Server Administration Reference for ArmA and DayZ

[howichrgelazer 69]

THIS GUIDE IS OUT OF DATE. I NEED TO UPDATE IT FOR 1.7.0 AND ITS NEW HIVE.

To clear up some of the posts on this category, I think we should work together as a community to make a reliable one stop shop topic for all server admin questions and references. Here we can cover anything from basic server admin commands to troubleshooting to performance tips.

I'll frequently update the OP with shared information posted in this topic. So without further ado, let's get this ball rolling.

Table Of Contents

1) Starting A DayZ Server

2) Server Configuration

3) Running a Beta Server

4) The Hive And You

5) Remote Administration

6) Tips From Fellow Admins

7) Other Notes

1) Starting a DayZ Server

The majority of information on starting a DayZ server can be located in this topic: http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=1429

If this is your first time hosting a server, I recommend that you become familiar with the Windows Server platform. It is important to be comfortable with creating user accounts, setting permissions, and managing a firewall.

There is a nice article on Server 2008 security features here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd548350(v=ws.10).aspx

I also suggest that you find a nice reliable text editor like Notepad++ or Notepad2. This will make editing config files MUCH easier.

Also, if you choose to have RDP access open, it's VERY IMPORTANT, and I mean VERY IMPORTANT you monitor your security logs. The second a windows machine comes up, you're guaranteed to be port scanned and eventually have a brute force attempt against your RDP login.

Please make sure that only essential users have permissions set for remote desktop access (this can be configured in local policies). For a little bit of security through obscurity, change the RDP port (http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/datacenter/changing-the-rdp-listening-port-on-windows-server/1939). MAKE SURE TO IMPLEMENT A FIREWALL RULE FOR YOUR NEW RDP PORT BEFORE EDITING THE REGISTRY. If you do not, you can lock yourself access out of your box. If you do change your RDP port, there is no need to reboot the server, just restart the remote desktop service for it to take effect.

Another great tool that I've been using so far is this script here: https://github.com/EvanAnderson/ts_block. It's been very handy in deterring multiple RDP connection attempts on my box. Keep in mind, this script runs silent in the background under the wscript.exe process. So after you configure it to your liking and run the .vbs file, you won't see any output.

The best way I found to install ArmA is have your normal install directory and copy that to another location to use for DayZ. That way you have an untouched install that you can patch and revert back to if necessary.

2) Server Configuration

Main Server Configuration

(rcon password, server name, mission rotation, MOTD, etc.)

This is broken down into two sections, for servers that use the DayZ monitor and those that do not.

With The Monitor

The bulk of your server settings can be found in your monitor directory. The file that you want to edit is named config.xml. Every value is easily identified with the XML tags and are pretty self explanatory. As of this edit, the monitor does not support the use of the beta server. I don't know if the server team agrees with this next statement, but I do suggest you change your rcon password to something secure that you can remember.

The other configuration file you'll need to adjust is Arma2.cfg. This is generated in your configuration directory on first launch. This contains values for bandwidth and a few other available tweaks.

Without The Monitor

If you are not running the monitor, you'll have to make your edits in the server.cfg file.

The community wiki has a good article on its values: http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/server.cfg

The other configuration file you'll need to adjust is Arma2.cfg. This is generated in your configuration directory on first launch. This contains values for bandwidth and a few other available tweaks.

Difficulty Settings

You can alter the difficulty settings in the cfgdayz arma profile file. It should be located under %ARMADIRECTORY%\cfgdayz\Users\cfgdayz\cfgdayz.ArmA2OAProfile

Just simply edit the flags under your set difficulty to your liking. The information on the flags are here:

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/server.armaprofile#Example_Configuration_File

The example config has comments, which should clearly describe each setting. I recommend that if you turn most settings off, you should be using the Veteran or higher difficulty. It will be easier for users to understand your server doesn't have all the assists as a normal server does. I may break this down further on my next edit pass.

3) Running a Beta Server

If you'd like to run a beta server, I'd suggest making two different directories, one that contains your normal install and one that contains a copy of your normal install. That way you always have something to fall back to later on (this isn't really required, because the beta installs as an expansion, but better safe than sorry)

The arma patches are located here: http://www.arma2.com/beta-patch.php. Your beta files will be placed in %ARMA2PATH%\Expansion\beta during the install.

You will also need the JayArma2Lib_new addon, as JayArma2Lib does not support the beta. I grabbed it from six updater and uploaded it to my server directory. Be sure to move dsound.dll out of your beta directory, or your server won't launch with JayArma2Lib_new defined.

As of this writing you cannot use monitor to run the beta server. However, I do run it to update hive (I just point it to a bogus arma 2 directory in the config.xml, but leave the hive path correct. I close the monitor before it tries to launch the server after the update process is done. That way I can manually combine ban files and other things if need be.) There's an easier way, but I don't have the links to download the hive updates directly, so this is how I get by.

You'll need to make a batch file with the following startup in your beta folder (you can make a shortcut of it later):

aram2oaserver.exe -beta=Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expansion -mod=@dayz;@CBA;@CBA_OA;@JayArma2Lib_new;Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expansion

Be sure to tack on any extra flags you use like -cfg and -config to ensure you're loading the correct config files. You can copy those from your old launch config for the normal server.

Then just run your HiveAuth and Hive programs, and launch the server with the batch file.

(This will need to be cleaned up a bit)

4) The Hive And You

The hive is an essential part to the DayZ server. It manages all the character updates and authentications to the master server database. There are things you can look out for to ensure the hive is running correctly.

Hive is stuck at waiting for client connection, even though server is running and players are on

Chances are the serve hasn't been whitelisted or there is a configuration issue. In this case, contact the dev team. The DayZ live chat is a wonderful place to start.

Hive is spamming database errors

If this happens, you can try to restart the process to see if it resolves itself. You should not have to restart the ArmA server. If you are using the DayZ monitor, simply close out of the hive process that is having the issue and let the monitor relaunch it.

If your hive is still getting errors, it's best to jump on IRC (DayZ live chat) and see if other server admins are having problems. There can be a chance it's the master server, and not on your end.

5) Remote Administration

If you would like to manage your server remotely, there are a few Rcon tools out there that can help. I'll cover the two most popular ones here.

BattlEye Rcon

The following link has great information on the BattlEye Rcon: http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/BattlEye#RCon

If you wish to talk to the entire server through the Rcon you can do so with this command

#say 0

ArmA2 Rcon Gui

https://dev-heaven.net/projects/rcon

This is a very slick tool. It can be unstable at times, but it's real easy to use and it's a GUI interface. Plus it stores a local database on your computer of all users who connect to your server. Which makes it easy to retroactively ban people if you find evidence against them which violates your server rules.

6) Tips From Fellow Admins

Freeborne suggest changing the default profile name

Suggest changing the naming format of the "users" folder to the region name of the server.

Eg:

US1

EU4

ANZ3

When BattlEye message pop up' date=' it uses that name. So IMHO it looks silly when it says something like:

"cfgday2: Bob was kicked. Ping too high, etc...."

[/quote']

7) Other Notes

There's a lot of ground I have to cover in this guide still. I don't feel it'll every truly be complete. That's why I want constant input from fellow server admins so we can keep this as well groomed as possible.

[Freeborne (DayZ) 7]

Suggest changing the naming format of the "users" folder to the region name of the server.

Eg:

US1

EU4

ANZ3

When BattlEye message pop up, it uses that name. So IMHO it looks silly when it says something like:

"cfgday2: Bob was kicked. Ping too high, etc...."

[howichrgelazer 69]

Added your post Freeborne, and added a lot more information to the guide. Finally got around to it. Whew.

[desrat 4]

Can we get info on running the beta with a DayZ server as well as forcing minimum version thx

[howichrgelazer 69]

Posted more information on beta. However not entirely happy with the wording right now, will need to go back in a little bit and clean up the section.

[franklin 3]

I tried using your information to run the beta on my servers, but it didnt work. Can you post your full start line for an example?

[Mojo (DayZ) 66]

I tried using your information to run the beta on my servers' date=' but it didnt work. Can you post your full start line for an example?

[/quote']

If you kept your batch file (for shame, you really should use firedaemon) in your base install directory, you will need to modify it to either have a relative path:

Expansion\beta\arma2oaserver.exe -beta=Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expansion -mod=@dayz;@CBA;@JayArma2Lib_new;Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expansion

Or an absolute path:

C:\Wherever\You\Installed\Operation\Arrowhead\arma2oaserver.exe -beta=Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expansion -mod=@dayz;@CBA;@JayArma2Lib_new;Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expansion

Note that if you are launching with the batch file, and moved it to your expansion\beta directory, it may not be launching if you copied and pasted Lazer's commandline, since there's a typo in there:

aram2oaserver.exe -beta=Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expansion -mod=@dayz;@CBA;@JayArma2Lib_new;Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expansion

Should read ARMA, not ARAM.

Last, as Lazer noted, you do need to point it to the correct configs.

(You also don't need @CBA_OA, that's only if you're running Community Base Addons WITHOUT using combined ops)