How to install ArmA 2 Linux Dedicated Server.

In this example we call our Linux user “arma” and we make “arma2” directory in his home dir which states game ArmA 2, when ArmA 3 comes out we create, you guessed; “arma3” dir.

1. install linux :)
2. upload all ArmA 2 files including Expansion\Beta\ directory into your /home/arma/arma2/ directory.
3. download arma2oa server binary from BIS.
4. unpack and run ./install

In 64 bit debian if you do not have the 32 bit libraries install them with:

apt-get install build-essential
apt-get install ia32-libs

The file “arma2oaserver” is your BIS provided starting script for the server binary.

Copy it to name of your liking for example “pmcbis-server” and “pmcvte-server” if you have two different setup's you want to run.

Edit the files and change the ARMA_DIR= to show:

ARMA_DIR=/home/arma/arma2

And CONFIG= to show:

CONFIG=server.cfg

See Security Notes!

And OTHERPARAMS= to show beta if you run it:

OTHERPARAMS="-cpucount=2 -beta=expansion/beta;expansion/beta/expansion"

Notice that any -mod= lines can be added in after the -beta line.

Then just start the server with command:

./pmcbis-server start

Stop it with command:

./pmcbis-server stop

You can query the status of the server with command: </code> ./pmcbis-server status </code>

Why two start scripts?

In our example we have “pmcbis-server” and “pmcvte-server” scripts, as the names suggest the first on is for BIS default no addons server and another is VTE mod server.

Our mod's server CONFIG= would show:

CONFIG=server_vte.cfg

Again, see Security Notes!

This is easy way to keep your server loaded with easily starting setup's.

There might be lot of garbage in the log, in this example “dubbingradio”, then use command with grep like this:

tail -f log.bis.2302.txt | grep -v dubbingradio

1. stop the server
2. upload new binary to the dir, unpack it.
3. run ./install
4. start the server

All done.

When you upload missions to your ArmA 2 Linux Dedicated Server, you need to remember that you cannot overwrite old mission names, you need to add version number to the file name or something else, also when you do this you need to change the version number in the mission Name field in mission editor so you can actually pick the missions apart from each other in multiplayer lobby.

After the missions are uploaded, run ./tolower in the server root dir to make sure all missions are in lower case.

When you delete old missions from the server, you need to restart the server as it will crash if someone attempts to load the deleted mission.

You should place your server.cfg file outside of the arma root dir because hackers can access the root directory. Also the file name should be something unique and something that no hacker can guess. So lets say out of the blue something like this as an example:

CONFIG=su3jnv7xflgnsh5/serversh47cvkdfg3nbld.cfg

Wow, say that again?! Heh yes, looks horrible, but its pretty sure no hacker will guess that path + file name.

So you should make directory called:

/home/arma/arma2/su3jnv7xflgnsh5/

And place server cfg file there called:

serversh47cvkdfg3nbld.cfg

Remember the above is just an example and your own server should use unique path + file names to make them random so that nobody can guess their names!