Automatic Tournament Cancellation By BBO

[azi]

Hello,

 

For the past 2 days our tournament was cancelled by BBO

at the starting time giving an error of too many players ?!?

 

Please note the the tournament was set with a maximum of 30

and at the starting time there were much less players registered

for the tourney.

 

Appreciate your help.

[snef]

We had the same issue yesterday.

[paulg]

BBO were not permitting free tournaments to start between 10am and 6pm EDT. Is this the problem?

[snef]

BBO were not permitting free tournaments to start between 10am and 6pm EDT. Is this the problem?

 

Yeah, it was started between 10am and 6pm EDT.

Someone knows where can I find the restrictions on free tournaments?

[paulg]

Yeah, it was started between 10am and 6pm EDT.

Someone knows where can I find the restrictions on free tournaments?

That is a good question. It was on BBO News but has slipped off, so I don't know where it is now. If barmar reads this he may be able to help.

 

But the restriction was no free tournaments between 10am and 6pm EDT and outside this time would be limited to 20 tables (40 pairs, 80 individuals).

[0 carbon]

I've seen 46K players around 2pmEDT - but 11k around 10pmEDT.

Why not go back to original 800 limit when players <20k?

[barmar]

The change to the server to change limits at different times of days is going in tonight.

[azi]

Is there only a time limit or limited number of tourneys ?

[scarletv]

We could avoid some trouble when we would know when we can setup which size of tourney.

 

We moved already a lot of our tourneys to the morning and afternoon to reduce the load.

[barmar]

This was announced yesterday in News:

 

https://blog.bridgebase.com/2020/04/09/free-tournaments-unavailable-between-1pm-and-5pm-us-eastern-time/?v3b=web&v3v=5.4.0

 

Free tournaments are cancelled between 1pm and 5pm Eastern time.

[snef]

This was announced yesterday in News:

 

https://blog.bridgebase.com/2020/04/09/free-tournaments-unavailable-between-1pm-and-5pm-us-eastern-time/?v3b=web&v3v=5.4.0

 

Free tournaments are cancelled between 1pm and 5pm Eastern time.

 

Is there still a limit of 40 tables (if we organise it outside 1pm-5pm)?

I noticed when starting a tourney we can again change the maximum number above 40, but if I look at the running tournaments all seem to have lower than 40 tables.

I don't want to risk a canceled tourney, but don't want to turn down pairs.

I find it difficult to know what is allowed and what not.

[barmar]

I just checked the configuration file, and the limit for free tourneys is set to 40 tables.

[novice02]

I wonder whether it sounds mindful to post such important information where those who need to know learn about it immediately. I know, my request sounds weird. But it might avoid the bad reputation that BBO is currently getting for handling the situation. Seriously!

[criptik]

Also if a free tournament starts before 1pm EDT but finishes after 1pm EDT, is that allowed?

[barmar]

Also if a free tournament starts before 1pm EDT but finishes after 1pm EDT, is that allowed?

Yes, we only check at start time.

[willemm]

So, how long is this going to last? Is the problem with server capacity? How difficult can it be to increase the server capacity in the age of cloud computing? Surely, money can't really be the issue as cloud based servers are dead cheap, and easy to set up, and also all those extra people online must bring in some extra revenue. Sounds like a serious architecture flaw to me, if a tripling of the number of users causes so many problems.

 

Would it be possible to have to separate servers, if the server configuration makes it tricky to increase capacity?

[barmar]

We've run up against some hard capacity limits for the current design.

 

We're actually working on a solution to split the system into multiple servers -- one for main bridge club and another for tournaments. But there are a number of issues that will have to be worked out to make this work, so it's going to take at least a week to get it working.

[Sir John D]

We've run up against some hard capacity limits for the current design.

 

We're actually working on a solution to split the system into multiple servers -- one for main bridge club and another for tournaments. But there are a number of issues that will have to be worked out to make this work, so it's going to take at least a week to get it working.

 

A friend went on to the BBO web site today and noticed that during the afternoon (UK time), there were just under 46 thousand players online and about 100 free tournaments set up to start by 5.45pm (BST). Yesterday, there were similar number of players but in the evening (UK time), there were not many free tournaments. So, it would seem that there is capacity to cope with a huge number of players AND tournaments. This is great news.

 

So, when will BBO be lifting their ban on UK free tournaments that start between 1pm to 5pm (EST) (6pm to 10pm British Summer Time)?

 

I am sure that BBO Management will appreciate that not everyone wants to play in the English Bridge Union tournaments that have been introduced since March 2020 and although they are available at 7.30pm (BST) and 9.00pm (BST), many BBO players would prefer to give their allegiance to the tournaments that have been in existence for many, many years.

 

It is good to see so many free tournaments still being allowed but now we know that the capacity exists to cope with the volume, UK players look forward to supporting the long established bridge tournaments, again.

 

A big thank you to all those that give their time for free in these strange times and to all those on the the uncertain front line.

 

To all, keep safe

[barmar]

So, when will BBO be lifting their ban on UK free tournaments that start between 1pm to 5pm (EST) (6pm to 10pm British Summer Time)?

Probably not until we split the service in two: one server for Main/Casual Bridge Club, another server for everything else. This is going to take some time. We already know how to run separate BBO services, but they don't have access to the BB$ accounts, which are needed to be able to rent robots. We need to solve this problem.

 

There's a hard limit on the total of users + robots + tables. And when a tourney starts, all the tables that are needed add to that total. We've been hitting that limit during prime time, preventing more users from logging in.

[adamw]

Probably not until we split the service in two: one server for Main/Casual Bridge Club, another server for everything else. This is going to take some time. We already know how to run separate BBO services, but they don't have access to the BB$ accounts, which are needed to be able to rent robots. We need to solve this problem.

 

There's a hard limit on the total of users + robots + tables. And when a tourney starts, all the tables that are needed add to that total. We've been hitting that limit during prime time, preventing more users from logging in.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

It sounds as though BBO is running its own servers. If that's the case have you considered moving to a cloud computing model? It offers a number of advantages, especially with scaling, and relatively few drawbacks. But you would need software changes regardless, so I know it won't happen overnight.

[barmar]

Thanks for the info!

 

It sounds as though BBO is running its own servers. If that's the case have you considered moving to a cloud computing model? It offers a number of advantages, especially with scaling, and relatively few drawbacks. But you would need software changes regardless, so I know it won't happen overnight.

We're quite aware of the technologies available, and we use a number of them: Heroku, Cloudflare, Amazon AWS and RDS.

 

But our main server is a 20-year-old, 32-bit C application that can't take advantage of cloud computing.

[pescetom]

But our main server is a 20-year-old, 32-bit C application that can't take advantage of cloud computing.

 

And it sounds like someone wanted to save 16 of those precious 32 bits to identify each user too B-)

[barmar]

And it sounds like someone wanted to save 16 of those precious 32 bits to identify each user too B-)

No, it's just the size of an array of pointers to the structure with information about each user. Before the crisis it was 30000, now it's 64500. Each user uses around 1800 bytes of memory, so it adds up. The server is currently using about 2.5GB of virtual memory -- it can't scale much higher without being converted to 64 bit mode.

 

Another limitation is that the original Windows downloads the list of all users online, and it has a 16-bit field for the player numbers, so it will crash if there are more than 65K users. We've been brainstorming solutions to this, but what we'd really like to do is get rid of those users, but it's still needed for Vugraph.

[Sir John D]

Probably not until we split the service in two: one server for Main/Casual Bridge Club, another server for everything else. This is going to take some time. We already know how to run separate BBO services, but they don't have access to the BB$ accounts, which are needed to be able to rent robots. We need to solve this problem.

 

There's a hard limit on the total of users + robots + tables. And when a tourney starts, all the tables that are needed add to that total. We've been hitting that limit during prime time, preventing more users from logging in.

 

 

When I asked when BBO was going to lift the limit of free tournaments as it looked like capacity during the evening was similar to earlier in the day, I did not expect them to shift the time. The UK are just trying to adjust to the times you gave in the first place, which of course will shift the volume. When I ask for BBO Help, the reply is more to do with letting clubs that make money have priority even if they have only been established since March 2020. On here, the problem is traffic using the BBO Site.

 

There is a message in the News in the BBO Club and a link to a message dated 1st April asking those in the UK to play from 11pm at night until 9am the next day (ie the best time to play). When I first saw that, I thought it was an April Fool. Is it for real? Does anyone from the UK play during the night?

 

What is the actual problem? I am not a computer expert, but when I see the same capacity of Users online AND a vast number of free tournaments, then I do not understand why it cannot be done in the evening with the same capacity of Users.

 

Please can someone help me understand as I have to field the complaints I am getting from Users who want to play in their usual tournaments.

 

Plus, if you do respond, then I would be grateful if you could use thick crayon.

 

Keep safe

[0 carbon]

We're quite aware of the technologies available, and we use a number of them: Heroku, Cloudflare, Amazon AWS and RDS.

 

But our main server is a 20-year-old, 32-bit C application that can't take advantage of cloud computing.

 

But there are servers these days available from AMD and Intel and SSDs which are 100-1,000x faster than when BBO started.

Can't you migrate to a server with max RAM, Optane SSD, and max cores?