TeamSpeak server hosting on Linux: release, licence, ports and first start

Which server release to run

Run TeamSpeak 3 Server for anything people depend on; treat the TeamSpeak 6 Server as a test bed. The download page lists TeamSpeak 3 Server 3.13.8 for Linux, Windows, macOS and FreeBSD, with an official Docker image. The same page labels the TeamSpeak 6 Server a beta and links its GitHub repository, whose latest release on the day this page was written is 6.0.0-beta13.1 (22 September 2026).

TeamSpeak's own README for the 6 beta states that TeamSpeak 3 licences do not work on TeamSpeak 6 servers and that there is no migration path between the two. A community built on TeamSpeak 3 today stays on TeamSpeak 3 until TeamSpeak publishes one.

What the free licence covers

The licence text shipped inside the 3.13.8 archive defines the tiers. The quickstart guide in the same archive adds that a server instance with more than one virtual server or more than 32 slots needs a licence file, and that without one the server refuses to start or falls back to limited functionality.

The licence text puts no time limit on the Unlicensed tier. Separately, the changelog entry for 3.13.7 dates the embedded default licence: valid until 1 July 2027. And the licensing page on teamspeak.com now describes TeamSpeak 6 server licences as coming soon, managed through a myTeamSpeak account; until then the 6 beta cannot grow past its 32 slots.

Ports: what the internet sees

Two ports face the clients; the rest are administration and stay closed. Defaults from the 3.13.8 quickstart:

The trap is the default bind address: query_ip, query_ssh_ip and query_http_ip all default to every IPv4 and IPv6 address on the machine, and the default query_protocols is raw,ssh. TeamSpeak itself strongly recommends a more secure protocol than raw. The first start and the unit file below both turn raw off and bind SSH query to 127.0.0.1, so a firewall mistake cannot expose it.

Sizing the machine

TeamSpeak publishes operating-system requirements for the server, not CPU or memory figures: any reasonably modern Linux with libstdc++ 6 and the epoll API. There is no official per-user number to size from, so this page does not invent one. What a voice server is sensitive to is distance: every packet crosses the network twice, speaker to server and server to listener. Pick the city first, then the machine.

• Location. Put the server where most speakers are. Our data centers are in New York, Miami, San Francisco, Amsterdam and Bucharest; the looking glass runs ping and traceroute from our edge routers in New York and Bucharest so you can measure before ordering.
• Shared box. One machine can also carry your game servers beside the voice server, which is a common reason to rent a whole server rather than a slot.
• Storage. The default SQLite database and uploaded files live in the install directory. Size disk for file transfers if you allow them, and for backups.

Installing TeamSpeak 3 Server 3.13.8

1. Read LICENSE in the archive. Creating .ts3server_license_accepted records that you accept it.
2. Create an unprivileged account. TeamSpeak's own start script prints DO NOT RUN THE SERVER AS ROOT.
3. Install curl, bzip2 and ufw, and enable the firewall before the server ever runs: SSH plus the two client ports, nothing else. Then download, unpack and hand the directory to the new account.
4. Start it once in the foreground, with the same query parameters the service will use. The console prints the serveradmin query password and the ServerAdmin privilege key.
5. Connect with your TeamSpeak client, paste the key into the privilege key dialog, confirm you hold Server Admin, then stop the server with Ctrl+C.

sudo apt install -y curl bzip2 ufw
sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw allow 9987/udp
sudo ufw allow 30033/tcp
sudo ufw enable
sudo useradd --system --home-dir /opt/teamspeak --shell /usr/sbin/nologin teamspeak
sudo mkdir -p /opt/teamspeak && cd /opt/teamspeak
sudo curl -fLO https://files.teamspeak-services.com/releases/server/3.13.8/teamspeak3-server_linux_amd64-3.13.8.tar.bz2
sudo tar xjf teamspeak3-server_linux_amd64-3.13.8.tar.bz2 --strip-components=1
sudo touch .ts3server_license_accepted
sudo chown -R teamspeak:teamspeak /opt/teamspeak
sudo chmod 750 /opt/teamspeak
# first start, foreground: copy the password and token it prints
sudo -u teamspeak ./ts3server_minimal_runscript.sh query_protocols=ssh query_ssh_ip=127.0.0.1 query_ssh_port=10022

The serveradmin password is shown once. TeamSpeak's quickstart says the only way to get a new one is to wipe the database (clear_database=1 or deleting ts3server.sqlitedb), which loses every setting. Store it in a password manager before you press Ctrl+C.

Running it under systemd, query kept local

Put the unit below in /etc/systemd/system/teamspeak.service; load it with sudo systemctl daemon-reload, then start it at boot and now with sudo systemctl enable --now teamspeak. The parameters are the quickstart's own; the unit is ours.

[Unit]
Description=TeamSpeak 3 Server
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
User=teamspeak
WorkingDirectory=/opt/teamspeak
ExecStart=/opt/teamspeak/ts3server_minimal_runscript.sh query_protocols=ssh query_ssh_ip=127.0.0.1 query_ssh_port=10022
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

The firewall is already up from the install step, with SSH allowed first so you cannot lock yourself out. ServerQuery now answers only on the machine itself; reach it from your desk through an SSH tunnel:

# admin query from your desk, through an SSH tunnel
ssh -L 10022:127.0.0.1:10022 you@your-server
ssh -p 10022 serveradmin@127.0.0.1

The privilege key is a one-time admin password

Whoever redeems the ServerAdmin privilege key first joins the Server Admin group. TeamSpeak's privilege key guide says a key works once and only on the virtual server it was made for; it is written to the console and to the files in logs/. Until you redeem it, anyone who can read those files can take the server.

• Redeem it within minutes of the first start, from your own client.
• Keep logs/ readable by the service account only, and do not paste log excerpts into public help threads.
• Need another admin later? Log in to ServerQuery as serveradmin, run use sid=1, find the group with servergrouplist, then run privilegekeyadd tokentype=0 tokenid2=0 with tokenid1= set to that group's ID. Send the new key privately.

Updates, backups and the machines that fit

Update by stopping the service, unpacking the new release over the old files and starting again; that is TeamSpeak's own upgrade procedure. Do not sit on old builds: 3.13.8 fixes three denial-of-service flaws, CVE-2026-4390, CVE-2026-4391 and CVE-2026-4392. For backups, stop the service and copy the whole install directory, which holds ts3server.sqlitedb; keep the copy off the machine.

Our game server machines are HPE enterprise servers on our own network, AS19624, in five cities, with root access and support by phone, email and live chat around the clock. Every dedicated server comes with an unmetered port, so voice traffic and file transfers are never counted. Rack servers and blades add an out-of-band console for the night a firewall rule goes wrong. Install Ubuntu or Debian from the Linux images; a racked machine is live about 30 minutes after the order is approved.

When this is the wrong place: if you only want a small room for a few friends and never want to patch a server, a whole machine is more than the job needs. And if you need TeamSpeak 6 with more than 32 slots, a self-hosted server cannot give you that until TeamSpeak sells TS6 licences; for now only TeamSpeak's own hosted Communities service offers more slots.