Over the last couple of weeks, we have had the server crash because of insufficient memory. To remedy this problem, I propose that we lessen the number of worlds loaded at any given time. This does not imply that the world files would be deleted, but rather, that they would not be loaded and therefore not take up valuable(and expensive) memory. The worlds that I believe that we need to keep running include:

Spawn(the new one)
SG worlds
RS map
plotworld
builders only survival
builders only creative
Events map
parkour map
PvP overworld
PvP nether

Please note that worlds that have been taken off can be loaded and unloaded on command.

This list includes the ones we should include. However, I don't believe that we should include the nether or the end wherever possible. Also, props to Wadey by putting world expansion limits on.

So yeah, today I was on the server and was noticing that chat was very laggy(7 second delay). In response to this, I was using the /memory command and noticing that the TPS(Ticks-Per-Second) was very low; about 15(needed is 20). After this I was checking if any world had an insane number of entities; None did. After this one I was noticing that the TPS was 11 and the free memory was around 100MB(VERY LOW). Yet again, I check the status. 60MB left. At this point, I was telling everyone that the server was going to die; and then it did.

It ran out of memory. More importantly, I have been trying to figure out why, firstly why there is such high memory usage and why the TPS was down so low.

Since there was so much chat lag I was thinking that there was just packet delay time. This is when I tried the /memory command. From there I released that there was a heavy load on the server. The first thing I checked was the amount of people online. There were 6 of us. The next check I tried was to check if someone was spamming xp bottles as this takes up an insane amount of server time and memory. Sadly, there was no sign of this as when i used /remove on plotworld it only removed 3 items and 0 xp orbs. To check other worlds I just checked the entities in each world. None was above a normal amount. I am not entirely sure why these crashes are occurring. But i did do a timings check to see if any plugin was taking up any unreasonable amount of time. To see this file, check the timings folder using the FTP access.

I have tried a fix:
I tried setting the view-distance to 6 in the sever.props. The default is 10. We can change it back if we want in case we break things. This should help with the problem and free up a bit more memory.

Also. Please post another ticket to remove any file in the plugins or root folder with a \ in it. These are outdated and need to be removed.

For now. I believe that a daily, or even twice daily(using even intervals) stop and start. This would allow any wasted memory to be flushed and get Bukkit back on its feet. Please, Please don't just reload it as that's like punching Bukkit in the face. But its nice to let the people playing know or even use "/kickall come back in 1 minute".

So I was going to play on the server, but it crashed.

This this time it was not because of the Memory, but rather what we were dealing with.

java.lang.NullPointerException
at net.minecraft.server.World.tickEntities(World.java:1146)

I have no idea what this means. It may mean that there was a tick that was skipped. I have no clue. Although, here it when one player joins that this is thrown.

So, yet again, I wanted to play minecraft after school. To my surprise, the server crashed. *facepalm*

So i went and looked at the crash log. and, from the last crash only .1 MB was added. This means that the server crashed just a few hours after starting, if that. It is the same error as above.

Console output on server start before crash

2012-09-12 08:45:56 [INFO] Starting minecraft server version 1.3.1

I sure hope this is the right one
Console output from crash:

2012-09-13 00:52:58 [SEVERE] java.lang.NullPointerException
2012-09-13 00:52:58 [SEVERE] at net.minecraft.server.World.tickEntities(World.java:1146)
2012-09-13 00:52:58 [SEVERE] at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.q(MinecraftServer.java:565)
2012-09-13 00:52:58 [SEVERE] at net.minecraft.server.DedicatedServer.q(DedicatedServer.java:212)
2012-09-13 00:52:58 [SEVERE] at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.p(MinecraftServer.java:474)
2012-09-13 00:52:58 [SEVERE] at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.run(MinecraftServer.java:406)
2012-09-13 00:52:58 [SEVERE] at net.minecraft.server.ThreadServerApplication.run(SourceFile:539)
2012-09-13 00:52:58 [SEVERE] Encountered an unexpected exception NullPointerException
java.lang.NullPointerException
at net.minecraft.server.World.tickEntities(World.java:1146)
at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.q(MinecraftServer.java:565)
at net.minecraft.server.DedicatedServer.q(DedicatedServer.java:212)
at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.p(MinecraftServer.java:474)
at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.run(MinecraftServer.java:406)
at net.minecraft.server.ThreadServerApplication.run(SourceFile:539)
2012-09-13 00:52:58 [SEVERE] This crash report has been saved to: /home/minecraft/multicraft/servers/server461/./crash-reports/crash-2012-09-13_00.52.58-server.txt


One last thing. Before you start the server again PLEASE make a new server.log. It makes everyone's lives easier.

Server restarted with a new .log file

Having closed the creative plot world since yesterday, has the server since crashed? I forgot to check before leaving for work today.

When might the creative plots be re-opened again?

Just curious

I cant open them until I can figure out why they crash the server so much

So yeah, I completely unloaded and made a method of dealing with those who get teleported to the builder world. Now we can see if this is the problem.

On an off note i challenged people to get on top of the apocpony sign for a special prize!
THERE WILL BE NO SPOILERS!!!!

Also. If plotworld is loaded it means that there was a server restart. So try not to do that