Server Management

This guide originally was posted on Steam from Neist.

## Introduction

This section describes how the game server works and how to deal with the different files linked to its configuration.

**The game server is now downloadable using an anonymous connection!**

The game server currently ONLY works on WINDOWS

The Linux version of the server will come ASAP, considering all the other things we will have to do during the weeks that will follow the early access release.

If you don't know how to host your own server manually, or if you're not very familiar with it, we highly recommend you to have a look at our partner PingPerfect which can provide you a server all ready to use with an easy and convenient access.

## Using SteamCMD

The players having a server provided by a server hosting company shouldn't need to use SteamCMD.

Once that done, connect to your server using Putty or any other software you're used to, and install SteamCMD on it.

*Note: If ever you get lost during one of the steps of this guide (which will not go very deep under the details that are not directly related to the H2o game server management) remember that google (or your favorite search engine) is your best friend to help you answer your question by yourself.*

Now you have SteamCMD installed on your server, you will have to run it.
SteamCMD will probably proceed to some updates, once that's done, connect to your Steam account using the command **login [account name] [password]** .

You can now log in anonymously if you don't want to use your account, using the command **login anonymous** .

Once you get successfully connected, you will have to use the command **app\_update 377610** to start downloading and installing the game server.

Notice that it will install the game server in the default folder where SteamCMD is installed. If you want to install the game somewhere else, I suggest you to have a look at the SteamCMD documentation, which is available in several languages.

The **app\_update 377610** command will have to be used every time you will want to update your game server, as the players will not be able to connect to a server that hasn't the same version as their own game.

## Run your server

Well.
Now you have your game server ready to launch, you will have to start using the command prompt if you are using the remote desktop on Windows (like us), otherwise you were probably already using it so far and you will probably know how to proceed.

In our case, we use Powershell to to perform the following steps.
So, open Powershell, then go to the folder where the game server is installed (this folder should contain the file H2o.exe), then enter **./H2o.exe -batchmode -nographics** to run the game server.

If every thing goes well, the game server should be running (check the Task Manager) but there are still some things to configure before being able to access it properly.

## Configure your server

The first time you run the game server, some files will be created next to the H2o.exe file: config.cfg and database\_list.db (inter alias).

Before going further into this step, make sure that your server isn't running anymore and that the previously named files are well present in the game server folder. If the server is still running, you can still use the Task manager to kill the game server process.

The config.cfg file can be opened using the notepad, this contains your server options, such as its name, the player limit and some other options that will be detailed a bit later because this file is going to change a lot during the next weeks / months.

The essential thing you have to do with this file is to modify the name of the server, in order to let the players find and recognize it in the server list.

*Note: If ever your config.cfg file (or any other) has been corrupted for any reason, and became unusable for the server, then just remove it from the game server folder and start your server again to generate a new one in a proper format.*

The database\_list.db file is also a very important file.
It contains the lists of the admin players and the banned players.

You have to know that the first player who will connect your server will automatically become admin if the admins list is empty.

We highly recommend you to fill the admins list before starting your server.

And for that, you will have to know your Steam account ID, which is the expected data for these lists. You should probably find it easily using your favorite search engine.

Once you know your Steam account ID, you will want to insert it the admins list.
The .db files are written in a SQLite database format and we currently use sqlite browser to explore and edit these files.
You should be able to easily find how it works concerning the admins list if you get your hands on it.

Notice that any changes made to the admins list will only take effect after a server restart. Even if an admin was added or removed in game by another one.

## Keeping your server up

This chapter is only relevant if you don't already know how to keep a program alive even if it is stopped or if it crashes.

If you are using the Windows remote desktop just like we do for the official servers, you can use knas restarter to watch you server and automatically restart it if it isn't running for some reason.

Remember that the servers are currently automatically closed every day to ensure that the servers are well restarted at least one time per day. You will actually NEED to use something to restart it automatically.

Admin Commands

This section explains all you need to know about using the **Admin** commands.

Vehicles Glossary

Items Glossary

### Improve the Guide

We hope this guide helped you to understand how to manage your own server!

If you ever want us to add some details or if you have an advanced experience and you want to help us to improve this guide, then feel free to leave a comment here or contact us!

Have Fun! = )

*The development team of H2o*