Dedicated servers

This page shows basics and details on how to set up and operate a Satisfactory dedicated server.

Summary
At the moment, the dedicated server is available for the Windows and Linux operating systems. It can currently be installed using the Steam service (where it is listed in the user's library as a "tool"), or its command line sibling SteamCMD, or Epic Games. Game clients from both the Epic and Steam game stores can connect and play on dedicated servers regardless of where the Dedicated Server was downloaded.

''The feedback about the experiences of community members is needed to make dedicated servers available on stable Early Access releases as soon as possible. Please use the Official Q&A site and add the tag Dedicated Server into your post.''

Requirements
The Dedicated Server is currently provided for Windows and Linux 64-bit architectures using the amd64 platform (i. e. any relatively modern AMD or Intel 64-bit CPU). There are currently no plans for an ARM CPU-compatible build, so the Dedicated Server cannot be deployed to, for instance, a Raspberry Pi or new Microsoft Surface Pro.

The current means of distribution is via Steam (through the normal client or the command-line SteamCMD client). In addition, Coffee Stain is currently working with Epic to get the server software up on the Epic Games Store. Coffee Stain is also working with Valve to resolve issues whereby the Dedicated Server is not showing in the desktop Steam client's Tools section for people who do not own the game client on Steam.

Steam
You can install the server from your Steam library like you would install any other game. You might have to change your steam library filters to include tools but other than that the process does not differ from any other game.

Coffee Stain is currently working with Valve to make the Dedicated Server visible in the normal Steam client to accounts which do not currently have access to the Satisfactory game client. However, you can still use SteamCMD to download and install the files without needing a Steam account.

If you want to use the Experimental branch of the Dedicated Server rather than the mainline Early Access release, go to the Properties of the entry in your Library, go to the Betas tab, and ensure that the Experimental beta branch is selected. To revert to the mainline release, reverse this process.

SteamCMD
If you are installing the server on a headless environment or do not want to use the GUI client for any other reason, you will most likely want to use SteamCMD, regardless of the platform that you are using. SteamCMD itself on both Windows and Linux is thoroughly documented on the SteamCMD wiki page.

Once SteamCMD has been installed, you can use one of the following commands to install (or update) the Dedicated Server in your server's command-line environment (i. e. a Linux terminal, or Windows Command Prompt or PowerShell):

Linux
A user without root privileges needs to be used for the installation. Using root might cause issues with permissions and missing libraries.

Windows
On Windows, SteamCMD uses Steam client DLL files, so it you may get better performance by copying  into your Steam directory (typically  ) and then use a command such as this one instead: where the first path is the Steam directory and the second is the desired dedicated server install directory. Note: this is not a requirement. if SteamCMD is run with the command stated above (assuming the file path is where you put the executable) and Steam is not installed, SteamCMD will update itself first and download the .dll files that it requires. This is useful if you do not want to install the entire Steam client on your server.

Experimental branch selection
To download the Experimental branch of the Dedicated Server, add  to the end of your SteamCMD invocation. It is not yet possible with Epic Games Launcher. See the following example commands for Linux and Windows respectively:

Epic Games
You can install Dedicated Server Tool DLC by visiting the Epic Games Store Page and adding Dedicated Server Tool add on to your library. Search your library for "Satisfactory Dedicated Server" and select install.

Docker
The server can be ran in a Docker container. There are many such containers available on Docker's public repository. Please direct any questions about using these containers to their respective maintainers.

Manual - Steam GUI
Simply launch the Dedicated Server from Steam just like any other program. You will be able to find it in the Tools category rather than games. It will open a terminal window in which you can review the logs in real time. Do not be alarmed if the window stops showing information after a while. This usually means the server is up, running, and waiting for connections.

Windows
In either the Command Prompt or PowerShell, navigate to the directory in which you had installed the Dedicated Server, and use the following command, with any other options from the below table that you need:

Linux
Navigate to the directory in which you installed the Dedicated Server, and use the following command, with any other Options from the below table that you need:

NOTE! Starting the server in this manner will not automatically restart the server if it crashes or is terminated for other reasons. The server will also very likely stop running when you close your terminal. It is highly recommended that you set up the server to run as a service. For more information, see: Running as a Service.

Command line options
The below table outlines the available options for use when starting the server, either from the command-line or through Steam (via editing the Properties of the Dedicated Server's entry in Tools) in both Windows and Linux: NOTE: you can also set some of these options via INI files, as follows:

Third-party automated solutions
There are several automated solutions for deploying and managing the Dedicated Server out there, for the sake of brevity we suggest using the search engine of your choice to find a game server manager for the Satisfactory Dedicated Server. There are plenty of free and paid options that are "turnkey" implementations.

Please keep in mind that the Dedicated Server is currently not only experimental but known to be unstable and feature-incomplete. Adding a third-party service will make your installation more complex, and add more variables that can break the server or cause unexpected complications. Please understand these risks - people helping you with the Dedicated Server may not know the details about how to help with a third-party program.

Configuration
Initial configuration is made in the game by the first player connecting to a server and it largely boils down to giving the server a name and assigning an administration password. More settings are available through the in-game server manager. The server does not start any game on its own. An administrator will have to create a game through the in-game UI. Player password protection is not enabled by default but a player password can be set through the same UI.

For more information, see Configuration files.

Port forwarding and firewall settings
Before you start, you will need to ensure that the following ports are reachable on your server so you might have to create firewall rules or configure port forwarding in your router, depending on your setup. Port redirection is not supported at the moment so the ports that you open in your router need to match the ones presented here (IE: do not forward port 7777 as port 7778 on your router). Each of these ports is overridable via a parameter, in accordance with the table below. If you want to run multiple instances of the server on one computer you will have to override at least one port.

Here is an example configuration file to put into  for a UFW-controlled Linux firewall: You can use the following PowerShell command on a Windows host to open the default UDP ports used by the server:

Console commands
Here are a list of known commands for dedicated servers, as of v5.0.4 the console tab in the server manager is the only way to execute commands Configuration changes made at the server Console (e. g. ) are stored to disk upon a graceful server shutdown, and do not need to be re-implemented when the server is restarted unless the configuration files are removed or reverted.

Loading a save file

 * 1) Find the desired save file and Session name in the Load tab in the main menu.
 * 2) * Session Name is of critical importance, save files only display it if they haven't been renamed while being saved, the only way to see the Session Name otherwise is from the Load Menu or a save editor
 * 3) Locate save file in SaveGames folder and copy the .sav
 * 4) * Linux:
 * 5) * Windows:
 * 6) Paste/Transfer save file to the SaveGames\server folder
 * 7) * Linux:
 * 8) * Windows (local):
 * 9) * Windows (Using NSSM):
 * 10) * Windows Server (Running as service):
 * 11) **Note: The first time accessing the Windows Service paths (NSSM or Windows Server Service), you will need to manually navigate through the folder structure using File Explorer and grant access to the folders as you go (admin rights required). If you do not do this, you will not be able to navigate directly to the save folder.
 * 12) Insert the Session Name from step 1 into the server settings tab in Server Manager, press.
 * 13) * The server should initiate a search for the save file with the matching Session Name.
 * To reiterate, Session Name & Save File Name are not the same, Session Name cannot be changed without a save editor, renaming a .sav file does not change the Session Name.

Other platforms/setups will have differing folder structures, the key point of this tutorial is finding Session Name.

This is a temporary/manual method while the Manage Saves feature is not implemented.

Configuration issues
If you believe the server is running but are unable to connect to it, the most common cause is a networking issue. The vast majority of common problems with successfully connecting to the Dedicated Server can be resolved by working through these diagnostic questions:

Is the server actually running?
The simplest reason for not being able to connect to the server is that it is not running. Either it was not started, or it has crashed and not been subsequently restarted. A simple way on Linux to check whether the server is running is with the command. If you run that command, you will either get no response (indicating the Dedicated Server is not running) or one or more numbers (indicating that you have one instance of the Dedicated Server running per number you see). Each number given as a response to the command is the PID (Process ID) of that instance of the shell script which started the Dedicated Server.

Is the server listening on the correct ports?
If you have inadvertently started the server more than once at any one time, you may not have the server running on the network ports you are expecting it to be. Since you are sure now that the server is indeed running, the next step is to check to see which UDP ports the server is bound to (or "listening" on).

Checking Listening UDP Ports on Windows
On Windows, you can get a list of bound UDP ports with the  command. Adding some extra filters to it will restrict the output of that command to only show a list of IP addresses and ports to which an Unreal game server process (such as the Satisfactory Dedicated Server) is listening. Review that output for the expected ports of 7777, 15000, and 15777. The command and its typical output are shown below:

Checking Listening UDP Ports on Linux
On Linux, you can get a list of bound UDP ports with the  command. Filtering the output of that command will restrict the outputof that command to only show a list of IP addresses and ports to which an Unreal game server process (such as the Satisfactory Dedicated Server) is listening. Review that output for the expected ports of 7777, 15000, and 15777. The command and its typical output are shown below:

Is the server bound to the correct interface?
While checking on the UDP port bindings in the previous step, take a look at the IP address associated with the port in the output from  or. If you did not use the  switch when starting the Dedicated Server, the associated address will probably appear as one of ,  , or. Any of these are fine, indicating the server is listening on all interfaces. If you see a specific address, such as, this is also fine, but you will have to be aware that only that internal (or LAN) IP address will work for connecting to or forwarding connections to the server.

Is the server firewall allowing ingress on the correct ports?
In short, did you follow the steps in the Port Forwarding and Firewall Settings section above? Verify your host's firewall settings are configured to allow inbound connections on the UDP ports the Dedicated Server is using.

Are the port forwarding settings at the NAT pointing to the correct address and all three correct ports?
On your router or other network ingress point, double-check that the Port Forwarding settings are correctly configured to direct traffic on all three of the UDP Ports that the Dedicated Server uses to the LAN IP address of the host running the Dedicated Server. Be sure you are forwarding UDP ports, not TCP ports (If you are forwarding both TCP and UDP ports, that is fine, the important thing is that the UDP ports must be forwarded).

Are you or anyone else able to connect to the server from a client on the LAN?
From the same host or another host on the same LAN (i. e. generally in the same building), attempt to connect to the Dedicated Server from the Server Manager in the game client If this works, the the server is clearly running and the firewall on the server is clearly allowing inbound connections.

Are you or anyone else able to connect to the server via the internet?
From a host which is not on the same LAN, attempt to connect to the public IP address of the host running the Dedicated Server from the Server Manager in the game client. If this works, then not only is the server clearly running and the server firewall allowing inbound connections, but the port forwarding settings are now confirmed to work as well-- you server is online and accessible! Have fun, and stay effective!

SDL Priority Manager
This issue can be resolved by downloading the dependency. For example, on a Debian-derived Linux distribution:

SteamAPI_Init: Sys_LoadModule failed to load: /path/to/.steam/sdk64/steamclient.so
This issue can be resolved by creating a symbolic or hard link from the expected path to the location where the library actually exists, for example:

Log output should change:

SteamCMD error: " " when installing/updating
SteamCMD error  is thrown when SteamCMD attempts to update a file and the operating system says that it cannot write to the file because it is in use by another process. The most common cause for this is attempting to update while the server is already running. If you have already stopped the server and are still getting this error, the issue can be resolved by rebooting the host.

Trains not un/loading
This issue can be resolved by loading the save file into the game locally, rebuilding the Train Station, saving and loading the save file back onto the server.

How do I gracefully shut down the Dedicated Server?
Regardless of which operating system the server is running, it can be gracefully shut down by connecting to the server in the Server Manager in the game client, and on the Console tab, issuing the  command. The means to shut the Dedicated Server down without access via a game client depend on the operating system you are running.

On Linux, the server process can be gracefully shut down by sending  to the server process or, if you have the server controlled by , with the command  , where "satisfactory" is the name of your unit file. Note that the service file can specify the  attribute in the Service block, but   is the default if not set.

On Windows, if you have the server running 'interactively' (which is to say, there is a window showing the server logs in real time), focus on that Window and press Ctrl+C. Do not just close the window; this will kill the server process instantly and not give it the proper time to clean up after itself and write the state files to disk. If you have it running as a service, you can use the Services snap-in to the Management Console, find the service, right-click it and Stop the service there.

How do I update the Dedicated Server?
If your server was installed using the desktop Steam client, it should be automatically updated shortly after the update is released. You may need to shut your server instance down and tell Steam to verify the local files, or restart Steam, to force the update to go through.

If your server was installed using the SteamCMD command-line client, you can shut down the server instance and then use the same command you used to install the server to check for and install an update.

How do I reset the Administrator password?
In the location where you can find the server's saved-game files, look for a file called, where   is the server port number (e. g.  ) and delete it. This will delete all server settings relating to passwords, server name, and session name, and you will be asked for a new Administrator password when connecting as when the server was first set up.

How can I have more than four players in my server?
'''First and foremost, before implementing the answer provided here, note that the server is being tuned to be performant with the expected player cap of four. Increasing this limit may have ramifications with respect to server stability, performance, and resource usage.'''

That said, if you will wish to proceed with increasing the player limit, find the  file in your server's configuration directory (see above), and add this stanza to the top of the file (replacing the default of   with the desired player cap for your server):

I thought the Dedicated Server was multi-threaded- why am I only seeing one core being used?
While the software is in point of fact multi-threaded, the fact remains that the game's design is still predominantly reliant upon a single primary thread. As one of the developers recently put it:"We never intended to say the server will evenly use all your cores. We meant more that the server spawns up to 26 threads (per work set). The game loop is still fundamentally single threaded though and all multi threaded work is happening on ticks. So one core will always work harder than others as a result."

I was running an Experimental server after the U5 release, but I want to move it to Early Access, and it's not converting. What do I do?
Sometimes, Steam can helpfully remember which branch you have selected. If you were using  to stay pinned on the Experimental branch, removing it from your update command may not roll you into Early Access. To force this to happen, use  to force the switch.

How can I get my friends to join my server?
In order for your friends to join your server, you will need to give them your Public IP Address (WAN IP) and the port if it differs from 15777. You can obtain this by searching for "what is my ip" in most search engines.

Please note however that this will require you setup port forwarding correctly and have the correct firewall entries in place to allow connections into the network where the server is hosted.

I was running a Dedicated Server on Experimental; now that Update 5 is on Early Access, how do I switch?
While U5 was only on the Experimental branch, that was the only version of the Dedicated Server that was available. With the release into Early Access, the default branch of the Dedicated Server was updated to also be on the Early Access branch. All you need to do is let the server update and it will roll into Early Access; if you want to stay on or revert the Dedicated Server into the Experimental branch, you have to alter your configuration as described above.

The Dedicated Server stops after throwing two warnings; what do I do?
There are two common warnings that you will see once the server has finished its startup process. These are warnings, not errors, and in this case they can be ignored. If you see the two messages below there is nothing wrong, and the server is now just waiting for a client connection. Both messages related to the Epic Online Store (EOS), which the server has no interactions with, and so these warnings are completely innocuous.

History
Dedicated server patches are being released in par with every game patch. This section only lists changes directly related to the dedicated server itself, changes to multiplayer in general are tracked here.


 * Patch 0.5.1.6:
 * Improved stability of the packet router
 * Improved CPU usage of the packet router
 * Added a startup argument for disabling the packet router:


 * Patch 0.5.1.2:
 * Implemented a mechanism that routes all server packets through the query beacon, in effect reducing the number of ports that need to be open/forwarded to 1, simplifying setup.
 * Patch 0.5.1.1:
 * Fixed a bug that made Clients spam poll the server, now we should poll much less
 * Fixed some more issues with the Crash reporter integration
 * Patch 0.5.0.14:
 * Found an issue where threading was forced to be disabled for dedicated servers in some scenarios. Fixed it so now we should actually make use of multiple CPU cores
 * Added tick rate information on the Server Status UI Menu
 * Production Lights for all buildings should now be working again
 * Patch 0.5.0.13: Added Crash Reporter integration for Dedicated Server for both Windows and Linux, which is enabled by default and can be disabled using a config edit
 * Patch 0.5.0.12: Enabled background and hi-prio task sets for servers to match what they are for the game, This should further improve multicore CPU usage
 * Patch 0.5.0.11: Servers should now use all available cores (Up to 26 worker threads) on both Windows and Linux
 * Patch 0.5.0.9:
 * Implemented a first revision of the Save Manager in the “Manage Saves” tab under Server Manager
 * Increased the beacon connection timeout to 30 seconds (Previous value was 5 seconds)
 * Patch 0.5.0.8:
 * Fixed spelling mistake in the server is offline message
 * Server state is now polled a lot less by the clients (at most 3 times per second) and clients back off gradually if a server does not respond to pings which makes the client behaviour less consistent with DDOS attacks
 * Clients do not store DNS lookup results in the server manager file and instead the DNS lookups are made every time the client starts up which makes the clients work better for servers with Dynamic DNS
 * Patch 0.5.0.7:
 * Fixed a crash on startup on Dual Stack Linux, IPv6 should now work on more recent kernels
 * Fixed a shutdown crash caused by OnlineSubsystemEOS
 * Patch 0.5.0.6:
 * Added IPv6 Support
 * Made FGAbstractServerWidget public for modders
 * UI should now properly display when new connections are established
 * Potentially fixed a crash related to using the Rebar Gun on Dedicated Server
 * Fixed Nobelisk/Snowballs on Dedicated servers
 * Patch 0.5.0.4:
 * Changed "-GamePort" server parameter to "-Port"
 * Added a “Save Game” server command
 * Flipped around the Show/Hide Address Toggle Button text in the Add Server popup
 * Patch 0.5.0.0: Introduced

Trivia

 * The console of the server (as of Patch 0.5.0.12) serializes boolean values with typos: "IsAwake newState = flase", "IsAwake newState = ture". This is considered a common typo.
 * When Patch 0.5.0.0 was released, Dedicated Servers were initially only available to those using Steam. On December 7, 2021, it was announced on Twitch Stream by Community Manager Snutt Treptow that Dedicated Servers were available on Epic Games.