[Tutorial] Dedicated Server on Linux using Virtualbox (Step by Step)

Hi guys!

I spent the last 1.5 days installing and troubleshooting a space engineers dedicated server on a linux server with virtualbox. This is a step by step guide to save you some time. I decided to make this tutorial quite detailed. If you are an experienced linux user you may skip some of my explanations.

This guide is far from optimal. Feel free to comment and improve this guide!


First a word of warning
Running a dedicated server in a virtualbox works fine! Anyway, don't expect your virtualbox to be extraordinally performant. To get acceptable performance you need to have a good server. So don't try this on your old single core linux box from your cellar.

Prerequisits
What you will need
A linux server (i use ubuntu - commands in this guide will be for ubuntu)
A licensed copy of SpaceEngineers
A licensed copy of a Windows Operating System (e.g. Windows Server 2008)
Some hours of free time

Let's Go!

-- Virtual Box stuff --

First things first! We need to install virtualbox on the linux server. Run the following command to install virtualbox from the package repositories.

Code:

sudo apt-get install virtualbox

Now let's create a new user on your linux box that runs the virtualbox.

Code:

sudo useradd -d /home/virtualbox -m virtualbox

This creates a user virtualbox and its home directory in /home/virtualbox.
Log in with your newly created user

Code:

sudo su - virtualbox

We will now create the virtualbox and configure it. Because we will need to enter it several times, we will define our virtualbox name in a variable

Code:

VM=SpaceEngineers\ Dedicated\ Server

Create a Disk for your operating system (e.g. 32 GB)

Code:

mkdir hdd
cd hdd
VBoxManage createhd --filename $VM.vdi --size 32768

Create the virtualbox for Windows Server 2008 64 bit

Code:

cd ..
mkdir vms
cd vms
vboxmanage createvm --name $VM --ostype "Windows2008_64" --register

If you want to use a different operating system you can find the ostype by issuing the command

Code:

vboxmanage list ostypes

Edit some of the settings of your virtualbox. You need to modify these to fit your needs

Code:

cd ..
VBoxManage storagectl $VM --name "SATA Controller" --add sata --controller IntelAHCI
VBoxManage storagectl $VM --name "IDE Controller" --add ide
VBoxManage modifyvm $VM --ioapic on
VBoxManage modifyvm $VM --boot1 dvd --boot2 disk --boot3 none --boot4 none
VBoxManage modifyvm $VM --memory 2048 --vram 256
VBoxManage modifyvm $VM --nic1 nat
VBoxManage modifyvm $VM --natsettings1 1500,1024,1024,1024,1024
VBoxManage modifyvm $VM --cpus 4
VBoxManage modifyvm $VM --memory 4096
vboxmanage storageattach $VM --storagectl "SATA Controller" --device 0 --port 0 --type hdd --medium hdd/$VM.vdi

To be able to connect to your (soon to be installed) windows we need to enable the vrdp extension of virtual box. Download the extension pack and install it

Code:

wget https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.3.12/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.3.12-93733.vbox-extpack
vboxmanage extpack install Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.3.12-93733.vbox-extpack
rm Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.3.12-93733.vbox-extpack
mkdir media

Be sure to match your Virtualbox version to the extpack version! Find a list of all extpacks here: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Now upload your Windows operating system ISO and save it to ~virtualbox/media/windows.iso
Mount the iso file and start the virtualbox

Code:

VBoxManage storageattach $VM --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 0 --device 0 --type dvddrive --medium media/windows.iso
VBoxManage startvm $VM --type headless

The rdp (Remote Desktop Protocol) is listening on port 3389. Forward port 3389 to any of your local ports using putty port tunneling or ssh port tunneling.
Connect to your windows with your favourite Remote Desktop Client and install windows. Do some basic configuration of your windows system.
Don't forget to install the .NET 4 Framework on your windows.

Now remove the iso file from your vm

Code:

VBoxManage controlvm $VM poweroff
VBoxManage storageattach $VM --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 0 --device 0 --type dvddrive --medium none

Now let's install the virtual box guest additions

Code:

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-guest-additions-iso
VBoxManage storageattach $VM --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 0 --device 0 --type dvddrive --medium /usr/share/virtualbox/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso
VBoxManage startvm $VM --type headless

Connect to the RDP and install the guest additions from the CD in the virtual CD Drive
After installing the guest additions remove the iso

Code:

VBoxManage controlvm $VM poweroff
VBoxManage storageattach $VM --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 0 --device 0 --type dvddrive --medium none

Now that your windows inside virtual box is up and running we can start installing the space engineers server. To do this, we will add a shared folder between your linux server and the windows guest and we will add another hard drive to your windows for the SpaceEngineers Data (Savegames, Configs etc)

Code:

mkdir -p shares/SE-Host
VBoxManage sharedfolder add $VM --name "Host" --hostpath ~virtualbox/shares/SE-Host --automount
cd hdd
vboxmanage createhd --filename SE-Data.vdi --size 10240 --variant Fixed
vboxmanage storageattach $VM --storagectl "SATA Controller 1" --device 0 --port 1 --type hdd --medium SE-Data.vdi
cd ..

You can now copy files between your host (linux server) and your guest (windows inside virtualbox) by putting files into ~virtualbox/shares/SE-Host on linux and into \\vboxsvr\Host on windows.


-- Space Engineers Server --

Now upload your SpaceEngineersDedicated.zip into the ~virtualbox/shares/SE-Host directory
and start your virtualbox again

Code:

VBoxManage startvm $VM --type headless

Log into your virtualbox, open the storage device manager and format your second HDD (10GB) and mount it with a drive letter of your choice (I chose S:\)

Go to computer and map a new network drive.
Map the network driver \\vboxsvr\Host to a drive letter of your choice (I chose H:\). Access the network drive and copy your spaceengineers.zip file. Extract the contents of the zip file to S:\.
Create two additional folders: S:\ called "Data" and "DedicatedData". We will use these folders to the files of the space engineers server (configurations, savegames etc.)
Create two links to your folders by opening a cmd on your windows and type

Code:

mklink /J C:\ProgramData\SpaceEngineersDedicated S:\Data 
mklink /J C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\SpaceEngineersDedicated S:\DedicatedData

You can now start your SpaceEngineersDedicated.exe from one of the S:\DedicatedServer or S:\DedicatedServer64 folders. Select the console instance and start your first game.
After your first game is started stop it again and look into the folders S:\Data and S:\DedicatedData. The server should have created some folders and files in one of them.
Which one is used depends on the windows version you installed in the virtualbox. For Windows Server 2008 the data is in S:\DedicatedData.

Configure your server settings to your needs and make sure that SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg contains the line

Code:

<OnlineMode>PUBLIC</OnlineMode>

Basically you can follow one of the available guides for hosting on windows to get your server up and running.

Hint: I had some problems using the default port for SpaceEngineers. I used a different Port instead (42000). So this guide will assume you selected 42000 as your server port
Hint: Do not enter your server's ip address into the ip address field. Keep it 0.0.0.0. The server will find the correct ip itself.

-- Network Stuff --

If you start your server now you will not be able to see the server in steam's list and you will not be able to join the game.
We need to do some network configuration before your server is available for everyone.

First disable the windows firewall inside virtualbox completely. This is no security problem because your virtualbox windows is protected behind its NAT Network adapter.
The outside world (the internet) can't see your virtualbox and can't connect to it. That's one of the reasons why you needed to tunnel the rdp port 3389.
I assume that your linux server has its own firewall like iptabes.

Now shut down the virtualbox by shutting down your windows the old fashioned way or by typing this into your command line (on the linux server)

Code:

vboxmanage controlvm $VM poweroff

We need to forward two ports from your host machine to your guest windows. These ports are 8766 and your selected server port (42000 in my case).
8766 is used by steam and is defined in your SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg

Code:

<SteamPort>8766</SteamPort>

To do this issue the following commands

Code:

vboxmanage modifyvm $VM --natpf1 ,udp,,42000,,42000
vboxmanage modifyvm $VM --natpf1 ,tcp,,42000,,42000
vboxmanage modifyvm $VM --natpf1 ,udp,,8766,,8766
vboxmanage modifyvm $VM --natpf1 ,tcp,,8766,,8766

I have a quite strict firewall setup on my linux server using iptables. So i have to explicitely allow the traffic on these ports

Code:

sudo iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 8766 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -I OUTPUT -p tcp --sport 8766 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -I INPUT -p udp --dport 8766 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -I OUTPUT -p udp --sport 8766 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -I INPUT -p udp --dport 42000 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -I OUTPUT -p udp --sport 42000 -j ACCEPT

Now boot your virtualbox again and start your SpaceEngineersServer

Code:

vboxmanage startvm $VM --type headless

That's it! You can now play on your space engineers server!

-- Problem 1 : Server not responding / Server not showing in server list --
If your server is not visible in the list of servers and it says "server not responding" up on entering
the ip address directly you need to modify how your virtualbox handles udp traffic.

In this case the virtualbox NAT network adapter fails to masquerade the source and destination ips of the udp
packages sent and received by your server. You can check this by running a packet sniffer on your windows.
You will see a lot of udp packages with source or remote ip address 10.0.2.2 (where 10.0.2.2 is the gateway address of the virtualbox) which is obviously wrong.

Solution: Change some network settings onyour virtualbox

Code:

vboxmanage controlvm $VM poweroff
vboxmanage modifyvm $VM --nataliasmode1 proxyonly
vboxmanage startvm $VM --type headless

-- Problem 2 : Server host has left the game --
You can see your server in steam and the ingame browser, but you can not join it.
Everytime you try to join your game it says "The server host has left the game".

This problem is related to the way that space engineers downloads the map from the server to the client.
To do this, space engineers servers tries to "punch a hole" in the Network address translation of the server and the client.
If you want to know more about this read up on STUN or STUNT protocol on wikipedia.

The problem is that your firewall blocks these STUN packets.

Solution: I have not yet found a satisfying solution for this.

But meanwhile you can fix this problem by just allowing all outgoing udp packages from your server

Code:

sudo iptables -I OUTPUT -p udp -j ACCEPT

This is not really satisfying as it opens way to big holes in your firewall but it works.

-- Problem 3: Slow map download
Again this seems to be related to STUN
To speed up the download open your udp input in your firewall

Code:

sudo iptables -I INPUT -p udp -j ACCEPT

-- You have reached the end --

Thanks for reading. I hope this helps you guys. I hope i did not forget any important steps.
Feel free to comment and give your feedback to improve this manual.

 

Hm I like this guide, I've gotten most of the way through.. but I am stuck at port forwarding / rdp, can you help me get past that? I just can't seem to connect no matter what I do to set that up...

 

This does nothing for WINE being broken with ore and all the loose ends it throws out, it just sets up a virtual machine and gets the files "ready", it does not give you a working DS of Space Engineers.
I just set up a virtual windows 2008 server on my Linux host, just because there is as of yet, no work-around for them to run under linux.

It's a great tutorial don't get me wrong, and half of the forwarding is not needed if you set the NIC correctly.
On your host (if its linux do ifconfig, if windows, use command prompt and do ipconfig ) to get your adapter name. And use vbox to set it accordingly.

My nic is nammed p135p1. When I do ifconfig

"p135p1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 48:5b:39:0a:27:7c"

is the first line after the "lo" local redirect adapter.

So in vbox I use "vboxmanage modifyvm WinServ08 --nic1 bridged --bridgeadapter1 p135p1 --cableconnected1 on"
You can assign the virtual machine's own IP once it is set up, and it will act just like a normal PC on your LAN connection with a 192.168.1.* address, able to also view shared folders over Network.

 

That seems incorrect sir, a virtual machine is in fact a full version of windows, there is no reason you cannot run the server perfectly fine in a virtual machine environment if setup correctly... how do I know? I work with them under totally different circumstances all the time... unfortunately, totally different lol, thus my problem making this guy work.. I hardly ever have to setup VMs on my dedicated hardware that is 3000 miles away from me... Makes it a little harder

 

To acces the virtualbox you need to connect to the vrdp port. Normally your virtualbox listens on port 3389. If you are not sure if your virtualbox listens on that port, start the virtual machine by issuing

Code:

vboxheadless -s <name of virtual machine>

It will then prompt you the port it listens on. If this port is open on your server just connect to your server ip on this port with windows remote desktop. If it is not open either open it in your linux firewall or tunnel it to your computer using putty / ssh. Here is a tutorial for putty https://www.cs.uu.nl/technical/services/ssh/putty/puttyfw.html
Specify a source port of your liking (e.g. 1234) and specify the remote address as "127.0.0.1:3389" (or any other port if your virtualbox listens somewhere else)
You can then use Remotede Desktop to connect to "localhost:1234" (use the source port you specified in putty)

Yes you are correct, and i have not stated anywhere that this tutorial is for wine or that it fixes any of the wine issues

Yes this is correct. If you want a bridged network. I did not use a bridged network for several reasons. Some of them are

• You will need an additional ip address, if you do this in a data center (this usually costs money)
• If you don't want to buy an additional ip address you will need to configure an additional router on your linux server
• This exposes the complete virtual machine to the internet. Making it vulnerable for attacks / hacks. Yes you don't need to do port forwarding, but instead you have to cope with a lot of security issues, and i don't like to cope with security issues on a windows server. It is (for me) much more comfortable to just deal with security issues on my linux box and have the windows virtual box behind my iptables firewall

 

Figured out what I was doing wrong..

I had the wrong version of virtualbox + extpack.. My Machine downloaded an older virtualbox and your link for the extpack is new, so I had to line up versions and tada, good to go

Thanks man, very helpful.. I'll report back on how it goes from here

 

Two things I've noticed:

1. Map download speeds are relatively slow, about 200-250 kB/s. With larger maps (13MB in my case) this becomes more of an issue. I know game servers can be quite inefficient (and sometimes come with artificial limitations) when transferring files vs regular old http. What speeds are you people getting?

2. Every now and then, the CPU usage spikes on the machine, clients are shown a "the server is not responding" message for ~5 seconds, and we think this might be the autosave kicking in. Has anyone else experienced this? The server is running on a 4770 with SSDs and 4GB of ram and 4 cores assigned to it. I/O performance shouldn't be an issue, but I know how slow VMs can be when it comes to this.

 

I have noticed slow map downloads and i have found two issues
1. You need to modify buffer sizes for udp packages in the virtual machine

Code:

VBoxManage modifyvm $VM --natsettings1 1500,1024,1024,1024,1024

I did a speedtest before and after this setting. Before speed was at ~2mbit/s. After those settings speed increased to ~140mbit/s. Still not the speed it should have (1gbit/s) but better than before.
2. I have increased map download speed by opening more udp ports. Opening all of the udp ports led to a map download of app. 10 to 20 seconds for a ~8mb map file. Fast enough for me.

For problem number 2: I have noticed something similar in regular time intervals. Approximately every 1,5 to 2 hours the server spikes and all clients lose connection until server restart. I don't know why yet.

 

I did that and it had no effect, at least not on transfer speeds in SE. The VM can reach speeds above 300Mbps on speedtest, but SE transfers are still just as slow.

 

Wahoo! My server is off to the races!

Thanks a ton for your help.. this is much much better than using wine... I hate wine..

Server is running like a champ, group id configured properly and I confirmed it only lets members of my group into the server!

Highly recommend this guide, should get sticky since it actually works.. no issues with slow downloads noted on my end, but I will investigate that more later and report back.

Thanks again

 

I have an issue.

Server says its up and running it is also connected to steam (if i could trust the server log) but i cant find my server in the steam server browser.

Ports are forwarded correctly to the VM and the server starts regullary maybe some bad config?

What shall i add in the IP field? the actual public ip of the host or the one from the VM?


i hope you guys can help me

Thanks in advance

 

Keep the ip adress 0.0.0.0 the server will then figure out the correct public ip address itself. That is the only way it works for me.

 

Well i looked for the official config and then i saw the thing with the 0.0.0.0 so it is currently running with this configuration but still i cant see the server online


EDIT: I've fired up a packet sniffer and i see bunch of UDP packets on Port 42000 with the source OR destination of 10.0.2.15 which is my VM's IP address is this correct?

Because i already changed the nataliasmodel to proxyonly


EDIT2: Im probably the stupidest person alive forgot to turn off windows firewall ... it works...

Thanks for the support ^^

 

You can cut a lot of the command line stuff from this tutorial by installing phpvirtualbox. It's nice web front end for virtualbox on linux.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/phpvirtualbox/