Server

Today one of the long pending updates has finally rolled out to the main grid. With any luck, it will work fine and a roll back can be avoided. So, what is in this new roll out?

Mono2

The big gun in this roll out is Mono2. Kelly Linden is generally blamed for the Mono2 Update… well… attributed is probably a better word. But, since no good deed goes unpunished… we can thank him while gathering tar and features. Whatever your feelings on Mono2, it has been a long time coming. Today it was rolled out to the main grid.

Mono2 is an update to the Linden Scripting Language (LSL) system. The original language is one created by Linden Lab for use in Second Life (SL). Scripts are used by residents to make things like doors open and teleports teleport. Scripts are written in a language. Many of you will have heard of JavaScript, which is used widely with web pages. LSL is a somewhat JavaScript like language used exclusively in Second Life with a dialect used in OpenSim (OSSL). I suppose one could say the relationship between JavaScript and LSL is a bit like English and Spanish being Latin based languages. Your ability to speak one does not allow you to speak the other, but any other Latin based language will be a bit easier to learn.

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The week of 6/12-18 there was not a main server roll out. The week of 6/19-25 we did get a roll out on the main grid. The roll out had the group chat fixes.

Group Chat

Group chat has been receiving attention. The Utility Servers were updated over a week ago. Now the region simulators are updated, a minor fix.

One of the Group Chat Problems found was the Utility Server for chat had to send chat messages to multiple people in a region. If ten people were in a region the server had to send ten copies of chat updates to the region. This change allows the utility server to send the sim one message and the simulator distributes the chat updates. This sim change is not something that makes a lot of difference to most users. But, any load taken off the utility servers running group chat helps.

The previous update to the utility servers has made a significant difference to group chat for everyone. Enough so that this alarming JIRA was filed: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-7031

The above image is a plot of chat messages (messages + group status updates) per minute sampled over one day. Each dot is one of the 16 utility nodes.

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The meeting notes from the Beta Server Group came out. There is some interesting stuff from the meeting. We got great information on CHAT. 🙂

Server Stability

The Lab has been working on what is labeled Server-Maint. This is a group of fixes and features that allow better roll out and problem recoveries. It has taken several tries and roll outs from the Release Channel had to be rolled back each time. The problems seems to have passed and Server-Maint. has made it to the main grid.

Mono2

This upgrade has been cycling through the Release Channel for 3 or 4 weeks now. This changes touches so many aspects of SL that it is a complex change. While performance of new scripts rezzing in a region has been greatly improved, avatars with hundreds of scripts are still a problem. The Lab was working on that last week and the new fixes are in testing on Le Tigre this week. If they prove up, they will make the main grid next week.

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Today we are getting new roll outs to the main grid and tomorrow release channels. There have been problems with recent releases for 3 or 4 weeks. Projects were rolled back, revised and retested on the release channels. Code for the introduction of mesh has and is being merged into the main code base during this time. It seems this has revealed a rash of problems that are being fixed. The result is the news about server upgrades is rather boring and vague.

Main Grid – AGNI

The changes rolling to the main grid are mostly what I’ll call backend changes, those we don’t really see. They affect our experience in terms of performance. But, there is nothing new like shadows or Display Names to see.

This release has the ever ubiquitous bug fixes.

The API (Application Programming Interface) for working with friends changes.  This is something those building applications for Second Life and viewers can make use of. For the rest of us, it has little relevance until others implement the use of it.

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The last two weeks have been hectic for the Lindens. Several updates to the server software did not work as expected and the crash rates went up. It seems those have been corrected and things are returning to the normal cycle of upgrades.

This week’s (today’s) roll out was stopped and rolled back part way through the process. Something went wrong.

Snack Release Channel

One of the code updates that is proving difficult to get working is the Mono2 upgrade. You probably remember it is the Mono scripts rezzing in a region that caused regions to stall for 5 to 30 seconds. That fix has been in progress since Mono was released. A couple of times now Mono2 updates and improvements have been rolled out and back. The Snack Release Channel is a special channel made up of just a few simulators on the main grid where the Mono2 changes can be tested.

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