Server crash

A **Server Crash** is when the server has a massive lag spike and then stops running. These crashes often happen when there is a lot of players in different locations.

Server crashes rarely occur in recent times, likely only as the a result of a "Blue Screen of Death" on the server computer.

## Types

### Normal crash

A normal crash occurs when the server unexpectedly shuts down. This can occur as a result of large server demand or as the result of an error on the server's computer. Usually, such events are just a minor inconvenience.

### Malfunction

A malfunction is a kind of crash where the server still remains online but stops responding. These would happen sometimes during 2015, and haven't occurred since.

Specifically, after kicking all the players off the server, a malfunction repeats the following stages:

1. The server will stop responding.
2. The server will start responding again, displaying as online in the multiplayer menu, but still displays the players that were on. The server is still impossible to get on to.

### Memory crash

Memory crashes are the most detrimental type of server crash. A crash is considered a memory crash when some server data is lost or reset during the crash. These can range in severity, with some memory crashes just erasing scoreboard data while others have erased server configurations and player data.

These days, the effects of memory crashes would not be as detrimental since the server is backed-up regularly.

## Stages

### Pre-crash

This is the stage where the lag-spike occurs. During this stage, chunks will no longer load and all mobs and other players will freeze. Any chat that occurs during this time will not be displayed. There are many possible causes to why this happens.

### Main Crash

The server will then shut down. Online players will be disconnected and will receive a message saying "Sever closed". A Memory Crash can very rarely occur in which some server data is reset or deleted, including scoreboards and player data.

## Possible Causes

There are a few possible causes to a server crash. The main ones are:

* Multiple players in different locations, particularly if one or more of them is travelling. This causes numerous chunks being loaded and unloaded.
* The running of many and/or heavy commands.
* Numerous amounts of loaded entities, particularly ones having some sort of movement.
* Other unhandled Java exceptions

## History

*The Forgotten Period*Please note that the following content may contain assumptions as some of the information has been lost or forgotten.
Server crashes likely started becoming an issue during the New Town Boom. On the 15th of November 2014, the server's first memory crash occurred, erasing scoreboard data relating to Reef Crystals and erasing player data. A few more memory crashes would occur in the following days erasing the scoreboard data again. Due to this, Reef Crystals were discontinued until the issue was resolved.

Malfunctions may have started occurring during 2015.

One memory crash occurred during May of 2015 which reset the server's configurations, including the world seed. This is the only time the seed ever changed on Seacraft.

It may have been this memory crash that inspired a memory crash restoration project, built in order to restore necessary scoreboard objectives and teams should they ever be erased. This was only ever half-complete before being forgotten.

Server crashes were frequent during Seacraft's most popular period, the Shopping Centre Boom. During this period, the server's player limit was decreased from 20 to 5 in order to reduce demand on the server and prevent it from crashing.