How to Host a DayZ Server

A DayZ server is a separate Steam application from the game your friends launch. Players run app 221100. The dedicated server on the public branch is app 223350. Experimental is a third app, 1042420, and it does not share a save with the public branch just because the folder names look similar. If you only wanted to play, stop here and open the live DayZ server list. Hosting starts when you are willing to keep a process online after you log off.

The machine needs a public UDP path. The usual game port is 2302, with the next few UDP ports used alongside it, and a Steam query port so the server can be seen. BattlEye rides with the server. RCon, if you want kicks and bans from somewhere that is not the host desktop, is its own UDP port in BEServer_x64.cfg on Windows or beserver_x64.cfg on Linux. CFTools documents that port as the game port plus three, so a 2302 game port means RCon on 2305, and RestrictRCon has to be 0 or the interesting commands do nothing.

You do not need to invent the installer. CFTools Architect installs the DayZ dedicated server, tracks the public and experimental branches separately, and installs Workshop mods whose folders start with @. CFTools Cloud is the game server management layer after the process is up: BattlEye RCon, restarts, bans, logs. Prices are on the CFTools pricing page. This manual does not invent a monthly number.

Before you pay for a year of hardware, read the server requirements and the country hosting notes. A cheap pin on the wrong continent is not a discount. It is a different server. Look at the Chernarus roster and see where full servers already sit. Match that, then write the map, the perspective, and the wipe into the hostname so the listing on DayZ Manager is the same promise as the Discord post.

The first boot is a mission, not a vibe. serverDZ.cfg names the hostname, the passwords, the player cap, and the time acceleration. The mission folder decides Chernarus versus Livonia versus a Workshop map. Mods are a -mod= line of @ folders, not a zip left on the desktop. If the public list later shows a different map token than the one you advertised, players will trust the token. The modded roster is full of servers that learned this the hard way.

After the first weekend, the work is no longer "does it start." It is restarts, a ban that survives the wipe, and a mod update that does not require someone to be awake. That is the split between Architect and Cloud. Architect keeps the files and the process. Cloud speaks RCon so you are not RDP'd into the box to type a kick. If Linux is the plan, read the Linux install note before you assume the Windows guide is the same with different slashes. Bohemia's own Linux server has been the unstable one. Architect will not pretend otherwise.

A new community should start smaller than the slot count they want to brag about. Sixty players who can get in beats one hundred and twenty slots with thirty people and a spoof-shaped hostname. DayZ Manager's rank comes from the CFTools Gameserver Data Service, which drops spoofed counts. You cannot buy your way up that list from this website. You can host a server that deserves to be on it.

The first week, in order

Day one is the process and the port, nothing else. Install the public branch, confirm you can join from outside the datacenter, and only then set a hostname you would say in front of strangers. A cute name on a server that times out is how you teach people to ignore your later posts. Put the real map token in the mission before you advertise a pretty name. The map index will use the token. Your Discord can use Chernarus. They must be the same place.

Day two is RCon and a ban you reverse. If you cannot reverse it, you do not understand the tool yet. Do this with CFTools Cloud or with the BattlEye window, but do not skip it because the server is "still private." Private servers become public by accident, the moment a friend posts the IP. The open roster will list you as soon as the crawler sees you, password or not, with the flag set honestly if you set a password.

Day three is the mod list you will still want in a month. Add none, or add one. Join on a clean client. Then look at your row on the community list and see whether the modded flag matches the promise. A vanilla flag with a Workshop folder you forgot in -mod= is the usual surprise. Remove the word vanilla from the hostname or remove the folder. Do not leave the contradiction up while you "get around to it."

Day four is a backup you restore onto a spare folder, not a backup you admire. Persistence, hive, ban list, cfg. If Architect is the host, learn the export the day the server is empty. If you are on a VPS, copy the directories off the machine. A backup that lives only on the machine is a crash away from gone. Day five is a restart clock you actually let fire. By the weekend you should be bored. Bored means the server page shows a process that matches the sentence you published. That is hosting. Everything else is a feature you can add after someone besides you has survived a night on it.