Dbserver-protocols

dbserver listens on several ports, each one providing a different service. Most services correspond to another server which will connect. All of these services use the common Network protocol, in TCP-only mode.

account

AccountServer connects to this service. It deals primarily with the ShardAccount container, with auth_id being the container ID for this DbList.

It can receive the following commands:

ACCOUNT_SVR_CONNECT

This message has no body. If an AccountServer is already connected, dbserver will respond by closing the link. Otherwise, it will respond with DBSERVER_ACCOUNT_PROTOCOL_VERSION:

autobits protocol_version
string shard_name
autobits count
repeated count times:
  autobits auth_id
  string auth_name

protocol_version will be DBSERVER_ACCOUNT_PROTOCOL_VERSION, currently 20070925.

dbserver will send the complete list of names and container IDs for all ShardAccount containers.

If IsLoggingMaster is set in server_cfg, dbserver will also send a ACCOUNT_CLIENT_UPDATE_LOG_LEVELS message:

repeated LOG_LEVELS times:
 packint(1) log_level

These are the log levels, as managed by log.h, for all logging types in order from 0 to LOG_LEVELS. They are set in servers.cfg with SetLogLevel lines.

ACCOUNT_SVR_RELAY_CMD

autobits message_dbid
optional autobits auth_id
string cmd

auth_id is sent only if message_dbid is 0.

If message_dbid is not 0, then it is the container ID of an Ent, and dbserver will send a DBSERVER_RELAY_CMD to the MapServer where that Ent is connected:

string relay_cmd

where relay_cmd will be:

cmdrelay_dbid %d 0
conprint "%s"

filled in with message_dbid and cmd.

If auth_id is not 0, then it is the auth_id of a player, which will be used to find the link that game client has with the dbserver. If one exists, then dbserver will send it a DBGAMESERVER_ACCOUNTSERVER_UNAVAILABLE:

string cmd

with cmd unchanged.

ACCOUNT_SVR_CHARCOUNT_REQUEST

autobits auth_id
bits(1) vip

The vip flag will be applied to the ShardAccount auth_id, doing an SQL update if necessary.

Some SQL queries will be run to get the current character count, and when they are complete, dbserver will respond with a ACCOUNT_CLIENT_CHARCOUNT_REPLY:

autobits auth_id
autobits unlocked_used_count
autobits total_char_count
autobits bonus_slots
autobits server_max_count
autobits vip_only_server

ACCOUNT_SVR_CHARCOUNT_REPLY

autobits auth_id
autobits shards
repeated shards times:
  string shard_name
  autobits unlocked_used
  autobits total_used
  autobits account_extra
  autobits server_max
  autobits vip_only_server

If shards is 0 then instead the packet will contain:

autobits auth_id
autobits shards
string error_msg

dbserver finds the game client connection corresponding to auth_id and sends it DBGAMESERVER_ACCOUNTSERVER_CHARCOUNT, which is identical to the message received, except the auth_id is not included.

ACCOUNT_SVR_SLOTCOUNT_REQUEST

autobits auth_id

dbserver replies with ACCOUNT_CLIENT_SLOTCOUNT_REPLY:

autobits auth_id
autobits slot_count

Taking slot_count from the ShardAccount container for auth_id

ACCOUNT_SVR_PRODUCT_CATALOG_UPDATE

autobits timestamp
autobits auth_timeout
string mtx_environment
string playspan_domain
string playspan_catalog
string playspan_url_home
string playspan_url_categoryview
string playspan_url_itemview
string playspan_url_showcart
string playspan_url_addtocart
string playspan_url_manageaccount
string playspan_url_supportpage
string playspan_url_supportpage_de
string playspan_url_supportpage_fr
string playspan_url_upgradetovip
string coh_url_newfeatures
string coh_url_newfeaturesupdate
autobits playspan_store_flags

dbserver will send DBSERVER_ACCOUNTSERVER_CATALOG to every map server, proxying the contents of the packet.

dbserver will send DBGAMESERVER_ACCOUNTSERVER_CATALOG to every connected game client, proxying the contents of the packet.

auction

AuctionServer connects to this service. It can receive the following commands:

AUCTION_SVR_CONNECT (2)

The message has no parameters. dbserver will accept only a single connection, and while it has one, it will respond to all further AUCTION_SVR_CONNECT messages by closing the connection.

dbserver responds with AUCTION_CLIENT_CONNECT (2):

packint(1) protocol_version
string shard_name
bits(1) have_inactive_players
something....

AUCTION_SVR_SEND_INV (3)

autobits entity_id
string inventory

dbserver finds the mapserver for entity_id, and proxies the message there as DBSERVER_AUCTION_SEND_INV

inventory is eventually decoded by AuctionInventory_FromStr in the mapserver, but dbserver proxies it without inspecting its value.

AUCTION_SVR_SEND_HISTORYINFO (4)

autobits entity_id
string identifier
autobits buying_count
autobits selling_count
autobits history_count
repeated history_count times:
  autobits date
  autobits price

dbserver finds the mapserver for entity_id, and proxies the message there as DBSERVER_AUCTION_SEND_HIST.

AUCTION_SVR_BATCH_SEND_ITEMINFO (5)

autobits entity_id
zipped data

dbserver finds the mapserver for entity_id, and proxies the message there as DBSERVER_AUCTION_BATCH_INFO. The zipped data is not inspected by dbserver.

After this output packet has been queued, dbserver sends AUCTION_CLIENT_DATAOK to the AuctioServer, with no both. This is a primitive form of flow control. It does not wait for the message to be sent to the mapserver before doing this.

AUCTION_SVR_XACT_CMD (7)

autobits entity_id
autobits type
XactCmd cmd

dbserver finds the mapserver for entity_id. If there is one, it proxies the message there as DBSERVER_AUCTION_XACT_CMD. If there is no mapserver, then dbserver responds to AuctionServer with AUCTION_CLIENT_XACT_UPDATE, sending:

autobits xid
autobits subid
autobits result

Where xid and subid are taken from cmd, and the result is set to kXactCmdRes_No.

AUCTION_SVR_RELAY_CMD_BYENT (9)

packint(1) entity_id
packint(1) force
string msg

dbserver finds the mapserver for entity_id. If there is one, it sends DBSERVER_RELAY_CMD there with msg as the body. If there is no mapserver, and force is set to 1, then the message is queued for relaying when the entity is available, and dbserver begins attempting to load the entity into a mapserver.

AUCTION_SVR_THROTTLE_ON (10)

This message has no parameters, and dbserver sends no response. It enables throttling, which prevents some (???) messages from being sent to the AuctionServer.

AUCTION_SVR_THROTTLE_OFF (11)

This message has no parameters, and dbserver sends no response. It disables throttling.

AUCTION_SVR_ACCOUNT_SHARDXFER (12)

OrderId order_id
autobits dbid

dbid is interpreted as an Ent id. dbserver will offline (???) and delete (???) the player, and then send AccountServer an ACCOUNT_CLIENT_SHARDXFER with:

OrderId order_id
autobits SHARDXFER_FULFILL_COMMIT_SRC

client

This service is used for the game client to communicate with dbserver.

It is documented on Client-to-dbserver

db

This service is used to communicate with MapServer and RaidServer.

Every NetLink for the db server has a unique lock_id, starting from 0. They are used to identify current connections to MapServer in order to send messages.

DBCLIENT_INITIAL_CONNECT

optional packint(1) map_protocol

If map_protocol is not present (the body is empty), it is 0. If map_protocol is not equal to DBSERVER_PROTOCOL_VERSION (currently 20110503) then dbserver will respond with DBSERVER_CLIENT_CMD_FAILED and close the NetLink.

Otherwise, dbserver sends these commands back to the MapServer:

DBSERVER_TIMEOFFSET:

bits(32) seconds_since_2000
float32 time_zone_delta

These values are set based on the system clock. time_zone_delta is the difference between UTC and local time, in hours.

DBSERVER_OVERRIDDEN_AUTHBITS

bits(128) overridden_auth_bits

The value of overridden_auth_bits is set based on OverrideAuthBit lines in servers.cfg.

If any DisabledZoneEvents entries are present in servers.cfg, dbserver sends a DBSERVER_DISABLED_ZONE_EVENTS command:

repeated string event

One entry for each DisabledZoneEvents line in servers.cfg

If user reactivation is active, dbserver sends a DBSERVER_NOTIFY_REACTIVATION message, with no body.

DBSERVER_UPDATE_LOG_LEVELS:

repeated LOG_LEVELS times:
  packint(1) log_level

These are the log levels, as managed by log.h, for all logging types in order from 0 to LOG_LEVELS. They are set in servers.cfg with SetLogLevel lines.

DBSERVER_ACCOUNTSERVER_CATALOG:

autobits catalog_timestamp
autobits auth_timeout
string mtx_environment
string play_span_domain
string play_span_url_home
string play_span_url_categoryview
string play_span_url_itemview
string play_span_url_showcart
string play_span_url_addtocart
string play_span_url_manageaccount
string play_span_url_supportpage
string play_span_url_supportpage_de
string play_span_url_supportpage_fr
string play_span_url_updatetovip
string coh_url_newfeatures
string coh_url_newfeaturesupdate
autobits play_span_store_flags

These appear to be values set in account_server.cfg. Most of them are URLs.

DBCLIENT_READY

This message is understood by dbserver, but does not appear to be sent by mapserver; it is suspected to be historical debris.

DBCLIENT_REGISTER

packint(1) map_id
packint(1) local_ip
packint(1) remote_ip
packint(1) udp_port
packint(1) tcp_port
packint(1) static_link
packint(1) cookie
string patch_version
optional string map_name

A MapServer sends this message when it starts up, immediately after DBCLIENT_INITIAL_CONNECT.

static_link is set based on the command line of the MapServer

map_id is a signed int, set on the command line of the MapServer. Negative values mean that a map_name field will be sent and edit mode will be used.

If map_id is non-negative, then dbserver selects the container for this mapserver based on map_id, and closes the link if the map_id is not known. Otherwise, dbserver selects the container based on map_name, and enables edit mode on this container. If static_link is set, then dbserver searches for a map with this name. If static_link is not set, or no map of this name is found, then a new map container is created and populated with the data in the map_name field.

udp_port and tcp_port are the ports on which the MapServer will listen for game clients, and are set on the command line.

cookie is set on the command line of the MapServer, and sent as-is. If the cookie is non-zero, then dbserver will validate that it matches the cookie matches the container referenced by map_id, and will close the link if it does not match. This is used to ensure the MapServer is the one this dbserver wanted to spawn, and not from a previous instance of dbserver.

local_ip and remote_ip are sent by the mapserver, based on the result of gethostbyname(NULL). They will use the first two results from this function. If one of those results is an rfc1918 address, or 127.0.0.1 (none of the other loopback addresses are recognised as "local"), then it will be local_ip; otherwise local_ip will be the first result from gethostbyname() and remote_ip will be the second.

The map container in the dbserver will have its link set to the link which sent this message, and will be marked starting and active. dbserver will respond to the MapServer with DBSERVER_CONTAINERS, sending the container for map_id followed by the containers for all static maps.

DBCLIENT_REGISTER_CONTAINER_SERVER

packint(1) list_id

The client attempts to claim ownership of the DbList identified by list_id. This is used by RaidServer to register itself with dbserver. Only one link may own a DbList at a time. If another link has claimed the DbList, then this one is marked as waiting for it. If the owner of the DbList is disconnected, then a link which is waiting for it will become the owner.

When a link becomes the owner of a DbList, then dbserver sends it a DBSERVER_CONTAINER_SERVER_ACK:

packint(1) list_id
packint(1) max_session_id

Owning a DbList affects the handling of DBCLIENT_CONTAINER_RELAY and DBCLIENT_REGISTER_CONTAINER_SERVER_NOTIFY messages.

DBCLIENT_REGISTER_CONTAINER_SERVER_NOTIFY

packint(1) notify_mask

All DbLists owned by this link have their notify mask set to notify_mask.

notify_mask is a bitmask, where each bit corresponds to a ContainerType value. For each bit set, when a notification for that DbList is available, a DBSERVER_CONTAINER_SERVER_NOTIFY will be sent:

packint(1) list_id
packint(1) container_id
packint(1) member_id
bits(1) is_added

Notifications are only sent for the addition of Ents (player characters loading onto a map), deletion of containers, and for adding and removing group members. When an Ent is added, an add notification is sent for all groups that Ent is currently a member of.

is_added is 1 if a thing is being added, and 0 if a thing is being removed.

container_id is the id of the container being updated - either the group where members are being added or removed, or the container being deleted.

member_id is 0 if the operation is the removal of a group (supergroup deletion, etc), or the member ID if the operation is adding or removing a member from a group.

DBCLIENT_READY_FOR_PLAYERS

packint(1) map_id

This message is sent by MapServer when it has finished settup in the map. It marks the MapCon as not starting. If the MapCon has been marked for shutdown in the dbserver, then the dbserver will respond with an empty DBSERVER_TEAM_LEFT_MISSION message.

DBCLIENT_CONTAINER_INFO

This message has no body. dbserver will respond with DBSERVER_CONTAINER_INFO:

packint(1) count
string dbserver_status
repeated count-1 times:
  string container_status

dbserver_status will be a string like "DbServer started on %s, Up %d hours, %d minutes"

container_status will be a string like "0040 Ent (1)", giving the number of allocated containers in the each DbList, and its name and ContainerType value.

DBCLIENT_REQ_CONTAINERS

packint(1) user_data
packint(1) list_id
packint(1) cmd
packint(1) count
repeated count times:
  packint(1) container_id

dbserver will respond to this message with DBSERVER_CONTAINERS, with some containers selected from DbList list_id. user_data is returned in the DBSERVER_CONTAINERS response.

If cmd is CONTAINER_CMD_LOAD_ALL, count is ignored and all containers in the list are selected. Otherwise, container_id values are sent in the message, and those containers are selected.

Depending on the command selected, three other operations might be performed on this list:

• With CONTAINER_CMD_LOCK_AND_LOAD, CONTAINER_CMD_LOAD_ALL, CONTAINER_CMD_TEMPLOAD, or CONTAINER_CMD_TEMPLOAD_OFFLINE the containers will be loaded if necessary. Otherwise, containers that are not loaded will return an error code of CONTAINER_ERR_DOESNT_EXIST for that container.
• With CONTAINER_CMD_LOCK or CONTAINER_CMD_LOCK_AND_LOAD the containers will be locked to this link. Any container which is already locked by another link will return an error code of CONTAINER_ERR_ALREADY_LOCKED for that container.
• With CONTAINER_CMD_TEMPLOAD or CONTAINER_CMD_TEMPLOAD_OFFLINE any containers that have to be loaded for this message will be unloaded after it is finished.
• With CONTAINER_CMD_TEMPLOAD_OFFLINE the special handling for offline players (???) is used.

DBCLIENT_SET_CONTAINERS

packint(1) list_id
packint(1) cmd
packint(1) callback_id
packint(1) count
repeated count times:
  packint(1) container_id
  packint(1) notdiff
  packint(1) debugdiff
  string str
  optional string debugdiff_str

debugdiff_str is only sent when debugdiff is not 0, otherwise it is skipped

dbserver stores the containers, and responds with DBSERVER_CONTAINER_ACK to most messages:

packint(1) list_id
packint(1) callback_id
packint(1) count
repeated count times:
  packint(1) ack_id

The ack_id values will be the container_id values that were updated.

One DBSERVER_CONTAINER_ACK response is sent after every update is applied, containing all acks so far (this appears to be a bug, and not used for anything). Acks are used by MapServer to return the container_id when creating containers, and otherwise ignored.

The exception to this are:

• when list_id is the AutoCommands list, in which case dbserver will instead respond by broadcasting a DBSERVER_CONTAINERS message to all active MapServers with the new container value
• when the container is a GroupCon type, and cmd is not CONTAINER_CMD_UNLOCK_NOMODIFY, in which case dbserver will instead respond by broadcasting a DBSERVER_CONTAINERS message to all interested links:
  • MapServers that are running members of a MapGroup
  • MapServers that have connected Ents for other groups
  • the MapServer for a supergroup base
  • the statserver for a statserver group
  • the link that sent the DBCLIENT_SET_CONTAINERS message)

In these cases, no DBSERVER_CONTAINER_ACK messages are sent.

Possible values for cmd are:

• CONTAINER_CMD_CREATE, in which case id must be -1 and the container will be created.
• CONTAINER_CMD_CREATE_MODIFY, in which case id may be -1 and the container will be created if no container with this id exists.
• CONTAINER_CMD_DELETE, which will mark the container for deletion. str is ignored.
• CONTAINER_CMD_UNLOCK, which will apply updates and then unlock the container if this link has it locked.
• CONTAINER_CMD_UNLOCK_NOMODIFY, which will unlocked the container if this link has it locked, and not attempt to update the container. str is ignored
• CONTAINER_CMD_TEMPLOAD, which will load the container before updating it, and unload it after updating it, regardless of whether it was already loaded.

All other values of cmd will apply the update to an existing container.

If an error occurs, dbserver will abandon processing of the rest of the message, and respond with DBSERVER_CLIENT_CMD_FAILED:

 packint(1) fail_code
 string str

This occurs in the following scenarios:

• id is -1 for commands other than CREATE and CREATE_MODIFY, or id being any value other than -1 for CREATE, will return CONTAINER_ERR_DOESNT_EXIST
• Parse errors for the container in str will return CONTAINER_ERR_CANT_COMPLETE_SERIOUS
• An attempt to create an Ent on an account without free character slots will return CONTAINER_ERR_CANT_COMPLETE
• An attempt to create an Ent where the character name cannot be parsed will return CONTAINER_ERR_CANT_COMPLETE
• For DbList other than maps, a container that exists must not be locked to a link other than this one, or it will return CONTAINER_ERR_ALREADY_LOCKED
• For DbList other than maps, and commands other than CREATE_MODIFY, the container must be locked or it will return CONTAINER_ERR_NOT_LOCKED
• If the container does not exist for whatever reason (after processing creation), it will return CONTAINER_ERR_DOESNT_EXIST

Applying container updates

str will be treated as a diff if notdiff is 0, or as a full copy of the container if notdiff is 1.

If the container does not have a template, then the string supplied always treated as a complete replacement, and the content of the container is simply set to this value, then special column processing is run.

If the container has a template, and notdiff is 1, then a diff will be computed from the current value of the template to the string supplied, and then processing will continue as if a diff had been sent.

If the container has a template, then the string will be parsed into a line list, and then merged into the current line list. Next, special column processing is run. The computed updates are then added to the queue of sql writes, and if the container has an update callback, it is called (this is probably a bug: it will be called twice).

Special columns processing begins by calling the update callback. It then runs through a list of commands, which identify fields in the line list by name. The values of these fields will be written into some address inside the DbContainer struct, as identified by the command. In the particular case of CMD_MEMBER, special tracking is done of memberships, which may result in sending notifications to servers that requested them with DBCLIENT_REGISTER_CONTAINER_SERVER_NOTIFY.

Special hackery

If the command is CREATE and the DbList is Ents (creating a player), then the player name will be uniquified (by appending or incrementing a number).

If the DbList is maps, and there is a map name in str, and a container with that name exists, then id is ignored and the container with that name is updated instead.

If the DbList is Ents and the container exists, and str contains a MapId field, then it must be equal to the map_id in the Ent or the server will assert (!!!).

If debugdiff is set, then the debugdiff_str field must be precisely equal to the observed diff to the container after the operation, or the server will assert (!!!).

If the command is CREATE and the DbList is Teamups, Supergroups, Taskforces, or Leagues, and the DbList is being stored in sql, then an sql barrier will be generated (all workers will synchronise).

If the DbList is maps, and the container is not being deleted, then dbserver will ask a launcher to start a MapServer if it does not have a link from a MapServer on this container.

DBCLIENT_CONTAINER_RELAY

packint(1) cmd
packint(1) list_id
packint(1) cid
packint(1) user_cmd
packint(1) user_data
... more data that dbserver does not parse

If list_id is not recognised, or no server has that DbList locked, then dbserver will respond with DBSERVER_CONTAINER_RECEIPT:

packint(1) cmd
packint(1) list_id
packint(1) cid
packint(1) user_cmd
packint(1) user_data
packint(1) error_code
string error_msg

where error_code will be CONTAINER_ERR_CANT_COMPLETE.

Otherwise, dbserver will forward the message to the server which has locked that DbList, as DBSERVER_CONTAINER_RELAY:

packint(1) cmd
packint(1) list_id
packint(1) cid
packint(1) user_cmd
packint(1) user_data
packint(1) lock_id
... everything else from the DBCLIENT_CONTAINER_RELAY is copied here

This is used for MapServer to send messages to RaidServer.

DBCLIENT_CONTAINER_RECEIPT

packint(1) lock_id
... more data that dbserver does not parse

dbserver finds the MapServer connection corresponding to lock_id and proxies the message to that MapServer as DBSERVER_CONTAINER_RECEIPT:

... all the data from the input message

This is used by RaidServer to acknowledge messages from MapServer.

DBSERVER_CONTAINERS

packint(1) user_data
packint(1) list_id
packint(1) count
repeated count times:
  packint(1) id
  packint(1) has_error
  packint(1) is_map_xfer
  packint(1) is_static_map
  packint(1) locked
  packint(1) is_deleting
  packint(1) demand_loaded
  packint(1) member_count
  repeated member_count times:
    packint(1) member_id
  string text

If has_error is 1, then the block for this container is replaced by:

  packint(1) map_id
  packint(1) has_error
  packint(1) error_code

The error_code will be CONTAINER_ERR_DOESNT_EXIST if the container was not found or not loaded, and CONTAINER_ERR_ALREADY_LOCKED if this was an attempt to lock the container and another link already has this container locked. In all cases, errors are on a per-container basis, and the rest of the request will be processed.

This message is used to send containers to the MapServer. The contents of the container is represented in the text string.

user_data will either be 0, or a value sent by the client that requested these containers. It is used by clients to identify responses.

locked will be 1 if the container has now been locked to this link, and 0 if the locking state is unchanged.

If the container is a group, then a member_id list will be sent. Otherwise, member_count will be 0.

is_map_xfer will be 0 unless the container is an Ent.

is_static_map will be 0 unless the container is a Map.