UBUNTU 18.04 updated server setup as of march 2020

[OG_Punisher]

hello everyone, this is my first post in the forums, i figured out how to get the Conan exiles server running on the UBUNTU server i built and streamlined the process to simple copy and paste. please note this is just to get the server up and running, no extra bells and whistles, haven’t bothered with mods, i’m not that experienced. i just noticed that some of the older posts are a little outdated and needed some fine tuning. theoretically you should be able to simply copy all text in boxes and paste in a terminal window and it should just work. feel free to comment with any fixes if anything is screwed up. any support from myself will be minimal due to scheduling but i will do my best

conan server setup:

sudo useradd -m conanserver

sudo mkdir /home/conanserver/server

sudo chmod +777 /home/conanserver/server

sudo apt-get install lib32gcc1 software-properties-common -y

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update -y

sudo apt-get install steamcmd

sudo apt-get install wine-stable

ln -s /usr/games/steamcmd steamcmd

steamcmd +@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows +login anonymous +force_install_dir /home/conanserver/server +app_update 443030 +exit

sudo apt-get install screen xvfb

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how to run:

cd /home/conanserver/server
xvfb-run --auto-servernum --server-args='-screen 0 640x480x24:32' wine ConanSandboxServer.exe -log

#run for five minutes initially before shutting down to allow ini config files to populate

update server:

steamcmd +@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows +login anonymous +force_install_dir /home/conanserver/server +app_update 443030 +exit

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change settings:

cd /home/conanserver/server/ConanSandbox/Config

sudo nano DefaultServerSettings.ini

not sure is it matters but my server is built with, ryzen 3 2400G, 16 GB ram, b450 MOBO currently a 650 GB HDD(will upgrade to ssd later for better startup[startup is pretty fast as is though])

also its a good idea to SSH into your server inorder to copy and paste without needing a desktop

note: eNti a concerned user brought up the need for added security of the server directory. if your concerned with idea of unauthorized users accessing your server directory simply login to your sever and type in the terminal window

chmod -777 /home/conanserver/server

(this will take away all permissions for the directory, so now we need to give permissions to the specific user you will be using )

(in order to actually do this however you will need to login as a super user because we took all permissions away in the previous step)

sudo su -
enter admin password

(enter you users name in place of the first ‘conanserver’ below ‘conanserver’ is my user in this example but you may want a different user having access)

chown conanserver /home/conanserver/server

exit

(please be sure to type exit as you do not want to leave your server with the super user logged in)

this is also a great way to make your server a ‘hard target’ for unsavory folks

also if im mistaken in how this patch is worded or you have an easier way please let me know so i may fix or add it.

[eNTi]

Let me know if you run into the same issue I had with constant disk I/O and the resulting latency issues.

Dedicated Linux/Wine Server Performance Issues

I’ve found the reason and a workaround: Disk I/O. More specifically mostly the writes to the Saved/ folder. The game somehow constantly (and in my opinion unecesssarily) updates the .db files in that directory. Probably to always have a recent safe file/backup in case of crashes or similar. Workaround: Create a ram disk for that folder or get a fast ssd/nvm drive. With a ram disk you need to make sure to make backups of that folder every so often to aviod the loss of your progress. Funcom shou…

Step 3 isn’t necessary.

Try running the game with ‘-useallavailablecores’.

[OG_Punisher]

i cant say i’ve experienced that issue but ill keep an eye out

[OG_Punisher]

@eNTi

Step 3 isn’t necessary.

if your referring to the chmod, i found it to be very necessary as the server simply would not install unless permissions were granted, this also resolves other issues referring to permissions that come up later.

[eNTi]

You are opening a security hole if you issue a chmod 777. You probably need to chown the directories and have the correct user install/update/start the server (steamuser in my case).

It’s bad advice. You souldn’t ignore security for the sake of convenience.

[OG_Punisher]

@eNTi

You are opening a security hole if you issue a chmod 777.

TL:DR you’re not wrong but its a game server not a bank server.

your definitely not wrong security is important for protecting your personal information and your using chmod + 777 for entire user accounts this can be a huge problem.

However, i assume in most cases when making a game server for a game then you really should not worry about targeted attacks(assuming no one ■■■■■■ off the quiet kid on the server farming turtles). someone needs to know who you are and how to get to you(sometimes they need a reason but sometimes they don’t), they need your public ip, your server ip (obtainable but not without some work) and they need at least the username and password of one user account(usually, unless they somehow got root privileges similar the issue with the zoom zero day attack, but at that point your screwed anyway) in order to even get in. if your doing this to a single directory that only controls one game server your fine. in fact as long as your not doing it to a directory in charge of bank records or personal information of yourself or clients your fine.

or you could be in my situation where you have multiple admins who need to access this one directory and i don’t know about you but id rather just make a profile for the guy and tell him what needs doing than bother coming up with a script to give permissions that i keep on the side. because we also use this box for other steam servers like GMOD, Minecraft, and other games and each actual user of the device is an admin anyway because of the purpose of the server the small size and relative knowledge of my admin team.

so its not bad advice, its alternative and broad, when you override convenience with security you get AVAST anti virus that sometimes stops users from using the internet because it is too controlling(or endless phone calls about the new guy not having access to the game server while your on vacation and the team forgot the admin password so you tell them and write it down which creates another security issue). most people reading this just want a server they use to play with friends not some vault to lock away their bank passwords.

however if you feel that the code could be improved upon through the method you mentioned i will incorporate an optional few lines of code for users in different case scenarios

TL:DR you’re not wrong but its a game server not a bank server.