IVAO Update: An update regarding World Server

Public Relations Department -

Dear IVAO Family,

After countless days of hard work and dedication from our Software Development team, the World Servers are now ready for the whole community to have a taster. As of 1st April 2022, you will have the ability to connect to IVAO’s new World Server as a testing environment before their full release on Saturday 30th April 2022 with a full announcement in the coming weeks.

Thanks to the time and patience of around 150 staff members we have been able to test, monitor and iron out most of the creases that exist. These new servers have been tested on an array of IVAO’s software, from IvAp and X-IvAp all the way to the latest version of Altitude using Flight Simulator 2004 through to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (including X Plane 10 and 11) and IvAc through to Aurora - covering the systems used by all of our members.

With the perseverance of the team, the World Servers have been loaded for several weeks now with around 2,000 AI aircraft, all at once above the network average, and were able to withstand such a load with 100% uptime on the current infrastructure. For clarification these were not static aircraft, these were real world flights operating and moving on our servers from take off to touch down 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Thanks to the wizardry of the Software Developers, the World Servers are scalable meaning that as network traffic increases so will the amount of servers and the amount of traffic we can handle.

So what’s next?

Through the month of April the network will be offering members a chance to test their software and connection to the World Server to ensure they are fully prepared and that everything is functioning properly ready for the SHARDs to be turned off on Saturday 30th April 2022. During this transition period we ask that members report any issues they are experiencing to our friendly User Support team who will be able to assist and inform our Software Developers of any issues that may need their attention. As previously mentioned, we’ve tried to iron out most of the creases but with our community using hundreds, if not thousands, of different setups we want to be sure that nobody will be excluded when the World Server takes over.

How do I connect?

It’s simple, the exact same way you did before and by choosing a ‘World Server’ when you connect. If you use our legacy software; the IvAp series, you will continue to file your flight plan through the software. If you use our current software, Altitude, then you file via https://fpl.ivao.aero. The most significant difference is that you must now connect using your ‘Website Password’, as opposed to your ‘IVAN Password’ for connecting to World Servers for both Controllers and Pilots. This change has been introduced to allow IVAO to move away from setting member’s password in the future and enable personal passwords in Web 2.0.

Can I fly or control on the World Servers?

The servers are currently open as a testing environment but any hours connected to the World Server will be logged on your IVAO profile. The AI connections will continue to operate enabling you to test MTL and server latency. You are welcomed to undertake regular flights yourself or group flights with your friends but are reminded that the AI traffic loaded in will not be controllable. As the AI traffic is not controllable it should be treated with priority. To see which aircraft is AI you can check the dedicated Webeye, anything with the remarks “With love from DevOps <3” is AI. As a polite reminder whilst this is a testing environment, Network Rules and Regulations still apply.

How can I see who is connected?

As these servers are separate to the current live network environment we have opted to create an additional Webeye for the World Servers only. This will show the traffic that should be visible to you. You can visit the dedicated Webeye for World Servers by visiting https://webeye.ws.ivao.aero. This service will be available from Friday 15th April 2022.

Will the servers be online permanently?

At present, yes. Unless the Software Developers are required to publish a major update or bug fix to the server. A broadcast will be issued on the World Server should this be necessary. Rebooting takes 2 to 3 minutes.

Can I fly a World Tour or undertake an Exam on the World Servers?

As this is a testing environment we strongly recommend, at this time, that you continue to utilise the SHARD servers for World Tours and Exams until this transition phase is over.

We are on the home straight and I want to record my personal thanks and gratitude to all of the Software Developers for their tenacity in getting these new World Servers from the ground up running, to the position we are in today. I would also like to acknowledge all of the testers from our staff team who have, on several occasions, been extremely patient and a critical part of helping us develop the World Server, your input has value that no currency could buy.

As a reminder, the need to develop these replacements was to bring ownership of the source code into IVAO’s hands. IVAO did not have ownership of the SHARD server source code and therefore could not improve them to provide members with better uptime and stability, something we can now do with the World Servers.

It is with great pleasure that we can announce this milestone for IVAO today. As always should you require any assistance or encounter any issues, our friendly User Support team can be reached by speaking one-on-one with them on the Family Discord, posting in the forum or by emailing devops@ivao.aero where a member of the team will gladly assist.

A further update regarding progression on IVAO’s roadmap will be issued in due course.

Kind Regards,

Jack Plumb
Executive Director for
Infrastructure Services