How to Set up a Palworld Dedicated Server On an Ubuntu 22.04 Host (VM or baremetal)

WORK IN PROGRESS

Because the documentation scattered around the internet is pretty inconsistent, I'm putting everything I've found that seems to work together here.

Overview

This took too much effort to get sorted out, so I'm documenting everything figured out so far here.

Acknowledgements

This gist owes a great big thank you to A1RM4X and their repo HowTo-Palworld for the maintenance script and the systemd unit file provided.

Multiple Dedicated Server Warning

It looks like the dedicated server currently has several limitations:

No way to bind to a specific Network Adapter
No way to specify a different port for the "Query Port" so hosting multiple dedicated servers likely requires running the server in a containerized form so that individual game servers don't fight to bind to the query port - is now managed via the flag -QueryPort=
The PalServer.sh script doesn't seem to have any options to specify a different configuration folder for reading the GameUserSettings.ini file so that you could run multiple instances more easily

Firewall Ports

This was painful, so I'm putting this first.

Port	Protocol	Purpose	Notes
8211	UDP	Game Server	REQUIRED You connect to the server on UDP 8211, this can be modified. To validate that the port is open on the firewall between you and the game server, you can run `nc -ulW 1 <your-dedicated-server-ip> 8211`
1985	TCP	Server List	(OPTIONAL) This is used if you're also setting `EpicApp=PalServer` to make it a community server (to show up in the server list
27015	UDP	Query Port	(OPTIONAL) This is stated to be only used the first time when you connect to a dedicated server and will conflict if you try to host multiple copies on a single host. I can confirm that the game works without forwarding this port through a router.

Set up script

Part 1: Initial Set up

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Run this script as either root or using sudo

echo "Setting up steamcmd"

# Add the Steam User
useradd -m steam

# Add the dependency repo and configuration
add-apt-repository multiverse
dpkg --add-architecture i386

# Prepare to install
apt-get update
apt-get install -y steamcmd

# Make the steam install directories
mkdir -p /home/steam/.steam/{root,steam}

# Fix the permissions
chown steam:steam /home/steam/.steam -R
chmod 755 /home/steam/.steam -R

echo "Setting up Palworld Dedicated Server"
sudo -u steam bash -c "steamcmd +login anonymous +app_update 2394010 validate +quit"

echo "Download the Palworld maintenance shell script"
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/A1RM4X/HowTo-Palworld/main/palworld-maintenance.sh -O /home/steam/palworld-maintenance.sh
chown steam:steam /home/steam/palworld-maintenance.sh
chmod 555 /home/steam/palworld-maintenance.sh
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/A1RM4X/HowTo-Palworld/main/palworld.service -O /etc/systemd/system/palworld.service
chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/palworld.service

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Run this script as either root or using sudo

steam_software_id="2394010"

DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive

echo "Running updates and installing
apt update && apt install \
software-properties-common \
lsb-release \
wget \
-y

echo "Setting up steamcmd"

# Add the Steam User
useradd -m steam

# Add the dependency repo and configuration
add-apt-repository multiverse -y
dpkg --add-architecture i386

# Prepare to install
apt-get update

echo steam steam/question select "I AGREE" | sudo debconf-set-selections
echo steam steam/license note '' | sudo debconf-set-selections

apt-get install -y steamcmd

# Make the steam install directories
mkdir -p /home/steam/.steam/{root,steam}

# Fix the permissions
chown steam:steam /home/steam/.steam -R
chmod 755 /home/steam/.steam -R

echo "Setting up Enshrouded Dedicated Server"
sudo -i -u steam bash -c "cd ~/ && /usr/games/steamcmd +login anonymous +app_update ${steam_software_id} validate +quit"

echo "Download the Palworld maintenance shell script"
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/A1RM4X/HowTo-Palworld/main/palworld-update.sh -O /home/steam/palworld-update.sh
chown steam:steam /home/steam/palworld-maintenance.sh
chmod 555 /home/steam/palworld-maintenance.sh
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/A1RM4X/HowTo-Palworld/main/palworld.service -O /etc/systemd/system/palworld.service
chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/palworld.service

Part 2: Secure things

You will need to set the password for the steam user next.

sudo passwd steam

Now, if you're security conscious, you will want to lock things down by enabling the firewall. Note: these commands assume that you're running your dedicated server on a home internet connection behind a router to provide general protection and that you can safely use SSH

sudo apt-get install -y ufw
sudo ufw default deny incoming
sudo ufw default allow outgoing
sudo ufw allow ssh
sudo ufw allow 8211/udp
sudo ufw enable

Part 3: Cloning Things

You can clone a VM running Palworld and set up a new VM running on a different internal IP AND on different ports that could be forwarded to externally.

You can do this by doing the following:

Modify the startup script to use a different game server port (the -port argument)
Modify the startup script to use a different query port (the -QueryPort argument)
Update the Server configuration located under ../PalServer/Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.ini
Update the DedicatedServerName located in ../PalServer/Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/GameUserSettings.ini by replacing the existing 32 Character string with another you can generate from a site like this one (ensure you use Numeric Digits and Uppercase letters only)
Update the UFW settings
Forward the ports on your public facing firewall to the new VM

troyfontaine/palworld-dedicated-server-setup.md