DayZ server: tutorials & guidesAll guides around your own DayZ server

DayZ asks for more manual work than most survival servers: you control loot, spawns and vehicles through XML files, mods have to fit together with their .bikey files, and every map brings its own mission. The guides take you through the setup in exactly that order.

Once you are clear about which level a setting lives on, you save yourself most of the searching. serverDZ.cfg in the root directory describes the server as such: the name in the list, player count, admin password and, through the mission template, also the map being played. The mission folder below it contains the Central Economy, meaning the XML files for loot, dynamic events and vehicles. The startup parameters, in turn, decide through -mod= which mods the server loads at all. A change on the wrong level simply has no effect - and that is exactly where the impression comes from that DayZ ignores its own configuration.

Two decisions therefore come before all others: vanilla or modded and which map. A vanilla server on Chernarus is up in under an hour and stays low-maintenance afterwards. A modded server with DayZ Expansion, trader or base building mods needs more time to learn, because every mod brings its own configuration files, often its own entries in the economy and always its BattlEye key. You can switch later at any time, but the change usually costs a wipe or at least a cleanup round in the mission.

This is the fastest order to work through:

1. Connect through the server address made of IP and port and log in as admin with #login.
2. Fill in serverDZ.cfg with name, player count, passwords and verifySignatures.
3. Set the map through the mission template before you work on the economy.
4. Adjust loot, events and vehicles in the mission's Central Economy files.
5. Add mods with their load order and .bikey files and test everything once from start to finish.
6. Set up a backup routine before you advertise the server publicly.

Two mistakes cost almost every beginner an evening. The first is missing .bikey files: the server starts perfectly, but nobody gets in anymore, because BattlEye cannot verify the mod signatures. The second is searching the panel for a loot slider - there is none, and the Central Economy is the only place where the quantity and lifetime of items are actually set. If you know both from the start, you avoid the most common support cases around DayZ.

Getting started: connect and manage

First get onto the server, then set up admin rights and remote control. The server address is made up of IP and port and is shown next to your server in the web interface; in the community browser, you add both as a favorite and reliably find the server again afterwards. In DayZ, you do not become admin through a list of names but through passwordAdmin from serverDZ.cfg and the chat command #login - only then do the BattlEye commands for kicks, bans and messages work.

Configuration: server, map and loot

The three levels on which a DayZ server is configured. Basics such as name, player count and signature check are in serverDZ.cfg, the map depends on the mission template, and everything around loot, vehicles and spawns lives in the mission's XML files.

The Central Economy is the real lever for how the game feels. Whether your server feels hardcore and scarce or rich in loot is decided by nominal, min, lifetime and restock per item - not by a switch in the panel. A map change therefore comes before the economy work: every map brings its own mission and with it its own set of XML files.

Operation

What keeps the running server alive. Backups for DayZ are self-service via SFTP or the WebFTP file manager - and they cover the mission, the storage folder, serverDZ.cfg and the mod load order together, because no single part of it restores the state on its own.

Install mods

Without matching .bikey files, BattlEye does not let a single player onto the server - that is the most common pitfall. Plan the same three steps for every mod: upload the folder, put it in the right place of the load order in -mod= and copy the key into the central keys directory. Libraries such as the Community Framework go first, because the mods that build on them would otherwise reach into nothing.

Troubleshooting

In DayZ, the cause almost always lies with the mods. After a game update, the most common explanation is a mod that has not caught up yet; next come typos in serverDZ.cfg and a load order in which a dependency comes after the mod that needs it. In most cases, the server logs name the triggering folder - starting there is faster than any guess.

Before you order

DayZ requires more upkeep than the other survival servers - that is worth deciding in advance. The requirements depend less on the number of players than on the map and the scope of mods: a large custom map with Expansion modules takes up considerably more memory than a vanilla Chernarus with the same group. The slot figures in the plans are recommendations from practice, not a hard limit.

Frequently asked questions