Server Manual

Getting started

It is much easier than it looks to get a server up and running for your internet or LAN buddies: follow this wiki article and you will hopefully be on your way to hosting your own MTA:SA DM Server in no time!

Installing the server

The dedicated server application is available in different flavours depending on the platform of the server.

Ubuntu

I installed the server on ubuntu 6.05 LTS. I will add installation instructions for other linux distros at a later time. This install was done on a fresh os install so a few things have to be installed first. First of all ssh into your server using whatever client you like. I prefer putty. Start by typing sudo apt-get upgrade It will prompt you to put your password in again. After the upgrade is done running type sudo apt-get install pico this will install the easy to use pico text editor that you will use to edit the config files. After the install is done running you need to get a copy of libcurl3 for the server to run so type sudo apt-get install libcurl3 Once again it will ask you for your password. Once this is done now we have to get the server program onto your Linux server. There are a few methods for doing this. you can install a ftp server. you can use putty file transfer. If you know someone with a website you can ask them to put the file on their website then use wget http://wwww.websitename.com/file.tar Obviously where website name is change to your friends website. Either way once you have the tar file on your server you need to unpack it you do this by using the command tar -zxvf filename.tar

Gentoo

I assume that if people are using Gentoo, they know enough of an operating system to get files from the web to their server theirselves... (otherwise, look above and read the ubuntu part)

These versions I needed for DP2:

Update your gcc version to 4.2.2:

• unmask gcc in /etc/portage/package.unmask)
• emerge gcc
• switch to gcc 4.2.2: gcc-config i686-pc-linux-gnu-4.2.2

Update your libstdc++ version to 3.3 if you haven't got that version

• emerge libstdc++

Install libcurl:

• emerge libcurl

Unpack mtasa, and run it...

Windows installation

Installation of the MTA:SA DM server on Windows is easy as pie.

• Go to the download page and scroll down to the "Dedicated servers" section
• Click the Windows download link.
• Once the installer is downloaded, open it.
• Select a folder where you want to install the server.
• Click Install.
• Done!

For a full explanation of acl.xml (access control list) read: Access Control List

Configuring your server

The Multi Theft Auto dedicated server is initially configurable through it's console window, from within the game, and from a webbrowser. In order to make use of the two last options, it is necessary to add at least one administrator user to your configuration file.

General configuration

All general configuration options can be found in the 'mods/deathmatch/mtaserver.conf' file and can be opened by any regular text editor.

This file is fairly straightforward; every variable has a description of what to do with it and how to change it.

Adding administrators

It is strongly recommended to add at least one administrator to your server in order to make use of the built-in webserver to easily maintain and configure your server. This administrator will then also be able to log-in from within the game and control the server.

To add an administrator to your server, follow these steps:

1. Make sure your server is stopped; if your server is still running, all changes you make will be overwritten
2. Open the file 'mods/deathmatch/'accounts.xml' with any text editor
3. Add a new account into the file by using the XML-syntax below, we use the username "BennyLava" with password "123password" for illustration purposes

   <accounts>
     ...
     <account name="BennyLava" password="123password" />
   </accounts>
   

4. Save and close the file
5. Open the file 'mods/deathmatch/'acl.xml' with any text editor
6. Add the account to the Admin group by using the XML-syntax below

   <ACL>
     ...
     <group name="Admin">
       <acl name="Admin"/>
       ...
       <object name="user.BennyLava" />
     </group>
     ...
   </ACL>
   

   You can actually add your user to any group you want. Each group is linked to an ACL (Access Control List). Each ACL contains a series of specific allowed or denied rights. These groups exist so different users can be assigned different rights. The Admin group points to the Admin ACL, which is empty (thus allowing all possible commands). The Everyone group points to the Default ACL that puts a series of restrictions on the available commands (to disallow regular players from using admin commands).

7. You're done! You can add as many administrators or users as you want this way, take a look at some of the other groups and ACLs for example. The ACL is also accessible through the Lua scripting engine.
   It is recommended to take a look at the web interface, we will explain how to do this below.

Note 1: Do not edit any of the .xml files while the server is running. Any changes you make will be overwritten!
Note 2: Changing these files requires a restart of the server.
Note 3: There are also ways to add accounts and edit rights for the server while it's running. "addaccount <user> <password>" is an internal command to add accounts, but you will have to use the web interface to add these accounts to specific groups/ACLs!

Using the web interface

The dedicated server comes with a few Lua resources that provide a nice little web interface to your server. This can be used to easily maintain your server, as it allows you to add users, start/stop resources, and more.

The web interface resources are enabled by default and are served through the built-in HTTP web server. To make sure the built-in HTTP web server runs on a port you like (22005 by default), follow these steps:

1. Make sure your server is stopped
2. Open the file mods/deathmatch/mtaserver.conf with any text editor
3. Verify that the HTTP server is enabled:

   	<httpserver>1</httpserver>
   

4. Change the HTTP server port to your liking:

   	<httpport>22005</httpport>
   

5. Save and close the configuration file
6. Start your server
7. Open a web browser (Internet Explorer 6 or 7 are NOT supported: use Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera or others) and navigate to the HTTP server URL: http://server:port/. For example, If you are running a local server on HTTP port 22005, use http://127.0.0.1:22005/.
8. Enter the username and password of the administrator you added in the previous section.

You should now be able to maintain your server from the web interface.

Configuring an external web server

For performance or consistency reasons, you could choose to make use of an external web server already set up and running, instead of the built-in web server. The external web server needs to be accessible for the public, so any client will be able to download the necessary client-side files in order to join and play on your server.

To enable downloading off an external web server, you should configure the httpdownload and httpdownloadurl tags in your server configuration:

<httpdownload>1</httpdownload>	
<httpdownloadurl>http://www.myserver.tld/directory/here</httpdownloadurl>

Since all the default resources provided with the dedicated server are zipped, and are normally automatically extracted by the built-in web server, you now have to provide a way for the clients to download the unextracted files to their computers. The unextracted files are always available in the <SERVER>/mods/deathmatch/resourcecache directory.

1. Launch the dedicated server once and exit again. This will extract the zip files into the <SERVER>/mods/deathmatch/resourcecache directory.
2. Go into the directory above and copy the resources to your external web server's public directory, this can be done in several ways:
   • If you don't care about your server-side files being publically available: create a symbolic link (Linux), a junction (Windows) or just plain copy the contents of the resourcecache directory to your public web server directory.
   • If you don't want your server files to be publically available through your web server: go into the resourcecache directory and manually copy the folders over to your public web server directory, removing any server-side files (they are not necessary for the client-side downloading) you do not want to be hosting on your web server.
     
     A quick way of securing your server-side files is currently not available. We will investigate into developing a tool that automatically copies only the necessary client-side files for all resources on your server.

Note 1: Please try to avoid any special characters (e.g. ~, !) in your download URLs.
Note 2: Please do not use a trailing slash in your download URL (e.g. hxxp://www.myserver.tld/directory rather than hxxp://www.myserver.tld/directory/)

Starting your server

Begin by making sure that you have finished all configuration of your server, starting your server is the last stage so everything must be ready!

To start your server double click on MTA Server.exe, make sure you allow it through any firewalls and forward ports where nessessary.

Installing/Updating resources on your server

Resources can come in two formats, either a ZIP format or just a normal folder with the script files inside it. The MTA:SA DM server supports both these methods.

1. Move or copy the new resource to your <SERVER>\mods\deathmatch\resources folder.
2. In the server window type in the command "refresh" (without the quotes), this will re-scan the resources folder and update the live resources where necessary.

Uninstalling resources

Resources can easily be removed from your server if you no longer want them.

1. Delete the ZIP file or the folder of the resource you wish to uninstall
2. In the server window type in the command "refresh" (without the quotes), this will re-scan the resources folder and update the live resources where necessary.

Administrating your server

You can start resources by typing the command "start resourcename" in the server console, or stop ones with "stop resourcename".

It's also possible to execute these and other admin commands from the ingame console (which you can bring up with the ` key or F8); for this to work, you first need to log in with the command "login username password". Additionally, you can press the p key to bring up the admin panel: this is a graphical interface which allows you to easily kick or ban misbehaving players, among others.

For further commands, type "help" in a console.

Starting a map/gamemode

See the commands section of the documentation for mapmanager for more information.

Remotely administrating your server

This article assumes you have setup a working account with 'Admin' user rights, and have these resources started:

1. resourcebrowser
2. resourcemanager
3. webadmin
4. webmap

Please make sure that you have followed the steps above, involving creating your administrator account and setting it's right before you can access these tools.

You're able to access these great remote admin tools by visiting http://<yourserverip>:<httpport>/resourcebrowser in your Firefox. NOTE: Internet Explorer will NOT work, it will not display the resource browser, other browsers (Opera namely) will have mixed results. If you want it to work in Internet Explorer, feel free to recode the resource :)

Useful Notes

1. You may also update the resources while ingame as long as you have the correct access levels by typing "refresh" in the clients console or "/refresh" in the chat window. This may cause a second of lag if you have many resources.
2. In the above instructions, <SERVER> is the path to your server's main directory. In most cases this is C:\Program Files\MTA San Andreas\server
3. You can choose a different config file for the server to use by passing it in the command line after a --config argument, e.g. mtaserver.exe --config anotherconfig.cfg.
4. Do not be alarmed by the warning regarding the parsing of the settings.xml file. This happens because your server installation is still clean and unused.

Need further help?

Why not pop over to our Forums or join us on IRC (irc.multitheftauto.com #mta - MIRC)