DayZ Dedicated Server on Linux

Linux can run a DayZ dedicated server. It is not the same sentence as "Linux is the easy one." As of the 1.28 era, DayZ on Linux remained unstable and error prone. That is not a forum rumor. It is the note attached to the title in CFTools' own Architect docs. If your community cannot tolerate a bad Saturday, use Windows for the public branch and treat Linux as a choice you measured, not a personality.

The dedicated server app is still 223350 for the public branch and 1042420 for experimental. Players remain on 221100. Architect will install and update the server. It will not install the extra Linux libraries. On Debian the documented package is lib32gcc-s1. If that library is missing, the failure looks like a broken update, and people reinstall SteamCMD until they are angry. Install the library first. Then look at the server.

The BattlEye config file on Linux is beserver_x64.cfg, lowercase, not the Windows BEServer_x64.cfg. Same keys: RConPassword, RConPort, RestrictRCon. RCon is UDP. The port CFTools suggests is the game port plus three. RestrictRCon 0 is what allows kicks and bans. CFTools Cloud needs that port reachable from the internet, which means the firewall on the Linux host and any upstream security group both have to allow it. A local ufw rule that forgets UDP is the classic "RCon works in the readme."

Case sensitivity will eat a mod line that worked on Windows. @Mod and @mod are different directories. The -mod= argument has to match the folders you actually have. Architect treats folders that start with @ as mods and can install Workshop items for both branches from the DayZ Workshop, app 221100. If you are copying files yourself, copy them into names the command line can see. The mod guide covers the sequence without assuming a drive letter.

Persistence paths matter more on Linux because people symlink "to be tidy" and then wipe the wrong tree. Know which directory is the profile, which is the mission, and which is SteamCMD's depot. A symlink to a full disk is not a storage strategy. Read persistence and hive before the first base-building weekend. Read ports before you blame Bohemia for a server the public list cannot see.

CFTools Architect on Linux is still the host product: process, updates, Workshop mods. It is not a promise that the Linux dedicated server became boring. If the experimental branch is what you wanted, do not stack that risk on top of the Linux risk unless you are doing it on purpose. The experimental guide is the other half of that decision. Hosting location still dominates player experience. A perfect Linux box in the wrong country loses to a dull Windows box next to the players. The country notes are the map for that.

When it is stable enough to leave alone, put RCon on Cloud and stop SSHing in to type kicks. Management and hosting are different products on purpose. The RCon overview explains the protocol. The pricing, if you want it, is on cftools.com and not in this paragraph.

Linux only if you already wanted the job

The DayZ dedicated server on Linux is a known fragile target. Go in because you can read a unit file and a library error, not because a VPS coupon said Ubuntu was cheap. The 32-bit compatibility libraries are not optional flavor. Missing lib32gcc equivalents fail the boot in a way that looks like a permissions problem if you are skimming. Read the linker error. Install what it named. Then start again. CFTools Architect exists so this paragraph is not your evening. Choosing Linux anyway means you own the evening.

The BattlEye cfg is beserver_x64.cfg, lowercase, and people paste the Windows name beside it. The process will not politely merge them. One file, the right case, RestrictRCon 0, a password that fits the rules. Open UDP in the host firewall and in any cloud security group. Both. Forgetting the security group is the classic "it works in the container and nowhere else." Test from a network that is not the VPS. Your public row should appear on the server list only after that test, not before.

systemd, or whatever you use, must restart the process on failure and must not restart it so fast you fill the disk with crash logs. A five second loop of a bad mod is a disk incident. Put a limit on it. Logs rotate, or they become the incident. Keep the profile path in the unit file so a second instance cannot share it. A modded and a vanilla test on one box are two units, two ports, two RCon ports, two Cloud connections.

Experimental on Linux stacks two unstable choices. If you need the branch, prefer a box you can delete. The experimental list will show whatever stays up. It will not show the hours you spent on ldconfig. When the stable process is boring for a week, you are hosting. Until then you are porting. Players in your country cannot tell the difference from the outside except by the chart, which will look like an outage, because it is one.