeon-E 2274G (4 cores / 8 threads, 4 Ghz Base / 4.9 GHz Boost)
  • 2 x 480 GB SSD SATA Soft RAID + 2 x 8 TB SSD SATA Soft RAID
  • 32 GB DDR4 ECC 2666 Mhz
  • 500 Mbps public bandwidth

Comparison with Zeta:

  • Processor speed increased from 3.4 Ghz Base / 3.8 Ghz boost
  • HDD storage doubled from 4 TB
  • RAM speed doubled from 1333 Mhz, plus ECC
  • Bandwidth doubled from 250 Mbps

Moving to Delta should result in a roughly 20% increase in processing speed, though it’s not clear yet whether you’ll see any noticeable difference in-game. Dynmap renders should be noticeably faster though.

How much does Delta cost?

The base cost for Delta is $65.09 CAD per month. However, we get 10% off by paying 24 months upfront. Adding 5% Canadian tax, this comes out to a total cost of $1467.69 CAD, or about $61.15 CAD per month. This is almost $5 more than Zeta’s current costs of $56.69 per month.

What’s new or changing with Delta?

Unlike previous server migrations, the New World will not be expanded when we move to Delta. However, the Lab World will be expanded, quadrupling doubling in size with its radius extended from 4000 blocks to 8000 blocks 6000 blocks.

Most of the other changes in Delta are internal things that a lot of players won’t notice, like software updates, infrastructure changes, etc. However, here’s a list of the most noteworthy changes:

Dynmap

File Server / World Download Torrents

  • Torrents for New World downloads will be recreated and should provide more reliable downloads. Instead of a torrent client hosted on Zeta, there will be a “webseed” server on Delta that provides the files directly.

MediaWiki

  • The EasyTimeline extension will be installed. Use it to create horizontal or vertical timelines on your wiki pages. Check the EasyTimeline page for more information.

Database

  • All MySQL databases will be replaced with MariaDB, an open-source, community-driven fork of MySQL. MySQL databases are currently used for the website, wiki, Pterodactyl (Minecraft server console), and Minecraft server plugins (CoreProtect, LuckPerms, MyWarp, and Plan).
  • The single monolithic MySQL server on Zeta will be split up into separate MariaDB servers on Delta for each service. This means that if a database server crashes, it should not take down other services (i.e. A crash in the Minecraft server’s database won’t also take down the website and wiki). This change also enables the additional improvement below:
  • The MariaDB databases for the main and beta Minecraft servers will be stored on the HDD rather than the SSD. This means that data for CoreProtect, LuckPerms, MyWarp, and Plan will be stored on the slower hard drive. While this will result in slower performance when writing CoreProtect block logs, it may allow us to have fewer CoreProtect purges and keep all the data for a longer, perhaps even indefinite amount of time. The bottom line is we don’t know exactly what the implications will be of this change; we’ll have to try it out in the months after Delta goes live. If we do encounter problems later on, we can always move these databases back to the SSD.

Other

How much time will the Delta migration take? / What can I do while the Delta migration is happening?

I don’t have exact ETAs on how long the migration will take, but I’m hoping it will take only a week or less to complete.

Unlike previous server migrations, I will be attempting to transfer CoreProtect logs and Dynmap render files directly from Zeta to Delta. If successful, that means there will be no CoreProtect purge when Zeta closes, and there will not be a need to re-render the Dynmap after Delta opens. This will however increase the amount of time needed for the migration, but hopefully it’ll just be an additional day or two.

As for things to do while the migration is happening:

  • The survival server will remain up and running for the entirety of the migration, so feel free to visit it while you wait. To access the survival server, get the Survival role in #get-roles and read the instructions in #survival-announcements. You will need to ask me to be added to the whitelist for the server before you connect.
  • There will be a Purge event on Saturday, October 21st at 7pm UTC. A Purge is when we disable protection plugins on the old Minecraft server so that TNT, lava, and other things can be used to grief and cause chaos. The Purge will last until the Minecraft server crashes.

The general order of operations for the Delta migration then goes something like this:

  1. Shutdown all MRT services on Zeta (Minecraft servers, websites, etc.).
  2. Backup all relevant files on Zeta and transfer them to Delta (including CoreProtect logs, Dynmap renders, etc.).
  3. Once all data has been safely backed up, the Purge will start on the Zeta Minecraft server.
  4. At some point during the migration, the minecartrapidtransit.net domain will be changed to point to Delta server.
  5. Services will gradually be restored on Delta server until everything is back to normal.
  6. Post-migration: A new world download will be created from the Zeta backup and will be available on the file server at some point later.

When will the Delta migration take place?

The Delta migration will begin on Monday, October 16th at 4pm UTC and finish by Saturday, October 21st or earlier.

How do I join the Delta Minecraft server after the migration?

You will be able to join the Minecraft server as before, at the same address minecartrapidtransit.net (port 25565).

The server version will still be Minecraft 1.20.1. While Minecraft 1.20.2 is now available, various plugins are still updating to the new version. We will test 1.20.2 on the new beta server (on the Delta machine) after the migration, and then eventually update the main server to the new version as well.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve come this far and read all of this, thanks. And thanks to everyone who’s stuck with the server over the years. While all these details about Delta may not be very exciting, do know that these changes are to ensure that the server continues to run optimally for many years to come.