Arma 3 Server¶

Installation¶

The Arma 3 server will require a certain package to be able to run, you can install it using the following command in a sudoer user:

sudo apt-get install lib32stdc++6

Modded Instance¶

To install the Arma 3 server, you'll need SteamCMD and a Steam account that has a license for Arma 3. Remember to do the following commands with the steam user (you can switch using sudo -iu steam).

Head over to the folder where SteamCMD is located and run SteamCMD:

login <username>

You'll be prompted for your password and your Steam Guard (2FA) code. Once you're in, change the directory where you want Arma 3 to be installed (use absolute paths):

force_install_dir /home/steam/arma3

You can now install Arma 3:

app_update 233780

Vanilla Instance¶

In case you want to run a clean and mod-less server I recommend you to install the server again in another folder to avoid having mod folders inside and keys for mods you normally want in a modded instance. Luckily, you can easily do this with SteamCMD, login with your account like we did previously and change the installation directory to somewhere else:

force_install_dir /home/steam/arma3vanilla

To install Arma 3:

app_update 233780

Configuring Server¶

Before any configuration process, we need to create the folders that we require to save the server profiles (where custom difficulties and vars are saved):

mkdir -p ~/".local/share/Arma 3" && mkdir -p ~/".local/share/Arma 3 - Other Profiles"

Server Profile¶

In order to use a server profile where we'll set up the custom difficulties, we'll need to create a folder inside the previously created folder with a name for the server:

cd ~/.local/share/Arma\ 3\ -\ Other\ Profiles/ && mkdir server && cd server

Here we can create the following file:

nano server.Arma3Profile

You can paste the following config or change it to your liking:

version=1;
blood=1;
singleVoice=0;
gamma=1;
brightness=1;
maxSamplesPlayed=96;
activeKeys[]=
{
};
playedKeys[]=
{
};
difficulty="Custom";
class DifficultyPresets
{
    class CustomDifficulty
    {
        displayName="Custom";
        optionDescription="Custom Difficulty";
        levelAI="AILevelMedium";
        class Options
        {
            reducedDamage=0;
            groupIndicators=1;
            friendlyTags=1;
            enemyTags=0;
            detectedMines=0;
            commands=1;
            waypoints=1;
            tacticalPing=0;
            weaponInfo=1;
            stanceIndicator=1;
            staminaBar=0;
            weaponCrosshair=0;
            visionAid=0;
            thirdPersonView=0;
            cameraShake=1;
            scoreTable=1;
            deathMessages=1;
            vonID=1;
            mapContent=1;
            autoReport=1;
            multipleSaves=1;
        };
        aiLevelPreset=1;
    };
    class CustomAILevel
    {
        skillAI=0.5;
        precisionAI=0.5;
    };
};
sceneComplexity=400000;
shadowZDistance=100;
viewDistance=1500;
preferredObjectViewDistance=1000;
terrainGrid=25;
volumeCD=10;
volumeFX=10;
volumeSpeech=10;
volumeVoN=10;
vonRecThreshold=0.029999999;

Server Config¶

Now, we'll go to the folder where we installed Arma 3 and create a config file with whatever name you wish:

cd ~/arma3
nano modded.cfg

You can paste the following config and change it or use whichever you want:

steamPort = 2303;
steamQueryPort = 2304;

hostname = "SERVER NAME";
password = "";
passwordAdmin = "SECRET";
maxPlayers = 32;
persistent = 0;

disableVoN = 0;
vonCodecQuality = 20;

voteMissionPlayers = 1;
voteThreshold = 0.66;
allowedVoteCmds[] =
{
    {"admin", false, false},
    {"kick", false, true, 0.51},
    {"missions", false, true},
    {"mission", false, false},
    {"restart", false, true},
    {"reassign", false, false}
};

timeStampFormat = "short";
logFile = "server_console.log";

BattlEye = 1;
VerifySignatures = 2;
kickDuplicate = 1;
allowedFilePatching = 1;

allowedLoadFileExtensions[] = {"hpp","sqs","sqf","fsm","cpp","paa","txt","xml","inc","ext","sqm","ods","fxy","lip","csv","kb","bik","bikb","html","htm","biedi"};
allowedPreprocessFileExtensions[] = {"hpp","sqs","sqf","fsm","cpp","paa","txt","xml","inc","ext","sqm","ods","fxy","lip","csv","kb","bik","bikb","html","htm","biedi"};
allowedHTMLLoadExtensions[] = {"htm","html","php","xml","txt"};

onUserConnected = "";
onUserDisconnected = "";
doubleIdDetected = "";
onUnsignedData = "kick (_this select 0)";
onHackeddData = "kick (_this select 0)";

headlessClients[] = {"127.0.0.1"};
localClient[] = {"127.0.0.1"};

As a side note, if you need to run servers with multiple configurations, you can always create more config files and use them at the server start.

Mods¶

Setting Up Case Insensitive On Purpose (ciopfs)¶

On a Linux based installation, Arma 3 modding becomes a bit complicated because of the Unix filesystem's case sensitivity, which renders mods with capital letters in their filenames unusable. Luckily we can fix this with a nice package called ciopfs. The following commands should be done through a sudoer user account.

sudo apt-get install ciopfs

Now we'll create 2 folders where we'll install the mods and mount them with ciopfs:

mkdir ~/arma3mods && mkdir ~/arma3mods_casesensitive
ciopfs arma3mods arma3mods_casesensitive

This change will be undone on system restart, so in order to have the following set itself up on system start, we'll need to create a service. Create the following service file:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/arma3ciopfs.service

Paste the following to the editor:

Description=Arma 3 ciopfs mount.

Wants=network.target
After=syslog.target network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=steam
ExecStart=/usr/bin/ciopfs /home/steam/arma3mods /home/steam/arma3mods_casesensitive
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10
KillMode=process

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Restart systemctl and enable the service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable arma3ciopfs.service
sudo systemctl start arma3ciopfs.service

Installing Mods¶

Now we can go back to our steam user and start up SteamCMD. After logging in, you'll need to force the installation directory to the arma3mods_casesensitive folder that we created previously (while ciopfs is mounted).

force_install_dir /home/steam/arma3mods_casesensitive

And install the mods that you need:

workshop_download_item 107410 <mod_id>

After they've been installed, we'll need to create symlinks from the mod folders to our Arma 3 server's directory. For this we'll need to access the ~/arma3mods folder that we created previously (note that all the filenames here are lowercase). For each mod we'll create a symlink from the id folder to the server folder with the mod name.

ln -s ~/arma3mods/steamapps/workshop/content/107410/<mod_id> ~/arma3/@<mod_name>

As an example, for the CBA_A3 mod:

ln -s ~/arma3mods/steamapps/workshop/content/107410/450814997 ~/arma3/@CBA_A3

Finally, we'll also need to copy the keys for each mod into the keys folder inside the server directory. Mod keys will be in the ~/arma3mods/steamapps/workshop/content/107410/\<MOD_ID\>/keys (sometimes the last folder will be key rather than keys). These keys will have a .bikey extension, and will need to be copied to ~/arma3/keys. Every time a mod gets updated, the keys should also be updated (replace the old ones with the new ones).

mkdir ~/arma3-data
mkdir ~/arma3-data/workshop && mkdir ~/arma3-data/keys
ln -s ~/arma3mods/steamapps/workshop/content/107410 ~/arma3-data/workshop
ln -s ~/arma3/keys ~/arma3-data/keys

Updating Mods¶

For the sake of simplicity we will just use a simple run-script instead of a full-fledged wrapper script. For this we will go to directory where SteamCMD is installed and we will create our little run-script:

nano update_arma3.txt

Inside the editor, paste the following, for each mod that you want to download/update you need to add a newline with the command workshop_download_item 107410 <addon_id>.

@ShutdownonFailedCommand 1
@NoPromptForPassword 1
force_install_dir /home/steam/arma3
app_update 233780
force_install_dir /home/steam/arma3mods_casesensitive
// For every addon, do the following
// workshop_download_item 107410 <addon_id>
workshop_download_item 107410 463939057
workshop_download_item 107410 333310405
quit

Now, we can make a small bash script so that we can easily run this run-script.

nano update_arma3.sh

Paste the following, make sure to change your username, here we're going to use the cached credentials so a password should not be required.

#!/bin/bash
./steamcmd.sh +login <username> +runscript update_arma3.txt

Make it executable:

chmod +x update_arma3.sh

Now, when we need to update the addons and the server files, just run the ./update_arma3.sh script.

Mods List¶

Here's a small list of the mods that I currently use:

Infinite Loading Screen Bug¶

Unfortunately, the Linux Arma 3 server can be a bit buggy, this is the case for servers that run certain mod combinations (in this case CUP and RHS) that will make clients get stuck on an infinite loading screen when joining the server, the server console will not display any error messages and will in fact freeze the process. It seems the only way to fix this issue is to disable BattlEye from the server configs. In the server config, change the following:

BattlEye = 0;

This will in fact turn off BattlEye on your server which will make it less secure against hackers, sadly it is the only fix for this weird problem.

Custom Missions¶

In order to run custom missions on your server, you'll need to add the .pbo files inside the mpmissions folder inside the Arma 3 server folder. You can get the .pbo files directly from Steam Workshop if you download the missions through this Workshop Downloader or from Armaholic.

Firewall Rules¶

Again, we'll need to add the following firewall rules:

sudo ufw allow 2302:2345/tcp
sudo ufw allow 2302:2345/udp

Running the Server¶

Now, to run the game, we'll create a small script so we can easily save the addons that we want to run and the configs that we want to load. Inside the Arma 3 server directory, create the script file (the filename with whatever you want):

nano start_<name>.sh

Inside the editor, paste the following:

#!/bin/bash
./arma3server -name=<server_name> -config=<config_file> -mod=@mod1\;@mod2\;@mod3...

An example for this script that runs ACE and CBA_A3.

#!/bin/bash
./arma3server -name=server -config=modded.cfg -mod=@CBA_A3\;@ACE

As per always, the script must be made executable:

chmod +x <script_name>.sh

Headless Client¶

A headless client is an instance of the game with no interface. The idea of having a headless client on a server is to reduce the load on the server process by taking control of the AI processing. This will (ideally) make the server run better and the AI more responsive since their processing will be done somewhere else, their reaction times will be much quicker.

Setting up a headless client is a trivial task. The first thing that should be done is modify the server config (.cfg file) to allow our headless client.

In server.cfg (or whichever it is the name of your .cfg file), add or edit the following lines with the IP address of your headless client:

headlessClients[] = {"127.0.0.1"};
localClient[] = {"127.0.0.1"};

Once the server config allows the headless client, we'll create a run script to start the headless client.

#!/bin/bash
./arma3server -client -connect=SERVER_IP -password=SERVER_PASSWORD -mod=@MOD1\;@MOD2...

Finally, make the script executable:

chmod +x start_hc.sh

Now you're ready. Start the server and then the headless client, which will connect directly and automatically offload the AI processing (if the mission implements headless clients properly).

Start Server and Headless Client Script¶

If you wish to run them both directly, you can create the following script:

#!/bin/bash
echo "Launching server..."
screen -dmS arma3-server /bin/bash -c "./start_antistasi.sh"

echo "Launching Headless Client..."
screen -dmS arma3-hc /bin/bash -c "./hc_antistasi.sh"

This will start both processes in two different screen windows. You can switch to them by using:

screen -rd arma3-server
screen -rd arma3-hc