Space Engineers dedicated server on a whole Windows machine

Keen's hardware figures

Keen publishes one minimum and one recommended profile for the dedicated server (DS). Both ask for 3 logical cores; what changes is the clock and the memory.

The official wiki adds that a server below the minimum still starts but has Experimental mode forced on. Keen states no per-player or per-grid figure. Our reading: both profiles ask for the same 3 cores and raise only the clock, which says the clock matters more than the number of cores. Treat the recommended column as the floor for a public world with large builds, and measure from there.

Windows, and what Linux means here

Keen's guide starts from "a Windows PC" and ships SpaceEngineersDedicated.exe; it documents no Linux build. Linux hosts that run the server do it through Wine, and those setups are community-made. Keen provides no Linux instructions either, so when a game update breaks a Wine setup there is no official fix to wait for.

On our side, Windows Server installs in one click, from 2008 R2 up to 2025 on the widest lines; which versions a machine offers depends on its line. The licence is a separate line on the invoice, counted per core, and billed at its monthly price every month: prepaying 3, 6 or 12 months discounts the machine, not the licence. The ARM lines cannot run it at all; the Windows images are x86 builds.

Ports in SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg

Keen's router and firewall section is short: forward and allow incoming UDP on the listen port, 27016 unless you changed it. A rented machine sits on a public address with nothing to forward, so the only work is a Windows firewall rule. Keen notes that one port serves one instance, so a second world on the same machine needs ports of its own.

The config reference lists RemoteApiEnabled as true by default. If you do not use the Remote Client, set it to false; if you do, allow the API port only from your own IP.

Install and first start

1. Install the .NET 4.8 runtime and the Visual C++ 2013 and 2017 redistributables.
2. Download SteamCMD for Windows from Valve, extract it to its own folder, and fetch app 298740 with the command below. An anonymous login is enough.
3. Run SpaceEngineersDedicated.exe, choose Local/Console, set the server and world names, then Save & start. That writes the instance's config.
4. For an unattended server, run the tool as Administrator and use Add new instance: that instance runs as a Windows service and keeps running when you log off.
5. Allow inbound UDP 27016 in Windows Firewall, then join from the game.

steamcmd.exe +force_install_dir C:\SEDS +login anonymous +app_update 298740 +quit

Valve's wiki places force_install_dir before the login. Its validate option checks every file against the depot and overwrites changed ones; use it on first install or when files are damaged, not on every update.

Running it: flags, saves, admins

• -console skips the instance and config dialogs; -path loads config and stores every file in the folder you name; -maxPlayers, -ip and -port override the config.
• Worlds load from AppData\Roaming\SpaceEngineersDedicated or ProgramData\SpaceEngineersDedicated. Copy a single-player world in from AppData\Roaming\SpaceEngineers.
• Admins, bans and reserved slots are 64-bit Steam IDs on the Users tab; a Steam Group ID hides the server from everyone outside that group.
• World rules belong in the world's sandbox_config.sbc, not in the SessionSettings block of the dedicated config.
• The Block Limits tab caps blocks by name or by tag, one way to keep players' builds in check.

taskkill /IM SpaceEngineersDedicated.exe
mklink /J C:\ProgramData\SpaceEngineersDedicated D:\SEData

Plain taskkill stops the server cleanly and saves the world; adding /f kills it without saving. The mklink junction from Keen's guide moves the data directory to a second disk; the target must exist and the ProgramData folder must not. Keen's guide has no backup procedure; our advice is to copy the world folder to another disk or machine after a clean stop.

The Remote API key is a password

The Remote API is a REST interface used by VRageRemoteClient.exe, which ships in the server folder and shows simulation speed, players and grids. Requests are signed with HMAC-SHA1 over a private key, and Keen's guide says not to share it with anyone. The Remote Client administers the server with nothing more than that key and a route to the port. Keep RemoteSecurityKey out of screenshots, tickets and chat, and restrict who can read the config file, which also stores the server password as a hash and salt.

Which of our machines fit

The game server line is the place to start: the whole machine, with full administrator control of the Windows install. Because Keen's profile is about clock speed, pick the processor by base and turbo frequency; the Intel processor page lists Intel's figures for every Intel chip we rent. Memory is less of a constraint: builds run from 8 GB to 2 TB of registered ECC, so 10 GB or more is an ordinary choice.

• Unmetered port, 1 Gbps on 10 of the 18 configurable lines and 500 Mbps on the other 8, so player count does not move the bill.
• Five cities on our own network, AS19624: compare the test IPs on the locations page from where your players live.
• HPE iLO, iDRAC or BMC console on every rack server and blade, for when a Windows update leaves remote desktop unreachable.
• A racked machine is live about 30 minutes after the order is approved; a build to order takes 4-24 hours.

When a whole machine is the wrong answer

Most of what we rent is previous-generation server hardware at modest clocks, deliberately. Keen's 4.5 GHz figure is desktop territory, and a low-clock Xeon with many cores will not beat it on simulation speed. For a short event, an in-stock server billed by the hour avoids a monthly commitment. If you would rather not run Windows at all, a hosted slot from a game-server company suits you better than root.