SteamID

SteamID updates - Nov-2021 (Hardware & Backend)

Its been a while since I have done an update, While there has been updates here and there to the website front end the majority of work has been done in the background.

The site has been supporting between 500 to 700 users online at once and staying online, mainly bots but a lot of work has been made to get the site more stable. We have multiple databases now driving SteamID day to day along with its own management website / controller which has been written and slowly day by day tasks...

SteamArchive shutting down

After having a discussion with a few people, I've made the decision to shut down SteamArchive at the end of this month. This has been a fun project and I've sunk days , weeks, months, years into this and it wasn't long ago it almost shut down but i invested into it and kept it going. The increasing costs and management needed for this site means i am loosing focus on SteamID,

 I have also received a few messages of displeasure on SteamArchive, while its been amazing for catching sc...

Hardware update - March update 2 of 2

There has been quite a few updates to the SteamID network in terms of hardware.

lets start off with the bad bit, I managed to somehow drop a stick of memory while upgrading a server breaking the CPU socket…, Anyway onto the good bits

A few updates back I posted up the new SteamArchive server which can take 32 hard drives, Sadly this is now being sold. I had a offer I could not refuse and the cost of this server means more than just a single server update and overall less run...

Recent updates / Performance update 1 of 2

SteamID Performance – March update part 1 of 2

For the last number of months I have been optimizing SteamID as well as rolling out new features, bug fixes and tweaks.  Around 2-3 weeks ago now I made some major changes and so far, the site seems to be reacting a lot quicker. I need to say another thankyou to Trav who has picked up queries on Discord which allows me to crack on with server, network and site stuff.

The main database has seen significant performance increase...

Profile Tag & Compare

The image above isn’t very easy on the eye but just adding in the changes in a visual form, I have added the ability to "Tag" a profile which means any other profile you view will have sections of data to compare and then highlight.

For example,
Namehistory of the tagged user will be checked against other profiles you are viewing.

Historic URL changes are checked with keywords from the tagged players previous name history.

Current groups and group history will be chec...

SteamArchive + Stability updates

Hi All,

After my last post, you may have seen SteamID went down again for a full rebuild… But that comes with good news, we have over 3 days of up-time without any issues, No random lock ups other than myself working on the main database -  Avatar history is back, The database has been optimized a little more and its looking good. All servers are powered up and the new database server is taking it well.

I saw an opportunity to get a 32 bay server which will give SteamArchiv...

Updates & Reliability and performance

Hi All,

Not sure where to start this post, For those who follow on discord you will see what an absolute nightmare the last few weeks and months have been for SteamID and my extremely bad luck, Ill start with the problems then ill jot down how this has been overcome – remember none of this is possible without YOU – the support for SteamID is what keeps this running, and new hardware.

Issues:

It started with the primary database server having an nvme dr...

Player summary text searching

A bit earlier than expected, With the last of the new memory for the server on its way i stood up two new virtual machines now maxing the memory out to allow the fast text searching of player profile summary's. More updates on the main server(s) to come..

So, there is a new feature which is being tested for silver patreons and it works in the same way the player name history text search does but it allows text searching of player profile summary's.

There are many use cases for thi...

Hardware changes and a bit of info about running SteamID

Someone mentioned I should film changes but to be quite honest i don’t have a good camera, stand or space around the rack and other kit I have or not yet at least. I see people complain about the “paywall” which SteamID has and I’m only in it for the money. But I want to write a short post explaining what really goes into running SteamID / SteamArchive. While they are two websites there’s a fair amount of kit and servers behind it. With the size of the database(s) any managed “clo...

Team Patreon Tier

The team patreon tier is in place and ready for testing, This has come about after requests to allow other team members have access to search though historical records to help manage teams , communities and servers. 

A team will need to be setup on SteamID  https://steamid.uk/new-team/  and you will have to invite your users into this, With a team pledge you can then select what members get the listed pe...

Little rack update

I moved the firewall out with the servers (machine running pfsense... its brilliant) since the video i done what is now years back a fair bit has changed. the T610 has gone, The fiber & fiber switch has gone. the EMC san has gone, the rack server in the video caught fire... so thats on the bench in parts - that wont ever be coming back not worth the risk.

I now have some new (Used / ones ive sap parts built up) servers, the main host as the top is full of drives with one spare bay w...

Another server and 9TB of drives

I've been struggling for storage for a while now, I managed to snag a dell R720 with 16 SFF slots which came today, along with 10 x 900GB 2.5 inch SASs drives and i should have another 10 x 900GB SASs drives coming with a few left over for hot spares / spares.  SteamArchive.net i was going to shut down at the end of this month but i set myself of a goal of screenshotting every banned profile there is... with almost 24 million vac bans in the database themselves, thats some serious storag...

Available community URL Searching

I have implemented crawlers this morning to start finding available, previously used community URLs and allowed searching though this for silver+ patreons.

I have thought about a warning system where you could subscribe and get notifications when one drops or becomes available. Although that wont be implemented just yet (if it does that is)

The feature can be found here:

https://steamid...

A thank you & Server update(s)

Thank you for continued patreon support for SteamID, Both new users and long term users. Patreon users who persistently pledge month to month have allowed me to expand out the SteamID network over the months.

You may have noticed prior to the last 5-6 days the servers had been running a lot slower than usual, even after the initial new database server move. The primary database sits on a server with a pair of 1TB NVME drives and there is currently ample space for it to grow into however...

Webserver upgrade

Hopefully SteamID should be a bit quicker now, I've invested in a new web server. Two front end webservers are running side by side at the moment with one active. the ability to load balance is in place if needed, The back end servers are still running really well.

Avatar Searching

The avatar searching feature on SteamID will be retired at the end of this month and will no longer be available. This does not effect any of the other perks you get for being a patreon. 

Bronze has changed

If you are a current patron, you do not have to worry your support teir has not changed.

Going forwards, Bronze patron will not have the avatar lookup, Any current pledges will retain this feature. The data limits have changed, Again if you pledged before you retain the old higher limits.

New off-site host - 32 threads 192 GB Ram

So i set about building a new host as i was scratching stuff to disk, I managed to get hold of a dell R620 where the Idrac and LifeCycle controller didn't work, I got idrac working but it needed a new motherboard, So i managed to get hold of a cheap used V2 motherboard, swapped everyting over and we were winning 

I bought some more Ram and swapped some out of another host to give me 192GB - plenty for now

I also bought a pair of intel 2650 V2 CPUs , 8 core 16 threads each - w...

Group text searching - Name URL , Tag

using the off-site servers i have enabled Group text searching for Bronze+ Patreons

This allows you to search Group name , URL , Tag and pull back a list of groups

Along side this, SteamArchive.net is taking screenshots of all groups as i understand recently there has been a post on Reddit about 3 digit groups being recovered 

Give away!

All patrons get auto entered into any patron only giveaways

https://steamid.uk/giveaways/

Server down - text searching

Apologies  if you're trying to text search, I'm in another country and there's been a power cut where i have the off site patreon services, Battery backup didn't last till shut down by the looks of it

I'm hoping to have this back up tomorrow late, worst case if something is damaged i have backups which can be brought back online on another host although it also looks as if the SteamID firewall stuff is dead so hopefully its just that as i've had the wife check over things... it is so lock...

Remove Friend Tracker

I forgot to mention, A SteamID user & Patreon user came up with an idea of being able to have a Date of someone removing you from the friends list.

I have now implemented this for Bronze+ Patrons for those who have a public profile / friends list

How does this work?

Your friends list is loaded Daily and current friends marked with a date that SteamID has seen it with, When the friend is removed the last date remains and the friend record is marked as "current friend = 0".

*Back Online - Name History searching

*Currently looking into an issue for Name History searching not working for Patrons - Looks like that server blue screened and now the services wont come back up...

SteamID offsite servers

Quick unplanned video of the rack which has had some recent upgrades.
If Patreon kicks off, I would love to buy some new gear and get rid of some of the older gear!

SSDs are here!

SSD's are here for namehistory text searching and some other bits - Hop fully wont be long before i find a method to implement this without making the database fall over!