Unofficial FAQ: So you want to run a DayZ Server? Read This

[semipr0 402]

Hi, as a server administrator, I wanted to give you a few tips in regards to becoming involved in helping support the ever growing player load of DayZ.

What Are My Rights?

First and foremost, ensure you read the Refined Server Hosting Rules, Dante-shawn has done a pretty good job of lining everything you need to know about the rules without leaving too many lingering questions. So, completely honest, its worth knowing....because believe me every player on your server that you so much as say "boo" to will quote whatever version of the "rules" they want at you to try to cow you into submission and find a chink in your defense from which they can attempt to get your server shut down by the DayZ team.

So...know your rights...and as you can see from the rules, you don't have very many rights at all. So, ensure you keep that in mind cause forgetting your place in the pecking order around here could lead to a waste of your money.

Who is the best DayZ server hosting reseller?

Honest answer? None of them. They all use the same software, they all have roughly the same response time in regards to customer service (expect anywhere from 6 - 10 hours for responses to support tickets), nearly all of them have been compromised by the script hack that allowed hackers to download server.cfg files from their servers, which is why the RCon passwords for hundreds of servers ended up dumped on 4chan and Reddit about 4 days ago and every one of them will tell you that their servers were not vulnerable to that exploit and every one of them are lying. And since they all use the same software, regardless of you having changed that RCon password multiple times, the old one STILL WORKS for logging into the server controls at the game lobby.

Simple facts are, you get what you pay for and in most cases, even if you pay for a 200 dollar a month dedicated server from one of them, you're going to get about the same service the people paying 40 dollars a month are going to get. So...overall its a case of pick the least bad of the bunch, or...put the hosting companies names in a hat and go with the one you draw out of the hat, simple facts are lots of people will tell you this company or that company is bad, but, simple facts are, none of them are all that good.

Until some companies in the GSP top 20 or so start hosting servers for DayZ, don't expect spectacular service and you won't find yourself disappointed.

What do I need to do to be a server administrator?

Well first of all you need to be ready to stop playing DayZ almost entirely.

Due to current alpha conditions, to be a responsible server admin you will almost always be logged out or sitting in the lobby while pouring through server logs to see who the most recent culprit is that has mass teleported your entire server to one location, turned everyone into cows, has teleported to every populated location on the server and killed everyone there, is driving a bus at 400 kmh through Chernogorosk while setting off nukes, has teleported every vehicle on the server to an unspecified location and left them in a pile, has run around invisible killing players or is just straight out god-moding your entire server and laughing along the way.

Oh and thats just a small slice of the things you'll need to be dealing with.

So really, other than being ready to give up playing DayZ entirely, you also need to have an immense amount of spare time because not only are you paying to host a server, you're also now taking on a second job.

Or you could just be a lazy bastard, not care about the hacking and exploiting and let the automated server restarts attempt to clean up whatever messes are going on. Its an option too.

How do I find out if someone was hacking on my server?

Well its easy......there are three major files that are important to pay attention to on your server, Arma2OAServer.RPT, Server_Console.log, and scripts.log.

Arma2OAServer.RPT deals with all the information between the server and the DayZ Hive in regards to player activity/location/inventory/child objects, unfortunately though the RPT file resets every time a server is reset, so you can't really get a long term view of this data. Also I should mention that while inventory stuff is fairly cut and dried, child objects are identified by very cryptic numerical identifiers, locations are literally X/Y/Z coordinates of a magnitude that will make no sense in regards to the 2D map at all, and the file tends to get spammed with error messages that are difficult to discern why they're happening, or what is causing them.

Server_Console.log is a helpful little file that will tell you who was on your server, when they logged in, and when they logged out, it also contains connection and validation information for each player....but other than those elements, the only gems you'll find in this pile of text are the occasional hilarious text exchanges in the direct channel, and those are fairly uncommon, so overall the server_console.log file isn't very entertaining and is only helpful for cross comparison with the other two files.

Scripts.log is a file that contains all legitimate and illegitimate script calls the server has recorded while in session, its a cranky file though and any time it exceeds 2MB, you have to rotate it out of your log directory and let the server create a new one. Its also completely useless if someone is using a bypass that allows them to play without BattlEye actually paying attention to what they're doing.

You know....forget what I said at the beginning there, its not easy. I was lying. But keep in mind if you ban someone from your server, you have to be ready to prove to the DayZ Team, on demand, that your decision to do so was justified.

Okay I found those files, what does all this stuff actually mean?

No one really knows. Well....there are like 11 people in Prague that probably do, the rest of us just piece together what we can by deductive logic. So, good luck with that, and feel free to enlighten us with any amazing discoveries you might make.

Why do server admins put up with all this shit if its this bad?

Most of us are probably certifiably insane. That and regardless of the ridiculous demands made of us by numerous parties involved with our decision, and allowance to be server administrators, we've chosen to put up with all this shit because we like the mod a lot and we want to support it for our friends and the DayZ community.

So get on out there and bite the bullet Tiger. Grab your credit card, pick a server host, and join us in the hurt locker.....cause seriously, the more servers we have, the better a chance we all have that a small percentage of us might go for 24 hours without having our entire server destroyed by a sudden freak storm that rains Ural Civilians everywhere.

</tongueincheek>

Edited August 9, 2012 by semipr0