Ava
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Hello all,
Earlier this week, we silently performed a maintenance to roll out our new server updating mechanism. Not only does the new update system perform more robustly in general, it also allows us to do something we've been wanting to do for a long time coming: beta servers.
What are beta servers?
Well, they're not too much different from the regular MCGamer servers you find yourself playing on. However, beta servers are usually running a newer version of our code than the main servers, meaning that they may contain new bug fixes, miscellaneous improvements, and potentially a few new bugs (but hey, that's the purpose of a beta, right?). Beta servers now comprise a small percentage of overall servers on our network - I'll explain how to identify a beta server in a bit.
What's the advantage to rolling these fixes out to a smaller subset of servers, instead of just releasing them to the entire network at once?
Good question, and there's two answers: scaling and quality control. Scaling is essentially making sure that a portion of code, or certain techniques, work well all the time: whether it's one server or one thousand servers, one hundred players or three thousand players, code that scales works well no matter what's thrown at it. Large Minecraft networks (and many other large systems) revolve around the concept of scaling, and at times, it can be difficult to tell how well something will scale when you have nothing to test it against. In addition, quality control is also a large factor: code that seems to be flawless and works fine with a few players might start acting a bit wonky with hundreds/thousands of players. By releasing our latest, cutting-edge changes to beta servers first, it helps us ensure quality before releasing to the entire network, and helps us release updates much more frequently, as it loosens up some of the restrictions and checks that deploying to production would involve.
TL;DR: It allows us to smooth some of the bugs out before releasing an update everywhere, and allows us to release updates on a much faster schedule than we'd be able to otherwise.
How do you identify a beta server?
In the game menu, beta servers are plainly identified when you hover your mouse over a server icon, as such:
When you're on a server, you can see whether or not it's a beta server by using the /xime command:
But I don't want to play on beta servers!
Beta participation is enabled for everyone by default, and we recommend leaving it enabled, as there's nothing to fear about beta servers. However, if you'd really like to opt-out of the beta program, use the /beta command in-game and read the instructions. Opting out of the beta program will leave you unable to join beta servers.
When will beta server changes come out to the regular servers?
We still aim to roll out changes to the regular ("stable") servers every week or two, so generally changes on the beta servers will appear on the stable servers within 1-2 weeks, at most.
I found a bug on a beta server! Where do I report it?
Please report it to our issue tracker, as with any other bug, but make sure to specify that it occurred on a beta server. Also, use the /bugreport command in-game if you can - this gives us some information that may help us resolve the issue.
Earlier this week, we silently performed a maintenance to roll out our new server updating mechanism. Not only does the new update system perform more robustly in general, it also allows us to do something we've been wanting to do for a long time coming: beta servers.
What are beta servers?
Well, they're not too much different from the regular MCGamer servers you find yourself playing on. However, beta servers are usually running a newer version of our code than the main servers, meaning that they may contain new bug fixes, miscellaneous improvements, and potentially a few new bugs (but hey, that's the purpose of a beta, right?). Beta servers now comprise a small percentage of overall servers on our network - I'll explain how to identify a beta server in a bit.
What's the advantage to rolling these fixes out to a smaller subset of servers, instead of just releasing them to the entire network at once?
Good question, and there's two answers: scaling and quality control. Scaling is essentially making sure that a portion of code, or certain techniques, work well all the time: whether it's one server or one thousand servers, one hundred players or three thousand players, code that scales works well no matter what's thrown at it. Large Minecraft networks (and many other large systems) revolve around the concept of scaling, and at times, it can be difficult to tell how well something will scale when you have nothing to test it against. In addition, quality control is also a large factor: code that seems to be flawless and works fine with a few players might start acting a bit wonky with hundreds/thousands of players. By releasing our latest, cutting-edge changes to beta servers first, it helps us ensure quality before releasing to the entire network, and helps us release updates much more frequently, as it loosens up some of the restrictions and checks that deploying to production would involve.
TL;DR: It allows us to smooth some of the bugs out before releasing an update everywhere, and allows us to release updates on a much faster schedule than we'd be able to otherwise.
How do you identify a beta server?
In the game menu, beta servers are plainly identified when you hover your mouse over a server icon, as such:
When you're on a server, you can see whether or not it's a beta server by using the /xime command:
But I don't want to play on beta servers!
Beta participation is enabled for everyone by default, and we recommend leaving it enabled, as there's nothing to fear about beta servers. However, if you'd really like to opt-out of the beta program, use the /beta command in-game and read the instructions. Opting out of the beta program will leave you unable to join beta servers.
When will beta server changes come out to the regular servers?
We still aim to roll out changes to the regular ("stable") servers every week or two, so generally changes on the beta servers will appear on the stable servers within 1-2 weeks, at most.
I found a bug on a beta server! Where do I report it?
Please report it to our issue tracker, as with any other bug, but make sure to specify that it occurred on a beta server. Also, use the /bugreport command in-game if you can - this gives us some information that may help us resolve the issue.