restarting the server does allow mods to update but I have also noticed that after so many they start to get errors. I know others have stated this and seems to happen on every mod even after clearing out the mod file so not sure whats going on but hope it also helps your back end in development.
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I would love to see a feature to auto-backup the game’s save files, currently I’m running a batch file that does this for me. Is there anyway you could make this auto-backup feature to allow a destination to save the files?
Also it’d be ideal to have this be able to run without shutting down the server (from my understanding, this would be very difficult and nearly impossible to do).
I also noticed, that I have to click “Test Port Accessibility” twice in order to get all green to light up.
First Click:
- Game Client Port (Red)
- Raw UDP Port (Green)
- Steam Query Port (Green)
Second Click:
- Game Client Port (Green)
- Raw UDP Port (Green)
- Steam Query Port (Green)
Not the end of the world for this of course, but just a minor flaw I noticed.
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I was not aware of that, but apparently it’s a SteamCMD bug that seems to impact other games, both on Windows and Linux.
Some people are saying that deleting the appmanifest_xxxxx.acf in the steam apps folder fixes it, but some other people are reporting that the fix did not work for them 
Guess I’ll have to poke at Valve to see if they have a solution to that.
There are multiple strategies for backups, including how many files and how many days of backup you want.
For example the backup could contain only the game.db file, but it could also contain the log file as well as the config folder (can be useful for postmortem examination of what happened between two launches of the game).
The system could also save in subfolders named based on the date and time of the backup.
That obviously brings the question of cleaning the backups, because with the auto-restart you can easily get gigs of data quite fast.
Also it’d be ideal to have this be able to run without shutting down the server (from my understanding, this would be very difficult and nearly impossible to do).
Well, that’s the same reason why you don’t want to CTRL-C on the main server window (like somebody asked earlier), when you do that, you have no guarantee that you are dealing with a fully saved/complete version of the game.db file.
I guess a shadow copy would work, but that brings a whole new world of pain.
Imo, auto-backup on shut-down is probably the safest, that would work nicely with the auto-restart feature.
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I made a new TEST version of the tool: This is a test release candidate… which means it can be badly broken.
Basically, I had to do quite many changes to the internal logic to handles the restart, so possibly I broke some features, but I don’t have any tester, so you are my testers.
Dedicated Server Launcher 1.0.10 TEST CANDIDATE
Dedicated Server Launcher 1.0.10 - TEST CANDIDATE:
- Moved some of the information (operating system version and uptime) to the status bar at the bottom to free up some space in the UI
- Moved the SAVE button to the bottom right of the UI (over the START/STOP button)
- Added a RESTART button (under the START/STOP button)
- Added some information to the log file to indicate when the server stopped or started
- Added an auto-restart feature that allows users to define a time of the day when the server should be restarted (as well as a minimum uptime value so you don’t get the case where you just restarted your server after some maintenance and then it auto-restarts just after)
What I need is:
- That some of you test the usual features (settings, deployment, update, stopping, etc…) and see if nothing’s broken
- Test if the “Restart” button does work as expected (the auto-restart is just calling this function, so if the button is not behaving the auto-restart will not work either)
- Test if the auto-restart feature makes sense and works as expected
- Tell me if the UI reorganization (position of the Save button, reordering of sections, …) makes sense or if it’s confusing
- Tell me if the default values make sense
Regarding the auto-restart, you do have three new controls:
- A checkbox which defines if the auto-restart is enabled or not
- A 24 hours time selection control used to define the time of the day when the server will restart (default is 6 AM)
- A 24 hours time selection control used to define the minimum uptime of the server before a restart (default is 2 hours)
The rationale for the uptime is that if for some reason you had to do some maintainance on the server, change some settings and restart it, you probably don’t want the system to restart it a couple of minutes or hours later just because that was the planned restart time.
Here is what the modified UI looks like:
(I know that a few elements are not correctly aligned, I’ll fix that if the version is greenlit)
Crossing fingers that everything works.
Have a good weekend 
2 Likes
The restart option works well and easier then having to shut down the server and restarting the server. Noticed the restart of the server is a bit faster as well with the restart option. So far the changes look and work well. One of my clan members suggested that maybe a way for us to announce when the server goes down, A warning system if you want to call it that, One that states “Server will restart in 10 minutes” Another warning at 5 minutes then again at 2 minutes before it actually restarts that way it gives them ample time to get to safety. I know I can put it in the Mod or I can put it on our discord but there like he said they do not pay attention to a clock lol.
2 Likes
Pfiuu, dodge a bullet there! 
Noticed the restart of the server is a bit faster as well with the restart option.
So far the changes look and work well.
Strange, there should not be any reason for a performance change really.
Maybe I had a bug in my state machine and that somewhat got fixed when I tinkered around.
One of my clan members suggested that maybe a way for us to announce when the server goes down, A warning system if you want to call it that, One that states “Server will restart in 10 minutes” Another warning at 5 minutes then again at 2 minutes before it actually restarts that way it gives them ample time to get to safety. I know I can put it in the Mod or I can put it on our discord but there like he said they do not pay attention to a clock lol.
I was considering add a minimal support for RCON:
- One additional edit field to select the RCON port (in case people have more than one server)
- One edit field with a “send message” button
I could reuse that to send the information messages you are suggesting.
Reasonably, after that feature, I’ll probably have to put aside the work on the tool for a while (*), because well, I do have work to do on other tools and tech stuff 
(*) With the exception of the backup feature and the occasional additional edit field exposed to the UI
2 Likes
It looked as though when you had to stop the server manually it took a bit longer vs just hitting the restart. Its more like the timing from the SteamCMD as I noticed Ark is the same when having to manually restart it and just hitting the restart button. Its trying to clear out more information vs then just refreshing the information I think.
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I updated the first post with the information regarding 1.0.10.
I’ll try to get the backup feature done today, not sure for the rcon notification (I need to first to see how that even works)
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Thanks for the new version of Dedicated Server App. It works well. I just have a question. Have you tested the Maximum Tick Rate? It looks like 30 is default. Have you tried 60? What is your recommendation?
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Cool, thanks for the report
I fear I will have to copy-paste here the actual discussion we had about the topic:
So there you go.
Basically this value controls how often the server will run the “engine loop”.
The higher the value, the more reactive the server will be… if it can!
You have to remember that it’s more or less the same code that runs on your local machine which also runs on the server, the main difference being that the server has to deal with all the other players as well, plus all the server specific game logic, so you need to have a machine vastly more powerful (CPU wise) than what your average desktop computer can handle if you want to run at high server tick rate.
The game has been designed to run ok at a rate of 30 (the default value), which is a sane default for most people.
Now, if you have a very good machine, with fast disk drives, high clock rate, good internet line, you can probably move the value up, and see how it goes: Most probably a machine that can handle 70 players at a tick rate of 30 will struggle to handle 70 players with a 60 or higher tick rate.
But technically you don’t risk anything in trying, it’s not going to burn your house or make your computer melt, at worse it will run like crap and your players will complain
Also, one last thing: Not all UE4 games are equal. It’s not because 30 worked on some other UE4 based game that it will work fine for Conan, and vice versa. Different versions of Unreal have different net code, different type of game play which impact how much time is spent calculating or moving things, some are doing heavy physics, some have large streaming areas, etc.
It’s not a “one size fits all” type of situation.
And games get patched all the time, so a value that worked well before a big DLC that brings a ton of new stuff can works worse later. It’s a permanent fight all around to try to get the best balance for the largest number of people.
</wall of text>
4 Likes
Here is a new version of the tool:
Dedicated Server Launcher 1.0.11
Dedicated Server Launcher 1.0.11:
- The log files should now be cleanly stored in their own subfolder instead of polluting the main installation folder.
- Added a startup check to validate that there is only one Dedicate Server Launcher handling each specific game server installation
- Added a basic backup functionality: After stopping the server, the tool will copy important files (game db, last log file, game/engine/settings ini files) to the backup destination in a separate sub-folder
- Added some basic Rcon setup to allow users to easily change the ports and passwords, as well as broadcast messages to all connected players
- Added the possibility to send messages to the players automatically at a pre-determined amount of time before a server restart
Please report any problem you found, and in case of major issue, do not hesitate to revert back to the previous version.
Thanks.
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When setting up the server message and the port for the Rcon which port type do we use. a UDP will not work and FTP and HTTP also will not. Wither you still have to set it up as a UDP and the tool is not green lighting it or need to have a bit of information so people know which ports to open for the game =)
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The port testing for that one is not enabled (that’s why it stays gray), the reason is that the port is using a TCP connection (I need to modify the webserver code that handles that), but normally you should still be able to have the local Rcon connection working, you need the firewall/routine rules only if you want to use rcon from outside the server.
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Gotcha and adding that bit of message helps as now I do not have people getting upset and flooding discord with “why is the server restarting” messages even if its in out message screen when logging in so thank you for adding that.
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Hi, im new in this games and i enjoy so much about this games, currently i already setup dedicated server for my friend to join and i would like to thanks for making this tool, all is working great and easy to setup server using this tool. Before this i only using batch file from youtube about running and monitoring server, the monitoring server batch file is great cos it can monitor if the server crash or close it will reopen the server. Does this tool also have this function ? Thanks again for making this tool and may GOD bless u
2 Likes
Here is a new version of the tool:
Dedicated Server Launcher 1.0.12
Dedicated Server Launcher 1.0.12:
- Fixed incorrectly initialized timer controls on new installs of the system
- Added the missing Rcon port testing (TCP port)
- Modified the port tester to use the current values used in the UI instead of the ones saved
This is just a minor upgrade really
Please report any problem you found, and in case of major issue, do not hesitate to revert back to the previous version.
I updated the documentation page to clearly indicate that the three main ports are using UDP while Rcon ports needs TCP.
Also fixed the tool to do the port checking for TCP.
Glad that you found it useful
Enjoy the game!
1 Like
I love that you took into account our suggestions! Dude you’re doing an amazing job! Please keep up the amazing work!!!
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Well, there was a set of suggestions that made sense taken as a group.
My original idea was just to make a tool to easily edit the settings and run the server, I did not really consider the issue of needing to regularly stopping the server for doing backups and updates (mostly because I don’t play on my own server ).
So, when the new idea became to make it possible to also do the automated maintenance, a certain number of features that had been suggested made sense: If you auto-restart, then yes, warning people about it make sense, same as doing the backup at the same time, which also implies that rcon support so messages can be sent.
That being said - bugs excepted -, I will probably not release any new versions in a while because as I said earlier, I’ve other stuff to work on (Funcom is not a 2000+ employees mega-corp).
If you (ie: users of the tool) can think of really important features, try to pool together the ideas and suggestions, sort them from most to less important, and tell us why they are important and how you think they should be working.
I will then discuss with my boss to see if I can get some time made available to work on the feature.
5 Likes
Hey Toolguy,
I could not find a definitive answer to this question, so I apologize if I am repeating myself here.
If I’m running two instances of this application, I noticed they aren’t conflicting in anyway (so far?). Now I’m wondering how I can setup the port-forwarding of these two servers.
The first server has all default ports:
Game UPD Port: 7777
Raw UDP Port: 7778
Steam Query Port: 27015
These ports are all currently working as intended and have been portfowarded.
Since these ports are being used by my first server, I am trying to run a second server on the same computer.
Question 1:
Which ports do I need to change/open in order to run a secondary server?
Question 2:
Will I need set the Multi-home option on? To my understanding this was only for when you’re running the server and playing the game on the same computer, I am not playing the game on this computer.
Question 3:
Do I need all of these ports routed to my server?
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If you are wondering about something, there are probably ten other people wondering about the same thing
Ok, so your first server is running with the default settings, and it’s working fine.
That’s a good start!
Question 1:
Which ports do I need to change/open in order to run a secondary server?
All of them.
Basically you have to imagine that when the server starts, it grabs the ports: Nothing else can use them.
So when your first server is launched, it will try to listen to any connection happening on the ports 7777, 7778 and 27015. That means that no other server, client, tool, bit-torent downloader, etc… can use these ports, else this will conflict.
So, yes, you need to have a second set of ports for your second server, like for exemple 7779, 7780 and 27016, and yes they have to be port forwarded and firewalled-through as well.
Question 2:
Will I need set the Multi-home option on? To my understanding this was only for when you’re running the >server and playing the game on the same computer, I am not playing the game on this computer.
Well, multihome is kind of a complicated thing, and there are many possible setups that can work.
Some people have multiple network adapters, or network hardware and software that allows them to simulate having multiple network adapters, in which case you can have all your servers use the same ports… as long as they use a different IP.
In your case, you can probably do without it, as long as the ports are all different and routed correctly.
Question 3:
Do I need all of these ports routed to my server?
Yup.
It’s a real pain. Now imagine the poor guys at GPortal and other companies hosting servers, that have to run many hundreds of instances of dedicated servers, they must have so much fun doing server configuration and networking settings
3 Likes