# A History of EVE Database Server Hardware **URL:** \ **Category:** Dev Blogs\ **Tags:** official, devblog\ **Created:** [April 19, 2022, 3:00pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553 "2022-04-19T15:00:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Spc\_One](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/spc_one/32/399501_2.png) [@Spc\_One](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Spc_One)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 8:26am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/64 "2022-04-20T08:26:45Z")
Yes, Windows Server 2022 for azure, i agree. Still it’s nice to see what’s currently in use. ---
**Author:** ![Emotional\_Support\_Clown](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/emotional_support_clown/32/310422_2.png) [@Emotional\_Support\_Clown](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Emotional_Support_Clown)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 8:30am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/65 "2022-04-20T08:30:59Z")
So with luck, no more boot.ini overwriting, instead they will be clobbering Grub config files (if somebody is stupid enough to elevate to _root_, Windows didn’t protect boot.ini at all). If ever you needed a reason for a read only media protected boot partition, it’s Eve Online. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Ronuken](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/steve_ronuken/32/373894_2.png) [@Steve\_Ronuken](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Steve_Ronuken)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 8:47am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/66 "2022-04-20T08:47:26Z")
Migrating to a different database isn’t a small job. Especially when there’s a bunch of database procedures being used (which, I believe, there are in Eve.) You also may need to swap out your DBA staff, which is _far_ from a small change. ---
**Author:** ![Emotional\_Support\_Clown](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/emotional_support_clown/32/310422_2.png) [@Emotional\_Support\_Clown](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Emotional_Support_Clown)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 8:49am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/67 "2022-04-20T08:49:57Z")
> [@Steve\_Ronuken](#): > > Migrating to a different database isn’t a small job. So many flavours of SQL to choose from, dump SQL and use relational _calculus_. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Ronuken](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/steve_ronuken/32/373894_2.png) [@Steve\_Ronuken](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Steve_Ronuken)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 8:51am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/68 "2022-04-20T08:51:11Z")
Just making sure you’re aware: Pretty much the only thing running in python is the actual game mechanic code. Everything else has been running in something else for quite a long time. (ESI’s been heavily based in go for a long time now.) ---
**Author:** ![Emotional\_Support\_Clown](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/emotional_support_clown/32/310422_2.png) [@Emotional\_Support\_Clown](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Emotional_Support_Clown)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 8:51am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/69 "2022-04-20T08:51:45Z")
> [@Steve\_Ronuken](#): > > Pretty much the only thing running in python is the actual game mechanic code. Everything else has been running in something else for quite a long time. Time for that to _go_ too. 😏 ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Ronuken](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/steve_ronuken/32/373894_2.png) [@Steve\_Ronuken](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Steve_Ronuken)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 8:54am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/70 "2022-04-20T08:54:04Z")
I hope you realise how much additional work that would introduce to do. Work which would touch on most of the game experience. When you have to reimplement all the game mechanics. _All_ of them. ---
**Author:** ![Emotional\_Support\_Clown](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/emotional_support_clown/32/310422_2.png) [@Emotional\_Support\_Clown](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Emotional_Support_Clown)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 8:55am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/71 "2022-04-20T08:55:40Z")
Well, they’re pretty much gutting it anyway with Quasar? If not then it’s dancing around the elephant in the room at the periphery. ---
**Author:** ![CCP\_DeNormalized](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/ccp_denormalized/32/379927_2.png) [@CCP\_DeNormalized](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/CCP_DeNormalized)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 9:55am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/72 "2022-04-20T09:55:22Z")
Next blog will focus on the software side of the database config with all that fun stuff. ---
**Author:** ![CCP\_DeNormalized](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/ccp_denormalized/32/379927_2.png) [@CCP\_DeNormalized](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/CCP_DeNormalized)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 9:57am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/73 "2022-04-20T09:57:28Z")
Our next blog will focus on the software side, but you are right, it is Windows 2019 and it’s Standard. I don’t think the DC version gives us anything unless its being used as a hypervisor host. ---
**Author:** ![Komi\_Valentine](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/komi_valentine/32/502956_2.png) [@Komi\_Valentine](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Komi_Valentine)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 10:16am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/74 "2022-04-20T10:16:23Z")
Just the casual 32GB/s connection and 4TB Ram 120TB HDD… Almost as good as my laptop 🤣 Crazy how much you need to operate the biggest shared excel sheet in the world =^\_^= ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Ronuken](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/steve_ronuken/32/373894_2.png) [@Steve\_Ronuken](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Steve_Ronuken)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 10:20am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/75 "2022-04-20T10:20:54Z")
Yep. > **[Comparison of Standard and Datacenter editions Windows Server 2019](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started/editions-comparison-windows-server-2019)** > > Comparison of Standard and Datacenter editions of Windows Server 2019. Main use of datacentre is to license whatever host you’re running more than 7 windows server vms on. ---
**Author:** ![Emotional\_Support\_Clown](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/emotional_support_clown/32/310422_2.png) [@Emotional\_Support\_Clown](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Emotional_Support_Clown)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 10:31am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/76 "2022-04-20T10:31:31Z")
If only Linux / Bsd had a server/data center capability and could run VMs. ---
**Author:** ![CCP\_DeNormalized](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/ccp_denormalized/32/379927_2.png) [@CCP\_DeNormalized](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/CCP_DeNormalized)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 10:34am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/77 "2022-04-20T10:34:33Z")
we’re indeed heavily invested in stored procs - not to mention a few enterprise edition features of MSSQL - in particular table partitions for swapping out entire blocks of data for deletes. Dev Teams are and have been using other database tech for their features for some years now however, so we’re far from ONLY using MS SQL. There’s at least CosmosDB/PostGres and a few other cloud based managed DB services being used. Horses for courses and such ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Ronuken](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/steve_ronuken/32/373894_2.png) [@Steve\_Ronuken](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Steve_Ronuken)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 10:42am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/78 "2022-04-20T10:42:03Z")
if you’re running windows VMs, you still need to license them, regardless of the virtualization software in use. By licensing the underlying hardware with datacentre edition (regardless of if it’s actually installed there) you’re covered for an infinite number of windows VMs on that hardware. Standard edition is 2 VMs per set of licenses. It’s cheaper for like 6 vms, but there’s a switchover after that. The joys of licensing. ---
**Author:** ![Emotional\_Support\_Clown](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/emotional_support_clown/32/310422_2.png) [@Emotional\_Support\_Clown](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Emotional_Support_Clown)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 10:42am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/79 "2022-04-20T10:42:47Z")
So which is more reliable? AWS or Azure? CosmosDB is Azure, chat is on AWS? ---
**Author:** ![Emotional\_Support\_Clown](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/emotional_support_clown/32/310422_2.png) [@Emotional\_Support\_Clown](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Emotional_Support_Clown)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 10:47am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/80 "2022-04-20T10:47:01Z")
> [@Steve\_Ronuken](#): > > if you’re running windows VMs, you still need to license them The goal is to reduce dependency on that 😏 Using their cloud services and infrastructure is one thing, being trapped into a proprietary non-relocatable stack is another. > [@Steve\_Ronuken](#): > > The joys of licensing. And probably why MS won’t do Qt on .Net MAUI due to the Qt commercial dual license (everybody else uses Skia). Licensing is great when it works for you, not so great when it doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![CCP\_DeNormalized](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/ccp_denormalized/32/379927_2.png) [@CCP\_DeNormalized](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/CCP_DeNormalized)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 11:07am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/81 "2022-04-20T11:07:53Z")
I’ve not done any real in-depth checking into which is more stable. They both seem fairly reliable though and I’d guess instability comes more from us changing things and bugs being fixed/introduced than actual underlining platform issues. It’s difficult to baseline and compare things over time when the code base changes daily ---
**Author:** ![Emotional\_Support\_Clown](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/emotional_support_clown/32/310422_2.png) [@Emotional\_Support\_Clown](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Emotional_Support_Clown)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 11:59am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/82 "2022-04-20T11:59:15Z")
On the `exefile.exe` process there is a parameter called `/machinehash`, what is the parameters (presumabily made up of values identifying my machine) of that value and algorithm used to compute the hash and what is the purpose of it? It’s a short hash (32-bit) so a weakish algorithm (MD5? Truncated SHA-1?)? This would qualify as _PII_ wouldn’t it under the GDPR (as far as I can read it is qualifying as PII as pseudonymisation is not the same anonymisation and can be used to identify as per _Recital 26_ of the GDPR, even if you cannot reverse the hash, you can still attribute it to an individual, even individuals whom have no account with you if using another machine). From the [Privacy Policy - CCP Games](https://www.ccpgames.com/privacy-policy/) ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/original/4X/4/f/d/4fdefa5f6b3c3991b1a4d990085b1469ce627d5f.png) Which data components are making up the machine hash and how would using Wine on Linux affect that? If we change hardware configuration, so what? That means one component would need to involve the client hash in order to determine unauthorised modifications, so why not just use the client hash? That’s IF the purpose is as per privacy policy statement, to detect unauthorised clients. Knowing the machine configuration says nothing about the legitimacy of the client code. The keywords here in the CCP declaration of purpose of use are ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/original/4X/6/7/6/676dd9481e72e75690669b206888969ed64eb872.png) That seems to be _overreach_ and outside the stated declared purpose. The items listed cannot be used to determine legitimacy (approved by CCP) of the running game software. It also states **may** , however this value is passed in **EVERY** time the game client is launched. That contradicts itself. However, it very well can be used to fingerprint and identify an individual (which is not what that privacy policy section is declaring). ---
**Author:** ![Yonniya\_Rainor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/yonniya_rainor/32/350908_2.png) [@Yonniya\_Rainor](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Yonniya_Rainor)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 12:00pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553/83 "2022-04-20T12:00:50Z")
As a system administrator of several IBM servers, I’m fascinated by game server architecture and would love to take a walk in CCP’s data centre! [Previous page](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553.md?page=3) [Next page](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/a-history-of-eve-database-server-hardware/358553.md?page=5)