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Written by Website Tutorials
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Tuesday, 13 June 2006 |
Plesk Game Server is an application package for the Plesk control panel that serves to facilitate configuration and management of dedicated game servers. The administrator can start/stop a game and configure parameters of a specific game running on the server. At present, the package supports two game modifications: Counter Strike and Condition Zero.
Installing Game Server PackageThe Game Server package becomes available for installing on your server once it has been added to the server's Application Vault (see the Using Application Vault Section in the current chapter). To install the Game Server package on the server, follow these steps: Click the  Server Applications button on the server administration page: Server Applications Management page opens; Click the  Add New Server Application button, and the page displaying server applications available for deploying on the server opens; In a list of available server applications, select the Counter Strike Game Server package and click the  Install icon located above the list; In the Enter path to HL server installation text input area, enter the full path to a directory where the game server files are located, or where you want the game server files to be installed; Select database server on which you wish a database for the Game Server application to be created. Click Install.
To uninstall the game server package from the server, select the check box corresponding to the application package on the Server Applications Management page and click Remove selected. On the next page confirm removal and click OK. Installing Game Server EngineOnce you install the Game Server package on your server, you will need to take a few steps to install the game server program files and other required components: Access the Server Applications page by clicking the Server Applications button on the server administration page; Click the  icon to the right of the Game Server application in the list, this leads to the start of the installation wizard, that will guide you through the installation process; Specify a Steam account settings. Steam is an on-line content delivery system designed by Valve corporation. It is used for retrieving game server installation files and updates through the Internet, provided that you are registered with Steam and have a valid Steam account. If you are not a registered user, and do not have a Steam account yet, select the Create a new Steam account option to register a new account, enter the required information and click Next, or OK, depending on whether you install a game server or update it correspondingly. If you already have a Steam account, please select the Use an existing Steam account option, enter the required information and click Next, or OK, depending on whether you install a game server or update it correspondingly. If you are not a registered user and the creation of a Steam account is unavailable, select the Use an anonymous Steam account option. Please note that using anonymous account makes some of the installation/update content unavailable, so it is recommended to use anonymous account only in the case described above. Click Next, or OK, depending on whether you install a game server or update it correspondingly.
Select the checkboxes corresponding to the game modifications you wish to install and click Next. The information on the Installation/Update Progress screen is not updated automatically, so click the Refresh button to know whether the game server installation finished or not. When the installation is completed, you can view the details of the installation process by clicking the hyperlink Details.
Now the game server engine is installed and you can proceed to creating game servers. Creating and Managing Game ServersAfter the installation steps are finished, you can access the Game Server management page where you can perform the following operations: You can see a list of existing game servers on the Game Server management page that is the first page that opens after you access the Game Server application. The following information is provided for each game server: Status icon - indicates the current status of a game server:  - the game server is running,  - the game server is stopped, and the  icon indicates that the game server is started but is not responding to ping requests.  Restart icon - click this icon to restart a game server.
Name - name of the game server defined during its creation. Click this name to make configuration changes to this game server. Modification - game modification name. Players - number of players that can simultaneously connect to the server. IP Address - IP address of the game server Port - port number the game server listens on
To set up a new game server, click the  Add CS Game Server icon on the Game Server management page (Server Applications -> Game Server). On the page of a new game server creation do the following: Enter a desired game server name to the respective field. Select a game modification you want to run on your server. Choose the operation mode. If your server is going to be restricted to LAN clients only, select the LAN Only option. If you are serving both LAN and Internet clients, select the LAN & Internet option. Specify whether the game server will be accessible at all IP addresses or at the particular one that should be specified in the respective input fields. Specify the port number the game server will work on. Default is 27015, or the first unused port higher in cases when several game servers exist. Specify the maximum number of players who can connect simultaneously to your server. Leave the Autoupdate check box selected to automatically update the game server through the Internet upon each start. If you set up a game server in LAN without Internet access, and do not want your game server to connect to WON authorization server, leave the Use WON checkbox deselected. If you wish, enter a RCON password. Remote Console password is required for the remote management of the game server. The RCON password is also used by Plesk for restarting the game server. If you wish to restrict access to your game server, in the SV password input field, specify the password that the authorized users will use for entering this game server. Leave the Start game server check box selected if you want the game server to be started right after its creation.
Click OK to complete creation of the game server. Then the new game server appears in the list of existing games. To start, stop or restart a game server: OR To remove a game server: On the Game Server management page, select the checkboxes corresponding to the game servers you wish to remove, and click Remove Selected. On the next page, confirm removal and click OK.
To refresh a list of game servers, click the  Refresh button on the Game Server management page. This will refresh the list of currently existing game servers. Configuring Your Game ServerTo configure a game server: On the Game Server management page, click the game server's name in the list of game servers. The Editing Game Server Settings page appears. Switch to the General tab. The settings that can be adjusted on this tab are listed in the table below. When done, click OK to submit the changes. The game server will be immediately restarted with new settings.
On this page you can adjust the following settings: Game Server Name -- the name that you would like to call your server. Configuration File -- select the configuration file that will be used for this game server. This drop-down list contains all configuration files available for this game modification. Operation mode -- if your server is going to be restricted to LAN clients only, select the LAN only option. If you are serving both LAN and Internet clients, select the LAN and Internet option. IP Address -- specifes whether the game server will be accessible at all IP addresses or at the particular one that should be specified in the respective input fields. Port -- the port number the game server will work on. Default is 27015, or the first unused port higher in cases when several game servers exist. If the game server is running behind a Plesk firewall, you should create firewall rules with the following characteristics: Affected port: 27012, UDP protocol Affected port: 270XX, UDP protocol (where 2700XX is the port that the current game server runs on)
For more information on the creating and editing firewall rules, see the section. Maximum number of players -- the maximum number of players who can simultaneously connect to your game server . Autoupdate -- use this to automatically update the game server through the Internet upon each start. Use WON -- if you set up a game server in LAN without Internet access, and do not want your game server to connect to WON authorization server, leave this checkbox deselected. RCON password -- Remote Console password is required if you wish to manage the game server remotely. The RCON password is also used by Plesk for restarting the game server. SV password -- Game server entry password. If you wish to restrict access to your game server, specify the password that the authorized users will use for entering this game server.
When a server runs, it uses settings from the basic configuration and those from a special configuration file that contains commands used to fine tune game servers and games. You can set several configuration files for each game server or use the same configuration file for all game servers. Advanced configuration means editing configuration files. To access the Configuration File management page, click the  Configuration Files button on the Game Server management page. On this page you can do the following operations: View the contents of the default configuration file Add new configuration files Edit existing configuration files Remove configuration files
You can view a list of existing configuration files on the Configuration File management page. The list has the following columns: Name - configuration file name Modification - game modification title Description - optional description of the configuration file Usage - number of game servers that use this configuration file.
To create a new configuration file, follow these steps: On the Configuration Files Management page, click  Add New Configuration File. On the next page, enter the configuration name in the Configuration File field and a description of this configuration file that will be displayed in the list of game servers, and select the game modification from the corresponding drop-down list. In the Content text input area, enter a list of commands. To generate the list of commands, we recommend that you use the Configuration Editor Tool available at http://server.counter-strike.net. To use the Configuration Editor, open http://server.counter-strike.net/server.php?cmd=tools# page and click the config editor link in the left navigation pane. A pop-up window will open. Specify required settings and click the Configure! at the bottom of the page. A list of commands will be generated and displayed in the Generated Server.cfg section of the page. Copy the generated commands to the clipboard, then return to your control panel and paste them into the Content text input area .Click OK to submit your configuration.
To edit the existing configuration file, click its name in the list. Changes made to the configuration file will affect all game servers that use a given configuration. To remove a configuration file, select the corresponding checkbox and click Remove Selected. On the next page, confirm the removal and click OK. The default configuration files cannot be removed, you can only edit it. You can select maps that will be available for users playing the game and to order them the way that the maps will be played. To perform this action, follow these steps: On the Game Server Management screen, click the game server's name in the list of game servers. On the Editing Game Server Settings page, switch to the Maps tab. The tab has two lists: the left-hand list displays all available maps and the list on the right contains all maps available for users playing on this game server. To add a map to the game, move maps from the list of available maps to the list of maps to be played by using the Add and Remove buttons .The maps for a game will be played consequently as they go in the list, starting from the default map selected in the Default map drop-down box. To move a map downward or upward in the list, use the Move Up or Move Down buttons, respectively. Click OK.
To simplify map selection, you can sort all maps by mission types, such as Saving Hostages, Assassination of VIP Persons, Planting a Bomb, Knife Arena, Team Deathmatch, Escape from the Area, or Arctic Warfare Police. To view all maps related to the category of interest, select the category in the Map categories drop-down box. To remove a map from the list of selected maps, select it and click Remove. Each game modification has a standard set of maps. If you remove such a standard map from the list of maps (do not confuse the standard map with the default map!), they will be automatically installed during updating of your game server. To open the Maps management page, click the  Maps Management button on the Game Server management page. On the Maps management page you can: view all maps for all installed game mods, remove maps, upload new maps that will be added to the list of available maps.
To upload a new map, click the  Add New Map button. On the Adding New Map page, enter the path to a map file in the Path to a map file field or use the Browse... button to locate it, and click OK. After this, the map will be added to the list of available maps and you will be able to select it for a specific game to be played. To remove map(s), select the checkboxes corresponding to the maps you want to remove and click Remove Selected. On the next page, confirm the removal and click OK. Updating Game Server EngineTo update the game server files and components, follow these steps: Click the  Update Game Server Engines button on the Game Server management page .A page displaying all game modifications available for updating appears. If you wish to use another Steam account for updating, click  Steam Account and specify the account's settings. Select the checkboxes corresponding to the game modifications you wish to update a game server engine for and click OK. In the next step, the selected game components are being updated. The information on the Installation/Update Progress screen is not updated automatically, so click Refresh to know whether the game server updating is finished or not. You can watch the updating process details: click Details that opens additional field showing the necessary information. You can also view the details when updating is complete. When finished, click OK to quit the wizard.
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