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<<< Back To Articles The Hardware Behind the Scenes
Have you ever wondered what kind of computing power it takes to run an online casino? We often discuss players' hardware configurations to optimize their play, but what do operators have to do to efficiently deliver games to players? In this article, we'll take a look at some of the hardware behind the scenes. The Major Functions Every online casino system must be capable of performing 4 major functions: 1) serving the website, 2) interacting with the player, 3) data storage, 4) casino management. In many installations, each of these functions is handled by a separate server, but it is also common to combine certain groups of the functions into a single machine. In the largest installations, certain of these functions may even be split among several servers to handle the volume. Serving the Website Most online gamblers will associate the website with the operation of the casino. In fact, the casino's web server may reside in a completely different location from both the casino operations and the other servers. This is because the web server is optimized for different functions than the other servers; it often makes sense to put it in a hosting facility that is geared to these functions. Even though the website may be at a different location than the other servers, it is important for it to be able to communicate with the database server, since it is the job of the web server to track the sources of the traffic, including making sure the right affiliate gets linked to the right player. Web servers will generally run either Windows 2000 or Linux operating systems. Interacting with the Player The game server is responsible for processing the games, generating the random results (including shuffling, simulating dice, etc.) communicating the results to the player, receiving player decisions (such as hit/stand), and storing those results in the database. It is the server in which the actual gaming takes place. Game servers are designed to handle hundreds or thousands of simultaneous games. Game servers will generally run either Windows 2000 or Linux operating systems, and most software developers have custom, proprietary protocols for communications between their casino software game client and the game server. Data Storage The database server is the heart of the casino operation. It will store every possible detail of each game and player that you can imagine, including every card ever dealt, each die thrown, date and time stamps of all events, records of credits, debits, times logged in, and a whole lot more. Some casino software also records fun mode games. Of course, with all of this detail, these servers need storage, and lots of it. These servers voraciously chew up free hard drive space. Some casinos will fill hard drives at the rate of over 1GB of data per day. And, these aren't you're ordinary IDE hard drives that you find at your local computer store. These servers use high speed SCSI 15,000 RPM drives, configured as a RAID. Although a detailed description of RAID is beyond the scope of this article, a RAID configuration allows the operator to cluster disks together to simultaneously read and write to multiple disks at once, and provides fault tolerance, in case a drive fails. Typically, database servers will run either Windows 2000 or Linux operating systems, and will use Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle as the database engine. Casino Management The casino management server provides the tools to the casino managers and customer service representatives for daily operations. It interfaces with the Database Server to generate reports, as well as the information customer service representatives need to handle customer inquiries. In many cases, this machine will be combined with either the Database Server or the Web Server. The load on this server is generally light, since the Database Server does most of the real work. Other Things Besides these servers, there are still a number of things needed to make a casino run properly. These include proper bandwidth, backups (which are often run continuously), 24 hour technical support and maintenance (with all this complex hardware, things do fail from time to time), spare parts, routers, firewalls, emergency power and cooling. Putting it all Together Powering an online casino is not easy. A typical installation can easily cost upwards of $100,000 for a large casino, not to mention the ongoing cost of supporting it. In the end, though, this complexity is what it takes to keep the casino up and running, safely and securely, 24 hours a day. And, if the operators can use these complex set ups to make your gaming experience a little simpler, then it's all worth it. <<< Back To Home
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