Will restarting Centos 7 system help improve Minecraft server performance?
 

Hi everyone!

I'm new to Linux but I've been using Centos 7 machine for about three years to host a Minecraft server. I haven't restarted ever but I do kill the Java process sometimes to prevent memory leaks in Minecraft. I'm kinda scared of restarting because I'm not sure what my firewall rules were. Just to be sure, will restarting the machine help Minecraft performance or should I not risk it?

Have you kept the machine updated? If not, you should update it before doing anything else.

The firewall program you are using should provide a way to view your rules. Most firewall programs are frontends for iptables, and you can view the rules with the command iptables -L. I think CentOS uses SELinux by default; I have never used it but this article might help.

And, yes, in my amateur's opinion, after three years, rebooting the machine may clean out some dustbunnies and result in some improvement.

It depends on what performance you're looking for. Restarting may reset your system resources, free-up zombie applications and yes it will help. But if your hardware such as CPU, Memory and Graphic card remains the same I guess you will be back to square one.

What's the main reason for rebooting? Hope it's not some malware or viruses occupying your system and degrading the performance. Good luck!

What do you mean by updated? Should I update from Centos 7 to Centos 8 for better performance?

When the Minecraft server gets many players, performance drops down, already optimized quite a bit in Minecraft application to make it run better but it looks like CPU just can't handle the load after certain amount of players. As a dummy Windows user I am wondering if restarting the Linux server machine will make CPU/RAM more efficient at handling Minecraft application, making it faster and more stable.

I'm using htop for CPU/Memory monitoring, this is what it looks like when people are playing.

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...1&d=1586139773

I do not mean upgrading from one CentOS release version to another.

I mean keeping the system up-to-date by installing the security and software version updates that are routinely issued for Linux systems by their maintainers. This is routine system maintenance, as distinct from a distro version upgrade.

See this article: https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/rhel-c...command-howto/

In a sane world there would be no requirement to reboot - it used to be brag-points for who had been running longest.What are you using to base this assertion on ?. Do you have evidence you can share, or is it a "gut feeling" ?. We need the former.

The Minecraft server starts lagging and PvP becomes less fun, it is clear as day.

I also use a logger to see what % of CPU is being used on different things (zombies, horses, bees, etc)
At certain amount of players CPU is basically maxed out. I am wondering if restart will give it more capacity to handle Minecraft.