Darkcanuck/RRServer/Updates

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9-Mar-2009: Underscores are Banned!

• SVN Revision 56
• Recent server load problems due to bots with underscores in their version numbers!
• Added checks to prevent bots with invalid names: only alphanumeric, ".", "-" allowed, plus one space between name and version.
  • This is due to the way that Robocode handles bot filenames
• Added a temporary throttle while clients send 4 days of missed uploads.

5-Mar-2009: Server Down

• Due to high load issues, I've had to shut the server down temporarily.
• My time to sort this out is limited at the moment so the outage may last a few days.

5-Dec-2008: Speeeeed?

• SVN Revision 54
• Changed pairings table to use InnoDB to only lock the 2 rows being updated per upload.
• Removed table locking and switched to transactions instead to maintain data integrity.
• The above changes appear to have improved upload speed nicely.
• Added a fix for the "dual-retirement" problem; also added a check for corrupted pairing records.
• Added survival column to detail views.

2-Dec-2008: The Curse of the Participants List

• Current Problem
  • Looks like one client with a bad participants list (probably an empty file since the old wiki is currently down) started to remove all participants from the various 1v1 rumbles.
  • This also caused a storm of removal + reactivation requests, resulting in sloooooow uploads and many HTTP 500/503 errors.
  • Removals are now temporarily disabled and the problematic client has been temporarily suspended until it can be fixed.
  • Last I checked, about half of the mega rumble bots were flagged as 'retired'; you should see the largest number of comebacks in RoboRumble history in the coming hours!
  • I took the opportunity to do some database maintenance too.
• SVN Revision 50
• Added a long-planned feature to temporarily suspend problematic clients.
• Survival percentages are now displayed in the main rankings.

30-Nov-2008: Let the Uploading Competition Begin

• SVN Revision 45 48
• Added more uploading stats so that contributors pages shows totals for the current calendar month and the last 30 days.
  • December (GMT) is almost here, start up your clients...
• Scaled Glicko-2 scores to match std.dev. of Elo scores
• Removed Glicko-1 score display

26-Oct-2008: Sorting with Style

• SVN Revision 36 37
• Styled all tables (credit: ABC) and cleaned up XHTML
  • rankings, bot details and battle details now validate
• Separated PHP from HTML using Smarty templates
• Now using | TableSorter 2.0 to sort tables using javascript, instead of reloading the page
• Details page and LRP now using Elo ratings (was Glicko)
• Elo rankings seem to track APS ranking very closely; Glicko-2 is comparable, but Glicko rankings don't quite line up.

23-Oct-2008: 1 Million+ Served

• SVN Revision 31
• More query tweaks for speed, plus some debug options for me
• Crossed the 1,000,000 battle mark today!
• And I think we have full pairings in the main rumble... just a few bots missing 1 pairing in the minirumble
• There's a weird client bug that keeps uploading results for DrussGT 1.2.7 today?

• Looks like full pairings in each rumble, my client is currently filling up the battles in the microrumble to 700. --GrubbmGait 17:53, 24 October 2008 (UTC)
• Well, for sure not quite full pairings. Checking here it shows many/most bots still missing 1 to 2 pairings. Maybe some bot is missing for most/all clients running? --Rednaxela 20:13, 24 October 2008 (UTC)
• There are 647 bots in the main rumble, so full pairings = 646. Some bots have more than that because they haven't run a battle since I removed older bots after the importing was done (well, that's my theory). So it looks like only one bot is still missing a single pairing, all others >= 646. --Darkcanuck 01:53, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

21-Oct-2008: After the Upload

• SVN Revision 27.
• Importing all data from ABC's server is finally complete.
• Re-enabled bot removal function
  • Old bots (from import) now removed from rankings
  • Ranking data (eg. #pairings, aps) will update once each current bot gets at least one new battle
• Found and resolved another performance issue (now that we're nearing the million battle mark).
• Tweaked a few other database queries.

13-Oct-2008: LRP courtesy of ABC

• SVN Revision 25.
• Added ABC's amazing LRP plots.
• Slowly importing data; about 60% (?) done for the main rumble
• I have an idea to speed up scoring/uploads, but it's major work so not this week...

11-Oct-2008: Transitions

• SVN Revision 23.
• Based on | ABC's announcement, relaying is now turned off for faster uploads.
• Importing is still in progress:
  • Minirumble finished yesterday.
  • Roborumble is only 30% done, lots of battles still left
  • I also need to import any new battles since the 7th
• Importing is a great high-load test; improved upload speed in a few areas, but it can still slow down if several clients (including the importer) all try to upload simultaneously.
  • The bottleneck is the rating update process, querying all pairings for the two competitors is expensive.

7-Oct-2008: Import in Progress

• Finished testing import utility (just a Perl script) which takes battles_*.txt files and re-submits them to the server.
• All battle data from ABC's backup directory was imported to the new server this morning.
• Nanorumble data as of 15:30 PDT imported to new server (starting small).
• Currently importing Microrumble data... complete!
• Minirumble and Roborumble will take quite some time, I think. Normal results uploading may be slow during this period ... --Darkcanuck 01:19, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

6-Oct-2008: All Users Welcome

• SVN Revision 19
• Fixed a major bug introduced in rev 11 where new upload users could not be added.
• Tentative PL scoring column added to ranking table
• Added some additional stats to the details pages, including standard deviation for APS.
• Added import functionality; currently testing an import of ABC's data on my local test server.

5-Oct-2008: Sorting for Fun & Profit (+ Glicko-2)

• SVN Revision 14 15
• Pairing and battle detail views can now be sorted like the rankings view.
  • Finally you can group your worst ProblemBots together!
  • PBI, Expected scores still use Glicko ratings, looking for feedback now that both Elo & Glicko are displayed together.
• Added Glicko-2 ratings; uses existing Glicko rating as initial value. Let's see how this works out.

4-Oct-2008: Elo makes its debut

• SVN Revision 11
• Added Elo scoring based on old server's code.
  • Includes rating "jumpstart": bots with >50 battles start at an ideal rating based on APS.
  • This is causing slower uploads but should clear up once all bots get Elo ratings.
• Ratings updates now done after every upload (no more periodic update).
• Ratings use all available pairings for each update (slow, but this is the classic method).
• Streamlined battle results table to use only one record per battle (was two); user data now in separate table.
  • Table size down to 30% of previous.

27-Sep-2008: Setting Priorities

• Added priority pairings and battle number output to clients. I missed this last time around.
• Tweaked database performance for results uploading.
• Ratings rebuild has caught up, so rankings are now up-to-date within the last minute!
• Melee rankings are starting to fill out.
• Many thanks to GrubbmGait and [Darkstorm]] for generously contributing battles

25-Sep-2008: Build it and they will come?

• One week, 4 clients uploading without any major issues. 68,148 battles in the general rumble so far.
• No outstanding "known" bugs at this point (fingers crossed).
• Added Glicko ratings and flushed existing pairings & ratings yesterday. That means the ratings are still rebuilding, and will probably catch up sometime tomorrow.
• Added table sorting on the main rankings pages.
• Added support for melee (works) and teams (my client doesn't work for teams so this is untested).