Downloading and Hosting a Dedicated Server
Windows
SteamCMD
Dedicated servers are now downloaded using SteamCMD. This is a command line version of Steam.
You can download it from this page.
The first time you run it it will update and you will be left at a STEAM> console. You will want to log in. You can log into an anonymous account by typing:
Installing & Updating Garry's Mod Dedicated Server
If you want to specify a download folder then before you update enter this command:
force_install_dir
feature, or try reinstalling your server into another folder. You can also try entering force_install_dir
before logging into Steam via login
command.You can then install or update the Garry's Mod Dedicated Server by using the command:
It will slowly download or update.
If you wish to verify your server, enter this instead of the above:
Once it's done you can type quit at the console to exit or just close the SteamCMD window.
Automated
You probably don't want to do that every time you want to install/update a server. Don't worry - it supports command lines too.
Running the server
After downloading and installing the server files you can now run the dedicated sever.
You can either just run srcds.exe
directly or use its command line interface like so:
After initial installation
After installing your server you should set up your GSL Token and the server's location.
GSLT
Please see Steam Game Server Accounts (GSLT) for help with sv_setsteamaccount
. This is mandatory. Your server's ranking will be penalized if you do not do this.
Server operator rules
Please make sure your server conforms to Server Operator Rules.
Location flag
Next you should set your server's location. This is done via the sv_location
console variable. The convar should directly correspond to a flag icon stored in the materials/flags16/
folder, without the .png
extension. The maximum length is currently set to 5 characters.
The flag icon filenames follow the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2
country codes. (http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/flags/)
For example sv_location gb
will display the Great Britain flag, sv_location us
will display the USA flag, etc.
European Union has a special case: sv_location eu
Steam Workshop
Optionally you can add +host_workshop_collection <collectionID>
to your command line to automatically install workshop addons onto your dedicated server.
Please see Workshop for Dedicated Servers for help with workshop for dedicated servers.
Peer to Peer
Dedicated server can function in peer-to-peer mode. It can be turned on via the -p2p
command line parameter. On startup the server will tell you how players can connect to such a server manually.
Linux
Main article: Linux Dedicated Server Hosting
Installation
Install SteamCMD as per the recommendations from the Valve Developer Wiki.
Then install the GMod dedicated server in a similar manner to Windows:
The server is now available in ~/gmodds/.
Troubleshooting
If you get the error message
You are most likely running 64 a bit system and missing 32 bit libraries.
If the output of this command is x86_64, you are running a 64 bit system and need 32 bit libraries.
See this article on the valve wiki.
32-bit libraries on 64-bit Linux systems
macOS
macOS dedicated servers are no longer shipped.
The Experimental Branches
To update your server to the development branch, you'll have to launch your SteamCMD and enter these commands manually:
For the pre-release branch:
For the x64 branch:
To revert back to stable branch:
The development branch is updated regularly.