Stationeers dedicated server on Linux: SteamCMD, setting.xml, port 27016

What the server build is

RocketWerkz publishes the server separately on Steam, free, as Stationeers Dedicated Server, app 600760. Its Steam announcement of June 2022 says it can be downloaded and run anonymously, so SteamCMD needs no Steam account. The same code base builds the game and the server; the server build strips the parts a headless process does not need.

The reference for flags is the Stationeers Dedicated Server Guide on GitHub, kept by Dean Hall, RocketWerkz's CEO, with an example launch script, runstationeers-linux.sh. Most launch flags are console commands with a leading dash: -load "Base" at launch is load "Base" at runtime. -settingspath is the exception; it only works at launch. The guide dates from 2022 and 2023; where later Steam patch notes changed something (saves, above all), this page follows the patch notes.

What loads the machine

RocketWerkz publishes no hardware figures for the server. The patch notes do say where the load comes from, and that is what to size against:

Memory use depends on the world and the base. RocketWerkz wrote in September 2025 that the terrain system it replaced never released explored ground from memory. It gave no figure for the new one, so watch free -h on your own world.

Choosing the machine

• x86-64 only, by our inference: the Linux binary is named .x86_64 and no ARM build is listed, so skip the ARM lines.
• A rack server or blade: each has an out-of-band controller (HPE iLO, Dell iDRAC or a Supermicro BMC) with a browser console once you add a console login, so a server that hangs at boot is still yours to fix. Most cartridges have power control only.
• Ubuntu: Valve's SteamCMD page gives the apt package for Ubuntu and Debian; on the widest Linux server lines the one-click images run up to Ubuntu 26.04.
• City: put it near the players. The five locations each publish a test IP to ping before you order.

The game server machines are whole servers: root, every core and the full disk set for one tenant, on an unmetered port with one IPv4. A ready machine is live about 30 minutes after the order is approved; a build to order takes 4-24 hours.

Installing on Ubuntu 24.04

Install SteamCMD from multiverse as Valve's page describes, create a service user, pull app 600760 into its home, and turn on the firewall with SSH only. The apt step may show Valve's licence prompt: answer it before pasting the rest.

sudo add-apt-repository multiverse; sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386; sudo apt update
sudo apt install steamcmd
sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash stationeers
sudo -u stationeers bash -c 'cd /home/stationeers && mkdir -m 700 -p data && /usr/games/steamcmd +force_install_dir /home/stationeers/server +login anonymous +app_update 600760 validate +quit'
sudo sed -i 's/^IPV6=.*/IPV6=yes/' /etc/default/ufw
sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw --force enable

Then make the first save and the settings file by hand, in the foreground:

1. Start it once: sudo -u stationeers bash -c 'cd /home/stationeers/server && ./rocketstation_DedicatedServer.x86_64 -settingspath /home/stationeers/data/setting.xml -loadlatest Base mars -settings StartLocalHost true ServerVisible false SavePath /home/stationeers/data'. With a save name and a world, -loadlatest creates the world when no save of that name exists. That form and the name mars come from the 2022 guide, which predates the September 2025 save rework, and the help text now flags deprecated worlds: check help new and help loadlatest at the console. The guide warns that on Linux the console may print nothing useful, though input still works; its world list is the fallback: moon, mars, europa, europa2, mimas, vulcan, vulcan2, space, loulan, venus. Newer builds may hide some of them.
2. At the console type save Base, wait for it to finish, then quit.
3. Lock the file before any secret goes in: sudo chmod 600 /home/stationeers/data/setting.xml. Then sudo -u stationeers nano /home/stationeers/data/setting.xml and set ServerName, ServerPassword, ServerAuthSecret and ServerMaxPlayers. A missing property goes in as an XML element named after it; that is our reading of the guide's one example, a ServerAuthSecret element. On the next foreground start, settings print at the console shows whether it took.
4. Open the game port: sudo ufw allow 27016/udp.

setting.xml and the launch flags

-settings takes key-value pairs separated by spaces and writes them to the settings file; -settingspath moves that file and must come first. Without it the file is setting.xml beside the executable. Properties the guide lists, with its defaults:

Anything on the launch line is visible in ps to every local user. That is why the unit below carries no passwords: they live in the 600-mode file.

Running it under systemd

The unit updates the game, then starts it with the log on stdout (-logFile -, Unity's flag), so journalctl -u stationeers -f shows it.

# /etc/systemd/system/stationeers.service
[Unit]
Description=Stationeers dedicated server
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=stationeers
WorkingDirectory=/home/stationeers/server
ExecStartPre=-/usr/games/steamcmd +force_install_dir /home/stationeers/server +login anonymous +app_update 600760 +quit
ExecStart=/home/stationeers/server/rocketstation_DedicatedServer.x86_64 -logFile - -settingspath /home/stationeers/data/setting.xml -loadlatest Base mars -settings StartLocalHost true ServerVisible true GamePort 27016 UPNPEnabled false AutoSave true SaveInterval 300 SavePath /home/stationeers/data
TimeoutStartSec=1800
Restart=always
RestartSec=15

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Load it with sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl enable --now stationeers. The - on ExecStartPre lets the server start when SteamCMD exits with an error; it does not cover a hang, so TimeoutStartSec=1800 sets a 30-minute ceiling on the whole start, download included. RocketWerkz documents no exit codes for a crash, so Restart=always brings it back whatever the exit status.

Joining and administering

Players join by address and port, join 203.0.113.10:27016 at the client console or from the server list. RocketWerkz recommends against Steam P2P connections, which can desync, so a public IP with the port open is the dependable route.

With a ServerAuthSecret in both the server's and the client's settings, a connected client runs server commands: serverrun save "Base". Under systemd the server console takes no input, so kick and ban go the same way: serverrun kick CLIENT_ID, serverrun ban CLIENT_ID, and serverrun ban refresh after a manual edit of the ban list, which sits under SavePath. On a host with several IPs, the guide's known issue is a listed server that times out on join: set LocalIpAddress.

Saves, backups and updates

Everything the server writes lives in /home/stationeers/data: the save folder with its autosaves, setting.xml and the ban list. A December 2025 fix makes a dedicated server save reliably when the last player leaves. Before stopping a busy server, save from a connected client whose ServerAuthSecret matches the server's: serverrun save "Base". Archive the whole folder nightly; there is no pipe in the job, so a failed tar shows as an error in the log:

# /etc/cron.d/stationeers-backup  (first: sudo install -d -m 700 /var/backups/stationeers)
30 4 * * * root umask 077; tar -czf /var/backups/stationeers/data-$(date +\%F).tar.gz -C /home/stationeers data > /var/backups/stationeers/last-run.log 2>&1
50 4 * * * root find /var/backups/stationeers -name 'data-*.tar.gz' -mtime +14 -delete

Copy the archives off the machine yourself. If rsync does it, leave out --delete, so an emptied folder cannot wipe the off-site copies.

1. Restore: sudo systemctl stop stationeers, then sudo ls -l /var/backups/stationeers/ and test the archive: sudo tar -tzf /var/backups/stationeers/data-DATE.tar.gz > /dev/null && echo ok. Stop unless it prints ok.
2. Set the current data aside: sudo test ! -e /home/stationeers/data.old && sudo mv /home/stationeers/data /home/stationeers/data.old && sudo ls -l /home/stationeers/data.old. Stop if data.old already exists or the listing comes back empty.
3. sudo tar -xzf /var/backups/stationeers/data-DATE.tar.gz -C /home/stationeers && sudo chown -R stationeers:stationeers /home/stationeers/data, start the service and join.
4. Only when the world is right: sudo rm -rf /home/stationeers/data.old.

Updates arrive on every start through ExecStartPre. The September 2025 update broke every earlier save, so if you want to choose when updates land, drop that line and update by hand after a backup. For those old saves RocketWerkz pointed to converters made by the community, not tools of its own; archive the save before running one. For beta builds, Valve's syntax on a command line is "+app_update 600760 -beta beta validate", quoted as one argument. Valve's page names the non-beta branch public, so -beta public goes back, and the unit's update line needs the same option.

When this is the wrong host

• A few friends playing now and then: one player hosting from the game costs nothing.
• If you want a panel that edits settings for you, this setup has none; it is a shell and a text file.

A second world on the same box needs its own install folder, unit, settings file, SavePath and GamePort, with that port opened in ufw.