[SUGGESTION]Make MoP and Cataclysm work under one hood

MyTurn

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Basically as the title says, we have one database running both world and auth servers.
Possibly make this a VIP feature (??)

For instance, our server team wants both MoP and Cataclysm to work.
 

Mr. Satan

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Basically as the title says, we have one database running both world and auth servers.
Possibly make this a VIP feature (??)

For instance, our server team wants both MoP and Cataclysm to work.

Sorry for the late reply but,
I'm not too sure what you mean?
If you mean under the same MySQL server, I don't think that's a good idea as it would probably be resource demanding. It would probably be very laggy for both Cata and MoP players, and would take some rework in both the sources to get it be compatible.
It's best to just run 2 servers, preferably on different systems, but at least separate. You can change the port of 1 of the MySQL servers so they can both be ran at the same time.
 

MyTurn

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I heard differently somewhere else, but unfortunately can't find the source of it anymore.
A commenter explained how to do it by adding the value of what's missing in one pack, and thus you can make 2 different expansions run on one auth server.

It's been a year since I found that thread, so I don't really recall what I had to do specifically. But there were some steps to it.
 

Lingx

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I heard differently somewhere else, but unfortunately can't find the source of it anymore.
A commenter explained how to do it by adding the value of what's missing in one pack, and thus you can make 2 different expansions run on one auth server.

It's been a year since I found that thread, so I don't really recall what I had to do specifically. But there were some steps to it.

Some digging around led me to this thread: http://www.ac-web.org/forums/showthread.php?228411-Multiple-expansions-1-Auth-server

Sounds like the thread you’re mentioning :good:
 

friencl

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Basically as the title says, we have one database running both world and auth servers.
Possibly make this a VIP feature (??)

For instance, our server team wants both MoP and Cataclysm to work.

Please correct me if I am wrong:
Do you mean that you want to combine the databases of auth servers with different versions to the same database so that players from different game servers can login with their unique account? This is possible if you can ensure that their table structures are same and the current usernames are completely not repeated.
 

tagban

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I mean, as long as all identical IDs are the same item, npc, monster, etc. It should work? But as said above, you're going to make the SQL server work twice as hard. THe suggestion of putting it on more than 1 system is ideal. I run an FFXI server and also run a SWG server, which the SWG server pings the Database more than FFXI surprisingly.

But I also run it on a heavy duty gaming rig with 64gb ram and unlocked Core i7.
 

Jenniy

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[ DISCLAIMER: This is a bit if a lengthy post - I may tend to over explain things; Also the information herein is based solely on the research I have personally done and may contain some fallacies that I am unaware of.]





I'm not sure if you've got this resolved or not at this point, but I figure I'll add my two cents to this in case it can still help someone.

First and foremost; I've made a couple posts around the forum here about similar topics related to combining databases for multiple servers - specifically on the same physical server.
(See the following links for reference.)

- How to run multiple 'realms' on the same physical server
- My past configuration of WoW Emulators using the same Auth server.

Long story short; it is very much possible to combine certain databases when hosting multiple servers, if you make sure none of them try to read/write conflicting data in the same tables.

When you really look into it, MySQL is very fungible in what you can do regarding databases. It is, in fact, possible to have multiple applications (such as a WoW Auth. server and Minecraft permissions plugin (as an arbitrary example)) that point to the same database but reference completely different tables within it, never touching each others' information. That said, there are certainly scenarios where conflicts between multiple programs trying to manipulate the same database will end very poorly.

In our immediately relevant use case, the three relevant databases for any particular WoW Emu. server have unique functionality when introduced to other, similar game servers:

- Firstly; the 'World' database - which contains all the information about NPC and item statistics as well as some localization of text for different languages, among other things. Given that this is mostly referenced for information instead being written to, it (from my experience) is pretty safe to allow multiple server instances to point at it at the same time without any conflicts. This will only work, however, for game servers running the same patch version of WoW (3.3.5a, 4.3.4, 5.4.8, etc.) as the content from each expansion pack is drastically different and the server(s) couldn't parse the disparate information. It is also not a possibility to, as mentioned above, combine multiple servers' 'World' databases into a single unified one as they do share the same tables and will thusly also encounter the aforementioned conflicts. With that said, using a single 'World' database when trying to run multiple similar/identical servers can be very useful to reduce CPU and RAM usage and simplify updates & patching between them.

- The second 'Character' database is pretty straightforward - This is what store all the data unique to a server (Characters, inventories, AH listings, raid/dungeon timers, etc.) and shouldn't ever have have more than one server pointing to it.
(A possible exception to this would be if you were testing different server .exe programs and want to compare them against each other using the exact same environment.)

- Lastly, what this thread is really about, the 'Authentication' database. First a bit of background: From all the information I've found scattered around I can say with relative confidence that every WoW server emulator (which I could find a source for) is at its core, built upon MaNGOS - the Massive Network Game Object Server (which, itself, technically isn't exclusive to WoW and can be used to create emulations of other MMOs' server-side). What this means is that the root of 'all' (as far as I've discovered) WoW emulators share the same method for storing and authenticating game accounts. Therefor, in theory, any WoW server emulator (and matching client) should be able to point at a singular authentication server & database (and vice versa) allowing user connections and redirection, regardless of which version* of WoW they are connecting from. ( I have not testing any version above 7.3.5 yet to see if this holds true for more recent updates as well.)
P.S.
Despite sharing a common base for their authentication, many server Cores / .EXEs have additional functions added in, such as a cash shop, VIP ranks, ticketing queues, and other account-based systems that use additional non-standard tables in the 'Auth' database to keep track of that information. If you are wanting to incorporate any of these such specialized 'Cores', just make sure to add their additional table(s) to your database beforehand.



Tl;dr -
You can totally use the same authentication server / database as a unified login for a variety of WoW server emulators, so long as you don't try anything too extreme.
 
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