So, let me start by saying that this is not a complaint thread, I never expect to play on Tuesdays. It’s a learning thread, I’m genuinely curious as to what goes on behind the scenes on patch day. With all the automation tools available, copying code doesn’t take too long so, what else happens? I assume there are some backups taken, maybe some smoketesting before the servers go live. Network maintenance? Hardware replacements/service? Just curious.
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When I was your age I had to walk uphill in a snowstorm to pick up my patch, and it was a stack of floppy disks, and they only came out once a year, if that, and I was glad to have them! It was better than my Dad’s day when he got his patches via morse code over the telegraph station a two day’s ride away by horseback!
ETA: This particular patch, they have to do a complete reorg on the system-wide bank database. And it has to be the live database re-orged, because they have to account for the item somebody dropped in their bank 5 seconds before the system went down for maintenance. That’s a huge undertaking.
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I have no idea what I’m talking about, but I imagine that updating the build on all of the public servers, making some relatively big sweeping changes to game systems such as the bank, and doing some cursory checks to make sure everything isn’t completely broken in the process takes some time.
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Imagine multiple data centers around the world working in conjunction for a patch that could go horribly wrong if anything is messed up. Databases have to be checked, hardware checked, and all the mint oreos set out for the server goblins.
This ain’t your grandmas internet server for solitaire it’s an international patch fiesta.
And it has to work flawlessly at an esports level as well.
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I’ve seen this question pop up so often. The blizz fanboys all come to the defense on the downtimes without ever tactfully answering this question in any form of detail
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The goblins are taking our stuff from the bank to somewhere safe. After the changes, they’ll bring everything back. It takes a while cause it’s too many things.
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Like you have some detailed list of operations and timetables to explain why it should take less time? lol
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Takes a while to load up the coal in the servers to start em up again
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Blizzard has around 27 data servers around the world, this houses a minimum 40k servers - per google. Now, to upload a file and distribute that file to all other data centers and then proceed to update each server. This is a lot of time. Depending on their upload/download speeds. Then like someone else said, if a file corrupts they then have to perform a multitude of diagnostics to figure out where in the code it had failed.
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At the end of the day, to put it simplisticly, WoW is just one big giant databse that the client sends and receives data to and from.
Latest patch involves the migration of an entire data set for every single character that exists in the entire game across every server for the bank rollout so its going to take some time because the sheer size of the data migration and the fact it can only go so fast means its going to take a bit.
A good chunk of it is likely sitting on reddit waiting for data to finish copying.
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I would wager, I’m actually much older. I’ve had to change out reel tapes, run batch processing on an AS/400. So, I think you’re missing the meaning to my post. I don’t care how long it takes, I can find other stuff to do, play another game, clean my fish tank, catch up on shows. But, I deploy software for my current company so, I’m actually fascinated and curious as to the process as it relates to this game.
ETA: That makes sense, I’m just a curious sort.
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The database is large so a backup snapshot takes a while to make and verify.
Every server needs the new code and files copied to it then applied then verified.
Also patches don’t always apply correctly, it can go wrong on any machine too. small errors can be manually fixed but large ones you roll back the patch and try again. (this would be the main reason maintenance gets extended, and why sometimes a feature is left out for a later date)
<and as others also pointed out the servers are not all in the same place, so there is file transfer time to different datacenters around the world>
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Which is funny, because it works far from perfect and people still want to white knight for blizzard. Many games are doing updates better and faster now, blizzard needs to update to modern times. Its not 2000 anymore xD
So why can bigger and more intensive programs handle updates faster and with less downtime? Just weird that WoW seems to be the only entity that has chosen to remain archaic with updating in general.
How long does it take to update your PC when it gets a patch? Now multiply that by a couple million accounts.
Unless you get a job in their data center, you’re not going to get any more detail than that.
I remember keypunch machines. The big 20-pound boxes of cards that represented a few lines of data in a single program that maybe spanned about 2-3K of memory capacity.
Do you 'member?
Who is doing a major patch deployment for a massive mmo like WoW better?
I am curious what the people defending Blizzard for their patch day downtime would say if their cell provider or internet provider did the same thing as Blizzard every week.
what form of detail do you expect from people who do not have access to the systems and processes in question?
Because most online games arent WoW sized MMOs and have trivial amounts of data to migrate between updated and its mostly client side stuff that needs to be updated.
Im not saying they cant do better - they most definitely can and really should but also some things just take a long time and there is no getting around it.