Maintenance of Megaservers

Thelevyeffect

I want to start by saying this isn’t meant as criticism—I’m just genuinely curious. It feels like the servers are constantly undergoing maintenance. Why do they require it so often? It’s been a while since I last played Elder Scrolls Online, but I don’t recall server maintenance happening this frequently back then. Is this a normal occurrence?

Sturmfaenger

It was on Mondays before, for years, every other week. Not always that long, but the game is a ten year old, evergrowing clockwork of different systems that need to work together as flawless as possible. The more there is to care for, the more time it takes.

SeaGtGruff

Sturmfaenger wrote: »

It was on Mondays before, for years, every other week. Not always that long, but the game is a ten year old, evergrowing clockwork of different systems that need to work together as flawless as possible. The more there is to care for, the more time it takes.

It used to be every Monday, not every two weeks, but was changed from every week to every two weeks when ESO was added to the now-defunct Stadia service.

Destai

I think getting a list of changes or activities would help better understand and accept maintenance.

Thelevyeffect

Thanks for the info—I appreciate it! Don’t they release maintenance notes, Destai? I’m used to other games providing the kind of detailed list you mentioned. I haven’t checked if ESO does something similar, though.

WuffyCerulei

I’d rather ESO have constant maintenance than a lack of it. Cuz I want the game to be playable.
Also this upcoming one is close all the campaigns after Whitestrake’s. They do that every time.

tomofhyrule

They told us in the Q&A stream that a maintenance is always required after closing Campaigns to ensure that everything is spun down properly and the rewards are properly assigned. The same stream also said a maintenance is usually required right before as well, so the all-server maintenances on either side of the PvP event are to be expected.
(sidenote: that also means we'll have them on either side of the upcoming Vengeance test as well on Mar 24-31, so be ready for that)

There is also a standard quarterly maintenance for backend datacenter fixes and updates. The last one we had was on the 19th of February, so we should not need one for a few months. Those are announced in the Official Forum for Maintenances. Notably, the Feb 5 one ended up with a problem which was why that one took longer, and is why the Endeavor rewards were doubled yesterday and today.

We also get maintences usually every 2 weeks for patches, and the patch notes are given in the Official Forum for Patch Notes. The last PC incremental was on Feb 10, and on console was Feb 19.

Finally, major updates will also come with a major patch as well. We will be getting the next major update on Monday, which will also require a maintenance period.

Danikat

Thelevyeffect wrote: »

Thanks for the info—I appreciate it! Don’t they release maintenance notes, Destai? I’m used to other games providing the kind of detailed list you mentioned. I haven’t checked if ESO does something similar, though.

They post patch notes when they make changes to the game, but maintenance doesn't necessarily mean there's an update, it's often just to keep things running the same as they did before so there's nothing to announce.

YandereGirlfriend

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Sturmfaenger wrote: »

It was on Mondays before, for years, every other week. Not always that long, but the game is a ten year old, evergrowing clockwork of different systems that need to work together as flawless as possible. The more there is to care for, the more time it takes.

It used to be every Monday, not every two weeks, but was changed from every week to every two weeks when ESO was added to the now-defunct Stadia service.

So many bad things happened to facilitate Stadia, FeelsBadMan.

mctaff

I've previously stated on here that the Maintenance is poorly managed.

It seems almost like the tail is wagging the dog when it comes to when and why some maintenance happens, and it is not communicated well.

If they'd honestly want me to give them consolidated feedback for it, they are welcome to ask me - but like many good suggestions that pop up here on the forums, it goes largely unnoticed.

The current organisation I work for does a similar thing with their maintenance routine and they won't listen either. At least, though, their communication is better than ZOS.

Orbital78

At least the green CP changes are pretty fire. Lets see what they break in the process and need to extend the downtime by 12 hours. Kidding, hopefully it is a smooth and easy and comes up early.

Jestir

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Sturmfaenger wrote: »

It was on Mondays before, for years, every other week. Not always that long, but the game is a ten year old, evergrowing clockwork of different systems that need to work together as flawless as possible. The more there is to care for, the more time it takes.

It used to be every Monday, not every two weeks, but was changed from every week to every two weeks when ESO was added to the now-defunct Stadia service.

So many bad things happened to facilitate Stadia, FeelsBadMan.

I loved playing the game on Stadia, now that feels bad

Xarc

I would prefer it to be every Monday and no more than 7 hours each time.

Now it's sometimes thuesday, sometimes wednesday, can't know. today i'm off, can't play at all.

Ursadoom

I'm happy that they at least waited until the event was actually over this time before the downtime.

TonyH196

I have a feeling it has something to do with Update 45 which is going live March 10th on PC, they have been planning some aggressive updates to the starting zones and so many more changes coming.

LadyLethalla

I wish it wasn't always in my prime playtime, but we can't all get what we want.

ApoAlaia

Ursadoom wrote: »

I'm happy that they at least waited until the event was actually over this time before the downtime.

This ^

It would have been a bummer [for me] if they'd would have scheduled it for Mon/Tues.

Tranquilizer

Orbital78 wrote: »

At least the green CP changes are pretty fire. Lets see what they break in the process and need to extend the downtime by 12 hours. Kidding, hopefully it is a smooth and easy and comes up early.

Green CP changes are part of U45, which comes next monday, afaik.

The_Meathead

Tranquilizer wrote: »

Orbital78 wrote: »

At least the green CP changes are pretty fire. Lets see what they break in the process and need to extend the downtime by 12 hours. Kidding, hopefully it is a smooth and easy and comes up early.

Green CP changes are part of U45, which comes next monday, afaik.

I'm not saying the customer is always right, but man... people asked loudly and repeatedly for that exact change to the Green CP from day one of the new CP tree. It's always made sense for the ''Quality of Life'' page of CP to allow full usage, and I wish they'd just listened from the start.

Very glad it's coming at last.

said no one ever

LadyLethalla wrote: »

I wish it wasn't always in my prime playtime, but we can't all get what we want.

sadly it's always in someone's prime playtime but usu during someone prime work time (the maintenance devs)

Potrimpo

Prime time:

EST, CST, MST, PST, BIT, SST, HAST, AKST, AST, ChST, WAKT, AWST, ACST, AEST, MEZ, MESZ, UCT....

What is the "Prime Time"?

Everytime my own/down time.

And than you can discuss working time, holidays, vacations... worldwide.

Orbital78

Tranquilizer wrote: »

Orbital78 wrote: »

At least the green CP changes are pretty fire. Lets see what they break in the process and need to extend the downtime by 12 hours. Kidding, hopefully it is a smooth and easy and comes up early.

Green CP changes are part of U45, which comes next monday, afaik.

ah yes, that would explain why there is no patch. Dang yes, this is a lot of downtime.

Destai

Thelevyeffect wrote: »

Thanks for the info—I appreciate it! Don’t they release maintenance notes, Destai? I’m used to other games providing the kind of detailed list you mentioned. I haven’t checked if ESO does something similar, though.

Like another poster said, there's not always patch notes. That's usually when there's a release. I'm thinking more of an activities list. So, maintenance windows do something, in the sense that the game gets cleaned after an event. Getting a list of those activities and what the maintenance is for would help digest the outage.

Qwarx

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Sturmfaenger wrote: »

It was on Mondays before, for years, every other week. Not always that long, but the game is a ten year old, evergrowing clockwork of different systems that need to work together as flawless as possible. The more there is to care for, the more time it takes.

It used to be every Monday, not every two weeks, but was changed from every week to every two weeks when ESO was added to the now-defunct Stadia service.

So many bad things happened to facilitate Stadia, FeelsBadMan.

I'm not going to put down Stadia. If not for it my spouse and I would not be playing ESO today. I'm sorry if it negatively impacted things for the PC folks, but for us it was a win.

SilverBride

A lot of content has been added to the game over the past 11 years, so of course it's going to require more maintenance.