Server Hosting – Arma Reforger

Server Hosting is the fact of hosting a game instance accessible over the network to other players. There are two possible modes in Arma Reforger: player-hosted and dedicated.

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Connection fails from the outside if the door is closed.

For a hosted server to be visible from outside the local network (e.g from internet), Port Forwarding must be used.

Please refer to your router's user guide for assistance.

Main router brands's documentation links:

• Cisco router
• D-Link router
• Netgear router
• TP-Link router

Dedicated Server

A Dedicated Server is a server without any game instance launched; it purely processes game information and network synchronisation.

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stable is app id: 1874900 - https://steamdb.info/app/1874900/

experimental: 1890870 - https://steamdb.info/app/1890870/

BattlEye

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See BattlEye's documentation and FAQ - there is also a BattlEye wiki article.

It is possible to modify BattlEye's RCon port and password by adding the following settings to Arma Reforger\BattlEye\BEServer_x64.cfg:

RConPort 5678
RConPassword myNewBEPassword

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When editing Arma Reforger's BattlEye config, make sure to append new settings to it and not erase or even edit existing information.

Missing information will have the kick message "Missing GameID/MasterPort server config settings" welcome (and eject) players, whereas modified values will prevent BattlEye from working.
In the event of the file being already incorrectly edited, verify the game's files on Steam (see Steam's tutorial):

• delete BEServer_x64.cfg
• in Steam, right-click on Arma Reforger
• select "Properties"
• click on "Local Files"
• press "Verify integrity of game files"

Steam will now verify and repair modified files. This will not erase any personal files, game progress, controls and other configurations will remain unchanged.

Startup Parameters

See Startup Parameters - Hosting and the Server Config page for more information.

config

The Server exe uses the -config startup parameter to target the configuration file.

ArmaReforgerServer.exe -config ".\Configs\Campaign_SWCoast.json"

In above example, Campaign_SWCoast.json is expected to be locted in Configs folder next to the exe.

maxFPS

⚠

As of 0.9.8 it is heavily recommended to use this startup parameter, set to a value in the 60..120 range; otherwise, the server can try to use all the available resources!

ArmaReforgerServer.exe -maxFPS 60

server

This parameter instructs the executable to launch local server and load selected world. When this parameter is used, config is ignored. Server parameter can be combined with addons and addonsDir parameters to start a server with local mods, which can be useful when testing addon before uploading it Workshop.

ArmaReforgerServer.exe -server "worlds/MP/MPTest.ent" -addonsDir "C:\MyModsDir" -addons MyCustomMod

Others

The below Startup Parameters are optional but may prove useful upon some cases:

• logStats - allows to log server's FPS every x milliseconds
• logLevel - sets the log detail level
• listScenarios - logs available scenario .conf file paths on startup

Configuration File

See Server Config.

0.9.7

Player-Hosted Server

Also known as Listen Server, a Player-Hosted Server is a server also hosting a local player. Such server is started from within the game, in Multiplayer > Host tab > Host new server.

␿

Player-hosting is only available on PC.

Settings

The settings are all self-explanatory and Dedicated Server can be used.

Scenario Selection

Scenario and Source are two related fields:

• Scenario is the list of all available scenarios
• Source is a read-only field telling from which mod (or Arma Reforger) the selected Scenario is.

Crossplay

This option allows console players to join - see supportedGameClientTypes.

Mods

This tab allows to enable or disable local mods to make them available to the hosted game (or not). The Workshop is accessible from here.

Linux Server

The game server will by default use Docker container's IP for server browser registration and client connection which will cause failure during client connection attempt.
To avoid it use:

• Run the "ipconfig" command in cmd to list the local IPs
• "IP Connect" option in the server browser and insert one of the server's local IPs
• Custom server config (.json file) with "gameHostRegisterBindAddress" and "gameHostRegisterPort" parameters set to one of the local IP:Port combinations

Example:

-config "./My_Config.json"
ClientConnectAddress 192.168.39.98

SteamCMD Setup

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This tutorial has been tested on Ubuntu.

1. Install SteamCMD - for the latest documentation, see https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD
   1. Download and install it (link on the SteamCMD page) - it will auto-update to the latest version
   2. Set the install path with the force_install_dir command (otherwise the default location will be used, home/<username>/.steam/steam/steamcmd)
      1. You can name the folder arma-reforger, armaR, armarserver, armarexpserver and etc
   3. Login as anonymous - type in login anonymous
2. Download and install the server app_update 1874900
   1. 1890870 for experimental version
3. Quit SteamCMD quit

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To run Arma Reforger's server, run ./ArmaReforgerServer in the installation directory.

Example Script

update_armar_ds.txt

Based on the SteamCMD page's example

// update_armar_ds.txt
//
@ShutdownOnFailedCommand 1
@NoPromptForPassword 1
force_install_dir ../armar_ds
login anonymous
app_update 1874900 validate
quit

Execution

steamcmd +runscript update_armar_ds.txt

With Bash Scripts

1. Install SteamCMD

   sudo apt install steamcmd
   

2. create a directory lets say armaR somewhere, lets say /home/<username>/armaR
3. Create in it a steam shell script that will install reforger server steamShell.txt with something like

   @ShutdownOnFailedCommand 1
   login anonymous
   // Stable ID: 1874900 EXP: 1890870
   app_update 1874900 validate
   quit
   

4. then create bash script that will install/update game steamInstall.sh with:

   /usr/games/steamcmd +force_install_dir /home/<username>/armaR +runscript /home/<username>/armaR/steamShell.txt
   

5. after that, server startup script start.sh with:

   // Install or Update game
   ./steamInstall.sh
   // Start server
   ./ArmaReforgerServer -config /home/<username>/.config/ArmaReforgerServer/config.json -profile /home/<username>/.config/ArmaReforgerServer -maxFPS 60
   

6. So the actual file tree will look something like this:

   /home/<username>/armaR
   				steamShell.txt
   				steamInstall.sh
   				start.sh
   

7. Then create actual config.json at /home/<username>/.config/ArmaReforgerServer/config.json, create folders if they don't exist
8. Run start.sh to install the server and start it.

Console logs etc can be found in above mentioned profile folder, addons will also install there by default, you can again change that.

You can also change profile/config directories as desired.

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You can then create new service for systemctl to run start.sh and the thing will run in the background and auto restart after crashes etc

LinuxGSM

The Arma LinuxGSM Tool can also be used.

1. It can monitor the game server by checking that the proccess is running and querying it. Should the server go offline LinuxGSM can restart the server and send you an alert. You can use cronjobs to setup monitoring.
2. Update checks for any server updates and applies them. The server will update and restart only if required. This also needs to be set up on a schedule.

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For server's experimental version, add appid="1890870" to your ./lgsm/config-lgsm/armarserver/armarserver.cfg and validate files by ./armarserver v.

Docker Setup

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This Docker configuration is adapted to Ubuntu. Other distributions such as Fedora or Arch Linux may store their certificates at the following location: /etc/pki/ca-trust/ - be sure to edit the configuration accordingly.

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A community Docker image is available on GitHub: https://github.com/acemod/docker-reforger

1. Install the latest Docker:
   1. Download and install Docker
   2. Enable Hyper-V in Windows if it is not already
   3. Assign HW resources in Docker/Settings/Resources/Advanced:
      1. CPU: 4 cores
      2. Memory: 6 GB
2. Download Ubuntu 18.04 image via batch or powershell cmd: docker pull ubuntu:18.04
3. Run Ubuntu image:
   1. mount volume with server data
   2. expose client connection UDP port
   3. Example: docker container run -t -d -p 2001:2001/udp -v D:\server_data\linux_packed:/home/packed --name ubuntu_test ubuntu:18.04
4. Connect to bash console: docker exec -it ubuntu_test /bin/bash
5. Install necessary software:
   1. libcurl4 - required by server app
   2. net-tools - for debug purposes (enables ifconfig etc)
   3. Installation:
      1. apt-get update
      2. apt-get install libcurl4
      3. apt-get install net-tools
      4. apt-get install libssl1.1
6. Create logs directory, e.g: mkdir /home/profile
7. Run server:
   1. server executable needs proper execution/access rights:
      1. cd server_root_folder
      2. chmod +x ArmaReforgerServer
   2. Example: ./ArmaReforgerServer -gproj ./addons/data/ArmaReforger.gproj -config Configs/ServerConfig/Campaign.json -backendlog -nothrow -profile /home/profile