Hosting a server using Docker

If you want to run a dedicated Veloren server 24/7 follow this.

Note: We assume general command line and docker-compose knowledge. You will need docker and docker-compose installed on the server. You will likely also need root access to access docker.

Note: The Docker version of the server will not run on systems that use an ARM CPU (see issue 1799 on our gitlab for updates).

Tip: Check out the Docker Compose file reference for more information about the docker-compose.yml file.

Setup

Note: The default docker_compose.yml will automatically keep the game server updated to the latest weekly release.

  1. Create a folder for the server data and cd into it.
  2. Download the sample docker-compose.yml from the repository into the folder.
    wget https://gitlab.com/veloren/veloren/-/raw/master/server-cli/docker-compose.yml
  3. If needed, open the following ports in your firewall:
    • 14004 (TCP/UDP, required): Gameserver
    • 14005 (TCP, optional): HTTP metrics
    • 14006 (UDP, optional): Query server protocol
  4. To create and start the containers, run sudo docker-compose up -d.
    If you modify the docker-compose.yml file, you'll need to run that command again for it to take effect.
  5. Add moderators/admins by following the instructions below

Note: If you used the provided docker-compose file, you can use veloren-game-server-master in place of <CONTAINER_ID> in the following instructions.

Monitoring and maintenance

  • To restart the server, run docker-compose restart.
  • To view logs, run docker logs <CONTAINER_ID>.
  • To access the server's configuration files, open the userdata folder automatically created next to docker-compose.yml.

Running commands inside the docker container

The game server has a CLI interface that can be used to run commands for tasks such as adding admins and moderators. The steps for accessing this interface while the server is running inside Docker are outlined below:

  1. Run docker attach <CONTAINER_ID> (run docker ps to find the ID of the game server container, then if the ID is for example e002d350ab26, run docker attach e002d350ab26).
  2. You can now run server CLI commands. To see the available options type help and press enter.
  3. Once you are done, to escape press Ctrl+p followed by Ctrl+q.

Tip: To add an admin or mod, use admin add <USER> <ROLE>. <ROLE> can be either admin or moderator.

Tip: To gracefully shutdown the server for maintenance with 2 minute countdown, use:

shutdown graceful --reason "Shutting down for maintenance :)" 120

Note: Logging output from the server can break up the visualization of command input but this can be ignored and broken up commands will still work.

You are done!