This guide will explain how to host a dedicated server for Half-Life 2: Deathmatch on the following platforms:
Docker is, in my opinion, the easiest way to host and manage your server for long term use, Docker is easy to interact with and the server is easy to manage.
Following this, the guide will explain how to port forward and configure your server which are essential for a public server, configure FastDL and install addons such as Metamod and Sourcemod with plugins.
Post installation or if you already have the server installed, use the following links to configure your server further.
Platform
│
├── Linux
│ └── Machine used for dedicated server ONLY?
│ ├── Yes → Linux
│ └── No → Docker Linux
│
└── Windows
└── Machine used for dedicated server ONLY?
├── Yes → Windows
└── No → Docker Desktop Windows
For the installation of the server we're going to need a folder for SteamCMD and a folder for the server itself, take the following as an example:
Half-Life 2 Deathmatch Dedicated Server/
│
├── steamcmd/
│
└── server/
In this example, the Half-Life 2: Deathmatch dedicated server will be installed into the server folder and steamCMD, which is used to download the server, will be installed into steamcmd. It is up to you where you want to place these folders.
The next step is to download SteamCMD, a download link for Windows can be found here, make sure you download the one under Windows, the file is called steamcmd.zip .
Afterwards, unzip this file and put all of its content in the server folder, it should now look like this:
Half-Life 2 Deathmatch Dedicated Server/
│
├── steamcmd/
│ └── steamcmd.exe
│
└── server/
After downloading, we can double click on steamcmd.exe to run it, following this, a terminal window will open which returns the following output:
[ 0%] Checking for available updates...
[----] Verifying installation...
...
After it has downloaded updates, checked for updates and verified the installation we can continue.
Before logging into SteamCMD we must first set the location for the dedicated server to be downloaded and installed to, note that for this we have to use the absolute path.
force_install_dir \path\to\your\server\
For example, installing the server onto your D drive would be:
force_install_dir D:\Half-Life 2 Deathmatch Dedicated Server\server\
When setting this on Windows make sure to use the back slash \ instead of the forward slash /.
The next step is to run steamcmd.exe by double clicking on it, this should launch a terminal window running SteamCMD. SteamCMD should update itself if necessary and it should end up with a prompt in which you can type commands. We can use the anonymous login feature to download the dedicated server as we don't need to make a purchase to download it, the command to login anonymously is:
login anonymous
Following this we should be logged into SteamCMD anonymously, SteamCMD will tell us:
Connecting anonymously to Steam Public...OK
Waiting for client config...OK.
Waiting for user info...OK
Now that we are logged in and the installation directory is set we can download the dedicated server, to do this we use the following command:
app_update 232370 validate
app_update will download appid 232370 (Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Dedicated Server) and validate the files after downloading.
When the download is complete you may close SteamCMD and your server directory should be populated with files like so:
Half-Life 2 Deathmatch Dedicated Server/
│
├── steamcmd/
│ ├── steamcmd.exe
│ └── ...
│
└── server/
├── hl2mp/
│ ├── ...
│ └── ...
├── srcds.exe
└── ...
We can see that SteamCMD is downloading our server as the terminal writes the following output:
Update state (0x3) reconfiguring, progress: 0.00 (0 / 0)
Update state (0x3) reconfiguring, progress: 0.00 (0 / 0)
Update state (0x61) downloading, progress: 0.00 (0 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x61) downloading, progress: 4.09 (42987117 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x61) downloading, progress: 6.80 (71391309 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x61) downloading, progress: 12.91 (135573772 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x61) downloading, progress: 19.76 (207506150 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x61) downloading, progress: 28.76 (301982332 / 1049938646)
...
Note: the progress is shown here in % and bytes. Following the download, it will validate the files which looks like this:
Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 2.56 (26908998 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 9.25 (97137605 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 15.24 (160053481 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 21.81 (229023692 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 26.41 (277301554 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 31.65 (332265526 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 38.77 (407038805 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 44.93 (471691466 / 1049938646)
...
When finished, it will tell us Success! App '232370' fully installed.
Inside the server directory there should be a file called srcds.exe which will be used to run the server, to do this we make a .bat file to easily run the server and set parameters. The easiest way to do this is to create text file, enter the following command in this file and then save it as .bat instead of a .txt file.
srcds.exe -console -game hl2mp -maxplayers 10 +map dm_lockdown
Optionally you can omit -console to run the server using a graphical interface. Running the bat file will start the server, we can see that the server is started when the server window tells us:
Connection to Steam servers successful.
Public IP to Steam is xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Assigned anonymous gameserver Steam ID [A:x:xxxxxxxxxx:xxxxx].
VAC secure mode is activated.
AT THIS POINT YOUR SERVER IS RUNNING, BUT FOR OTHERS TO BE ABLE TO JOIN IT YOU WILL NEED TO PORT FORWARD AND DO BASIC CONFIGURATION
Modern versions of Linux allow you to install SteamCMD directtly from your package manager, for example on my test setup ruinning Pop OS, i can use the command:
sudo apt install steamcmd
Which will return:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
libstdc++6:i386
Suggested packages:
steam:i386
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libstdc++6:i386 steamcmd:i386
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 2,125 kB of archives.
After this operation, 7,191 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
After this we can type y and press enter to start the installation. If your package manager and or package repository does not include SteamCMD you might have to manually install the dependencies and manually download the package, how this is done is described here.
Running the server under the root user is a bad idea and a scurity risk, most distributions force you to make a user account which should be used to run the server instead, if you do not have a user account, make one like so:
sudo useradd -m newusername
sudo passwd newusername
Since we've downloaded SteamCMD (if possible) from the repositories we will not need to make a folder for SteamCMD. We will still need to make a folder for the server to be installed to, take the following as an example:
/home/username/hl2dm-ds/
│
└── server/
In this example, the Half-Life 2: Deathmatch dedicated server will be installed into the server folder. To create the new folders open a new terminal and type the following commands:
cd ~
mkdir hl2dm-ds
cd hl2dm-ds
mkdir server
After installing SteamCMD and sertting up the folder structure, we can run SteamCMD with the following command:
steamcmd
Following this the prompt should return something like this:
[ 0%] Checking for available updates...
[----] Verifying installation...
...
After it has downloaded updates, checked for updates and verified the installation we can continue.
Before logging into SteamCMD we must first set the location for the dedicated server to be downloaded and installed to, note that for this we have to use the absolute path.
force_install_dir /path/to/your/server
For example, installing the server into your home folder (recommended, permission will be set accordingly)
force_install_dir /home/username/hl2dm-ds/server
When setting this on Linux make sure to use the forward slash / instead of the back slash \.
The next step is to login to SteamCMD using an anonymous account as we do not need to purchase HL2:DM or anything to be able to download the server, to login, use the following command:
login anonymous
Following this we should be logged into SteamCMD anonymously, SteamCMD will tell us:
Connecting anonymously to Steam Public...OK
Waiting for client config...OK.
Waiting for user info...OK
Now that we are logged in and the installation directory is set we can download the dedicated server, to do this we use the following command:
app_update 232370 validate
app_update will download appid 232370 (Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Dedicated Server) and validate the files after downloading.
When the download is complete you may close SteamCMD and your server directory should be populated with files like so:
/home/username/hl2dm-ds/server/
├── hl2mp/
│
└── srcds_run
We can see that SteamCMD is downloading our server as the terminal writes the following output:
Update state (0x3) reconfiguring, progress: 0.00 (0 / 0)
Update state (0x3) reconfiguring, progress: 0.00 (0 / 0)
Update state (0x61) downloading, progress: 0.00 (0 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x61) downloading, progress: 4.09 (42987117 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x61) downloading, progress: 6.80 (71391309 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x61) downloading, progress: 12.91 (135573772 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x61) downloading, progress: 19.76 (207506150 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x61) downloading, progress: 28.76 (301982332 / 1049938646)
...
Note: the progress is shown here in % and bytes. Following the download, it will validate the files which looks like this:
Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 2.56 (26908998 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 9.25 (97137605 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 15.24 (160053481 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 21.81 (229023692 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 26.41 (277301554 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 31.65 (332265526 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 38.77 (407038805 / 1049938646)
Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 44.93 (471691466 / 1049938646)
...
When finished, it will tell us Success! App '232370' fully installed.. To close SteamCMD we can use the command exit.
Inside the server directory there should be a file called srcds_run which we will use to run the server, to run the server from the command line we can use the following command:
./srcds_run -game hl2mp -maxplayers 10 +map dm_lockdown
After executing this, the server should start runnuing, we can see that the server has started succesfully because of the following output:
Connection to Steam servers successful.
Public IP to Steam is xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Assigned anonymous gameserver Steam ID [A:x:xxxxxxxxxx:xxxxx].
VAC secure mode is activated.
AT THIS POINT YOUR SERVER IS RUNNING, BUT FOR OTHERS TO BE ABLE TO JOIN IT YOU WILL NEED TO PORT FORWARD AND DO BASIC CONFIGURATION
A docker application is a quick and easy way of deploying an image to do one thing; run a Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Dedicated Server server. A docker container is simple to manage and configuration is easy.
Certain operating systems such as Unraid and or TrueNAS Community Edition allow for application deployement in the shape of docker images from sources such as Docker Hub. Installing such a docker container is relatively simple if you've set up docker containers before, for Unraid and TrueNAS use this link.
A docker container/ application can also be ran on Linux itself and is not difficult to set up, the following steps will explain:
Unlike SteamCMD, Docker cannot be installed from most repositories as far as i know and has to be added, we can do this using the following commands:
First, login as root:
sudo su
Run updates:
sudo apt update
Fetch the GPG from docker and install it:
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg
Fetch the repository list and install it:
echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
Update once more:
sudo apt update
Install docker:
sudo apt install docker-ce
Next we start docker and enable it so it starts every time we reboot our machine:
sudo systemctl start docker
sudo systemctl enable docker
After this, docker should be installed, we can test this by running:
sudo docker --version
Which should return:
Docker versions 28.0.1, build 068a01e
The version will be different for you most likely.
We will need to set up 2 folder structures for the Dedicated Server, 1 for the Linux operating system and 1 inside the Docker container, on the Linux system we want the folder structure like this:
/home/USERNAME/dockerdata
├─ server
│
└─ stamcmd
In this case, on the Linux machine itself we have the server and steamcmd folder inside /home/username/dockerdata. Now we need to set up the folder structure inside the docker container which will look something like this:
/dockerdata
├─ server
│
└── stamcmd
These folders don't need to be created as they are created for us when setting up the Docker container.
First we login as root:
sudo su
Then, go to the docker directory on your Linux machine, in the example shown above that would be /home/USERNAME/dockerdata, to do this, use:
cd /home/USERNAME/dockerdata (make sure to change USERNAME with your username)
Then, make docker-compose.yaml using the following commands:
touch docker-compose.yaml
Open docker-compose.yaml using the text editor with:
nano docker-compose.yaml (or your text editor)
Then, add the following lines to your docker-compose.yaml file:
services:
hl2dm:
container_name: hl2dm-ds
image: ich777/steamcmd:hl2dm
restart: unless-stopped
ports:
- "27015:27015"
- "27015:27015/udp"
environment:
GAME_ID: 232370
GAME_NAME: hl2mp
GAME_PORT: 27015
GAME_PARAMS: "+maxplayers 24 +map dm_lockdown"
UID: 99
GID: 100
volumes:
- /home/USERNAME/dockerdata/steamcmd:/serverdata/steamcmd
- /home/USERNAME/dockerdata/server:/serverdata/serverfiles
Note: make sure to change USERNAME with your username!
Note: the following lines indicte where the server will be installed to on our Linux machine and their respective path on the Docker container:
- /home/USERNAME/dockerdata/steamcmd:/serverdata/steamcmd this indicates that /home/USERNAME/dockerdata/steamcmd is linked (:) to /serverdata/steamcmd in our docker container.
Some parts of our server configuration are written inside the docker-compose.yaml file such as the port the server will use and the server parameters including the starting map, this file can be updated when the server is turned of in case you ever need to change these. Next we can start our container using the following command:
docker compose up -d
After running the command and letting the images download, we should get the following output:
[+] Running 7/7
✔ hl2dm Pulled 5.6s
✔ 69fb10dc82f9 Pull complete 3.8s
✔ 05ba2b01b3ef Pull complete 4.0s
✔ dc2b3bbca85d Pull complete 4.0s
✔ 8a56348ea875 Pull complete 4.0s
✔ 1df2777fc818 Pull complete 4.0s
✔ 6e694c0deac5 Pull complete 4.0s
[+] Running 2/2
✔ Network dockerdata_default Created 0.0s
✔ Container hl2dm-ds Started 0.2s
Here we can see it has pulled all the required data to set up the docker container and we can see our container name is hl2dm-ds, this name will be important to identify our container.
We can see what the container is doing by reading the log, after the container has been created it will start by itself and start downloading the dedicated server, after this it will start the server. To list our containers we can use the following command:
docker ps -a
This should return something like this:
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
4dde2e97d806 ich777/steamcmd:hl2dm "/opt/scripts/start.…" 8 minutes ago Up 8 minutes 0.0.0.0:27015->27015/tcp, 0.0.0.0:27015->27015/udp, [::]:27015->27015/tcp, [::]:27015->27015/udp hl2dm-ds
We can open the logs from our container with the following command:
docker compose logs -f hl2dm-ds
This should return the following output:
hl2dm-ds | ---Ensuring UID: 99 matches user---
hl2dm-ds | ---Ensuring GID: 100 matches user---
hl2dm-ds | ---Setting umask to 000---
hl2dm-ds | ---Checking for optional scripts---
hl2dm-ds | ---No optional script found, continuing---
hl2dm-ds | ---Taking ownership of data...---
hl2dm-ds | ---Starting...---
hl2dm-ds | SteamCMD not found!
hl2dm-ds | steamcmd.sh
hl2dm-ds | linux32/steamcmd
hl2dm-ds | linux32/steamerrorreporter
hl2dm-ds | linux32/libstdc++.so.6
hl2dm-ds | linux32/crashhandler.so
hl2dm-ds | ---Update SteamCMD---
hl2dm-ds | Redirecting stderr to '/serverdata/Steam/logs/stderr.txt'
hl2dm-ds | ILocalize::AddFile() failed to load file "public/steambootstrapper_english.txt".
hl2dm-ds | [ 0%] Checking for available update...
hl2dm-ds | [----] Downloading update (0 of 49,478 KB)...
hl2dm-ds | [ 0%] Downloading update (0 of 49,478 KB)...
hl2dm-ds | [ 0%] Downloading update (0 of 49,478 KB)...
hl2dm-ds | [ 0%] Downloading update (0 of 49,478 KB)...
hl2dm-ds | [ 0%] Downloading update (0 of 49,478 KB)...
hl2dm-ds | [ 0%] Downloading update (1,018 of 49,478 KB)...
hl2dm-ds | [ 2%] Downloading update (2,225 of 49,478 KB)...
...
hl2dm-ds | [----] Extracting package...
...
hl2dm-ds | [----] Installing update...
hl2dm-ds | [----] Cleaning up...
hl2dm-ds | [----] Update complete, launching...
hl2dm-ds | Redirecting stderr to '/serverdata/Steam/logs/stderr.txt'
hl2dm-ds | Logging directory: '/serverdata/Steam/logs'
hl2dm-ds | [ 0%] Checking for available updates...
hl2dm-ds | [----] Verifying installation...
hl2dm-ds | [ 0%] Downloading update...
hl2dm-ds | [ 0%] Checking for available updates...
hl2dm-ds | [----] Download complete.
hl2dm-ds | [----] Extracting package...
...
hl2dm-ds | [----] Installing update...
hl2dm-ds | [----] Cleaning up...
hl2dm-ds | [----] Update complete, launching Steamcmd...
hl2dm-ds | UpdateUI: skip show logo
hl2dm-ds | steamcmd.sh[33]: Restarting steamcmd by request...
hl2dm-ds | Redirecting stderr to '/serverdata/Steam/logs/stderr.txt'
hl2dm-ds | Logging directory: '/serverdata/Steam/logs'
hl2dm-ds | [ 0%] Checking for available updates...
hl2dm-ds | [----] Verifying installation...
hl2dm-ds | UpdateUI: skip show logo
hl2dm-ds | Steam Console Client (c) Valve Corporation - version 1741737873
hl2dm-ds | -- type 'quit' to exit --
hl2dm-ds | Loading Steam API...OK
hl2dm-ds |
hl2dm-ds | Connecting anonymously to Steam Public...OK
hl2dm-ds | Waiting for client config...OK
hl2dm-ds | Waiting for user info...OK
hl2dm-ds | ---Update Server---
hl2dm-ds | Redirecting stderr to '/serverdata/Steam/logs/stderr.txt'
hl2dm-ds | Logging directory: '/serverdata/Steam/logs'
hl2dm-ds | [ 0%] Checking for available updates...
hl2dm-ds | [----] Verifying installation...
hl2dm-ds | UpdateUI: skip show logo
hl2dm-ds | Steam Console Client (c) Valve Corporation - version 1741737873
hl2dm-ds | -- type 'quit' to exit --
hl2dm-ds | Loading Steam API...OK
hl2dm-ds |
hl2dm-ds | Connecting anonymously to Steam Public...OK
hl2dm-ds | Waiting for client config...OK
hl2dm-ds | Waiting for user info...OK
hl2dm-ds | Update state (0x3) reconfiguring, progress: 0.00 (0 / 0)
...
hl2dm-ds | Update state (0x61) downloading, progress: 0.19 (1717150 / 919359275)
hl2dm-ds | Update state (0x61) downloading, progress: 2.39 (22009796 / 919359275)
hl2dm-ds | Update state (0x61) downloading, progress: 3.83 (35255756 / 919359275)
....
hl2dm-ds | Update state (0x61) downloading, progress: 99.77 (917262123 / 919359275)
hl2dm-ds | Update state (0x61) downloading, progress: 99.77 (917262123 / 919359275)
hl2dm-ds | Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 4.33 (39775643 / 919359275)
hl2dm-ds | Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 18.78 (172636393 / 919359275)
...
hl2dm-ds | Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 87.07 (800489212 / 919359275)
hl2dm-ds | IPC function call IClientAppManager::GetUpdateInfo took too long: 42 msec
hl2dm-ds | Success! App '232370' fully installed.
hl2dm-ds | ---Prepare Server---
hl2dm-ds | mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/serverdata/.steam/sdk32’: No such file or directory
hl2dm-ds | cp: target '/serverdata/.steam/sdk32/' is not a directory
hl2dm-ds | ---No 'server.cfg' found, downloading...---
server.cfg 100%[===================>] 1.76K --.-KB/s in 0s
hl2dm-ds | ---Successfully downloaded 'server.cfg'---
hl2dm-ds | ---Please wait---
hl2dm-ds | ---Server ready---
hl2dm-ds | ---Start Server---
hl2dm-ds | Auto detecting CPU
hl2dm-ds | Using default binary: ./srcds_linux
hl2dm-ds | Server will auto-restart if there is a crash.
hl2dm-ds | Setting breakpad minidump AppID = 232370
hl2dm-ds | Using breakpad crash handler
hl2dm-ds | dlopen failed trying to load:
hl2dm-ds | /serverdata/.steam/sdk32/steamclient.so
hl2dm-ds | with error:
hl2dm-ds | /serverdata/.steam/sdk32/steamclient.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
hl2dm-ds | Looking up breakpad interfaces from steamclient
hl2dm-ds | Calling BreakpadMiniDumpSystemInit
hl2dm-ds | 03/15 18:53:20 minidumps folder is set to /tmp/dumps
hl2dm-ds | 03/15 18:53:20 Could not find steamerrorreporter binary. Any minidumps will be uploaded in-process03/15 18:53:20 Init: Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(232370)/version(9540945)/tid(182)
hl2dm-ds | [S_API] SteamAPI_Init(): Loaded local 'steamclient.so' OK.
hl2dm-ds | Using shader api: shaderapiempty_srv.so
hl2dm-ds | Using Breakpad minidump system. Version: 9540945 AppID: 232370
hl2dm-ds | Loaded 11 VPK file hashes from /serverdata/serverfiles/hl2mp/hl2mp_pak.vpk for pure server operation.
hl2dm-ds | Loaded 11 VPK file hashes from /serverdata/serverfiles/hl2mp/hl2mp_pak.vpk for pure server operation.
hl2dm-ds | Loaded 1 VPK file hashes from /serverdata/serverfiles/hl2_complete/hl2_complete_misc.vpk for pure server operation.
hl2dm-ds | Loaded 1231 VPK file hashes from /serverdata/serverfiles/hl2/hl2_textures.vpk for pure server operation.
hl2dm-ds | Loaded 574 VPK file hashes from /serverdata/serverfiles/hl2/hl2_sound_vo_english.vpk for pure server operation.
hl2dm-ds | Loaded 383 VPK file hashes from /serverdata/serverfiles/hl2/hl2_sound_misc.vpk for pure server operation.
hl2dm-ds | Loaded 462 VPK file hashes from /serverdata/serverfiles/hl2/hl2_misc.vpk for pure server operation.
hl2dm-ds | Loaded 5 VPK file hashes from /serverdata/serverfiles/platform/platform_misc.vpk for pure server operation.
hl2dm-ds | server_srv.so loaded for "Half-Life 2 Deathmatch"
hl2dm-ds | Parent cvar in server.dll not allowed (hl2mp_bot_debug_ammo_scavenging)
hl2dm-ds | maxplayers set to 24
hl2dm-ds | maxplayers set to 24
hl2dm-ds | ConVarRef dev_loadtime_map_start doesn't point to an existing ConVar
hl2dm-ds | Unknown command "port"
hl2dm-ds | Network: IP 172.19.0.2, mode MP, dedicated Yes, ports 27015 SV / 27005 CL
hl2dm-ds | Initializing Steam libraries for secure Internet server
hl2dm-ds | CAppInfoCacheReadFromDiskThread took 0 milliseconds to initialize
hl2dm-ds | Setting breakpad minidump AppID = 320
hl2dm-ds | SteamInternal_SetMinidumpSteamID: Caching Steam ID: 76561197960265728 [API loaded yes]
hl2dm-ds | SteamInternal_SetMinidumpSteamID: Setting Steam ID: 76561197960265728
hl2dm-ds | dlopen failed trying to load:
hl2dm-ds | /serverdata/.steam/sdk32/steamclient.so
hl2dm-ds | with error:
hl2dm-ds | /serverdata/.steam/sdk32/steamclient.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
hl2dm-ds | Looking up breakpad interfaces from steamclient
hl2dm-ds | Calling BreakpadMiniDumpSystemInit
hl2dm-ds | SteamInternal_SetMinidumpSteamID: Caching Steam ID: 76561197960265728 [API loaded yes]
hl2dm-ds | SteamInternal_SetMinidumpSteamID: Setting Steam ID: 76561197960265728
hl2dm-ds | [S_API FAIL] Tried to access Steam interface SteamUtils010 before SteamAPI_Init succeeded.
hl2dm-ds | Setting breakpad minidump AppID = 232370
We can see above that the container has downloaded and updated SteamCMD, downloaded and installed the dedicated server and started the server. At this point our server is running, we can restart the container using the following command:
docker restart hl2dm-ds
And we can stop the container using this command:
docker stop hl2dm-ds
AT THIS POINT YOUR SERVER IS RUNNING, BUT FOR OTHERS TO BE ABLE TO JOIN IT YOU WILL NEED TO PORT FORWARD AND DO BASIC CONFIGURATION
Docker Desktop is an easy way of running Docker containers on Windows, to do this, simply go on their website and download Docker desktop (it's free). After downloading and installing Docker desktop let it install and or update certain WSL components. After all of this is done, open Docker desktop and click on the >_ Terminal button in the bottom right and enable it, then in the terminal enter the following command:
docker run --name hl2dm-ds -d -p 27015:27015 -p 27015:27015/udp --env 'GAME_ID=232370' --env 'GAME_NAME=hl2mp' --env 'GAME_PORT=27015' --env 'GAME_PARAMS=+maxplayers 24 +map dm_lockdown' --env 'UID=99' --env 'GID=100' --volume C:\Half-Life 2 Deathmatch Dedicated Server\steamcmd:/serverdata/steamcmd --volume C:\Half-Life 2 Deathmatch Dedicated Server\server:/serverdata/serverfiles ich777/steamcmd:hl2dm
After running this, Docker desktop should start to pull the image as it is not locally stored and start the container. On the top left side there should be a "Containers" section, clicking on this we should see our container named "hl2dm-ds", double clicking on this opens the log and we can see what the container is doing. We can see in the command that we have mounted the Windows path C:\Half-Life 2 Deathmatch Dedicated Server to be used for our server files which will contain the steamcmd and serverfiles contents.
AT THIS POINT YOUR SERVER IS RUNNING, BUT FOR OTHERS TO BE ABLE TO JOIN IT YOU WILL NEED TO PORT FORWARD AND DO BASIC CONFIGURATION
Port forwarding is required for to be done for others to be able to join your server from the internet, without port forwarding your server will not show up in the server list and people who are not on the same network as you are will not be able to join. Port forwarding is different for each and every set up, this guide will assume you're hosting a dedicated server from a home network and that you are using a home router and or firewall, if you're paying for a VSP or another server space you will have to figure out with them how to open ports to allow for game traffic from the internet.
To find our router's IP adres on windows we can open the command prompt and use the following command:
ipconfig
Which will return:
Ethernet adapter Ethernet:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : home
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
In this example, my default gateway which is my router, has the IP adres 192.168.1.1. To do this on Linux we can use the following command:
netstat -rn
Which will return:
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt Iface
0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 ens2
192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 ens2
In this case we can see that our router's IP adres (gateway) is 192.168.1.1
Open a web browser and enter the your gateway's IP adres, this should give you a login page to enter your router's web login. The password for this web login is usually found on the bottom of your router and is not the same as the Wi-Fi password.
After logging in we must find the port forwarding options, for me they can be found under Network > NAT > Port mapping. Next step is to add a port mapping/ port forwarding rule, the IP adres to use for this rule is th IP adres of the computer that your server is hosted on, for example this could be 192.168.1.10, next we must set the port to 27015 (or whatever port you're using) and the protocol to UDP/TCP (both). An example port forwarding rule may look something like this:
Enable this rule: ☒
IP: 192.168.1.10
Protocol: TCP/UDP
Private Port: 27015 - 27015
Public Port: 27015 - 27015
After doing this, start your server and it should now be joinable from the server list but, we haven't changed configuration yet which is required for changing the name of the server and optionally setting a password, without changing the name it will be very difficult to find your server in the list.
Server configuration is mostly stored in the server.cfg file, this configuration file contains a list of commands that the server executes when it starts up and is ran every time the server starts.
The server.cfg file exists in hl2mp/cfg/server.cfg, if it's not there, you can create it yourself and add the following text:
// Basic server settings
// Name of the server
hostname "My Half-Life 2 DM Server"
// Set a password for the server if required (leave blank for no password)
sv_password ""
// Remote console password (change it to something secure)
rcon_password "your_rcon_password"
// Set to 1 to allow cheats (set to 0 to disable)
sv_cheats 0
// Set to 1 for LAN-only play, set to 0 for internet play
sv_lan 0
// Server contact email (optional)
sv_contact "[email protected]"
// Region 0 for worldwide, change it depending on your location (use Steam region numbers)
sv_region 0
// Disable auto-kick (0 = enabled, 1 = disabled)
mp_disable_autokick 0
// Gameplay settings
// Weapon respawn time in seconds
sv_hl2mp_weapon_respawn_time 20
// Item respawn time in seconds
sv_hl2mp_item_respawn_time 30
// set to 1 if weapons stay (immediate pickup by players without weapons)
// requires that there be additional ammo (can't pick up a weapon to get more ammo)
mp_weaponstay 0
// enable autocrosshair (default is 1)
mp_autocrosshair 1
// teamplay talk all (1) or team only (0)
sv_alltalk 1
//toggles whether the server allows spectator mode or not
mp_allowspectators 1
// enable voice on server
sv_voiceenable 1
// set to force players to respawn after death
mp_forcerespawn 1
// Time limit per map (in minutes)
mp_timelimit 20
// Round time limit (in minutes)
mp_roundtime 3
// Set the win limit (0 = unlimited)
mp_winlimit 0
// Max rounds per map (0 = unlimited)
mp_maxrounds 0
// Allows a team to be unbalanced by this number of players
mp_teams_unbalance_limit 0
// Set to 1 to allow friendly fire, 0 to disable
mp_friendlyfire 0
// Enable or disable flashlight (1 = enabled, 0 = disabled)
mp_flashlight 1
// Enable or disable automatic team balancing (1 = enabled)
mp_autoteambalance 0
// Automatically kicks idle players
mp_autokick 0
// Restarts the game when round ends
mp_restartgame 1
// Automatically restarts the game at the end of each match
mp_match_end_restart 1
// Allow monsters (set to 0 for deathmatch)
mp_allowmonsters 0
// Forces auto-kicking when players are idle
mp_forceautokick 0
// Player settings
// Time before a player is kicked for not responding (in seconds)
sv_timeout 60
// Set the acceleration while noclipping
sv_noclipaccelerate 5
// Set the speed while noclipping
sv_noclipspeed 5
// Miscellaneous settings
// URL for fast download (leave empty or specify URL)
sv_downloadurl ""
// Forces all players to have a 3rd-person view (1 = enabled)
mp_forcecamera 1
// Map rotation
// Map rotation file (make sure to configure it in a separate file)
mapcyclefile "mapcycle.txt"
// Server security settings
// Allow clients to upload custom files (set to 0 to disable)
sv_allowupload 1
// Allow clients to download custom files (set to 0 to disable)
sv_allowdownload 1
// Time (in minutes) a player is banned after a failed rcon attempt
sv_rcon_banpenalty 10
// Number of failed rcon attempts before banning
sv_rcon_maxfailures 5
// Map-related settings
// Time for players to chat after the game ends (in seconds)
mp_chattime 5
Feel free to change any of these settings as you like, most importantly, probably, would be hostname, set this to something that represents your server, make it unique so you and any other player can easily find your server. Aside from this there are a lot more commands that can be used to alter server configuration, a list of convars can be found here.
FastDL is used by many source games to download maps, models and other game assets that are used on a server. If you're hosting a server with custom maps or models, the people who join your server will need to download these as they are not automatically downloaded, to do this we must set up a sv_downloadurl. A sv_downloadurl is a link to a website that hosts all the custom assets that are used on your server. You can host a downloadurl yourself by purchasing a domain and hosting a website using this domain or hosting one locally and access it via your public IP adres, if you're paying for server hosting it is likely that your server host has web space available to be used as a downloadurl. The following steps will explain how to set one up correctly assuming you're hosting it yourself or on a domain.
If you're only looking to host custom maps but no other custom content and don't wish to set up your own download url, you may use the one hosted by the Half-Life 2: Deathmatch which is: https://fastdl.hl2dm.community/
First of all we must make a browsable directory on your webserver, this example will show how this is done in Linux as i don't know how Window's ISS works. Let's assume your website is hosted in the directory /var/www/html/public, we can make another folder next to it in which our game files are hosted like so:
/var/www/html/
├─ public
│
└── hl2mp
Then we must specify that this folder should be browsable, that way your browser or game will not try to read it as a website but as a directory listing. The following example shows how this is done using Apache2, append this in your directory block:
<Directory /var/www/html/hl2mp>
Options +Indexes
</Directory>
If you're using Nginx, add this to your website's configuration:
location /var/www/html/hl2mp/ {
autoindex on;
autoindex_exact_size off; # Optional: Display file sizes in a human-readable format
autoindex_localtime on; # Optional: Display file times in the server's local time
}
Now you should be able to browser your /hl2mp/ directory in your browser by going to yourwebsite.com/hl2mp.
When adding maps, models, materials or sounds or any other custom models to your download url it is important that this folder structure is the same on your dedicated server, for example, if your game directory looks like this:
/home/USERNAME/dockerdata/server/hl2mp/maps/
├─ custommap1.bsp
└── custommap2.bsp
Then your download url directory on your web server should look like this:
/var/www/html/hl2mp/maps/
├─ custommap1.bsp
└── custommap2.bsp
Note that, everything within the hl2mp server should look the same and should be structured the same on both the web server and the dedicated server.
Finally, we must set our sv_downloadurl in our server configuration, find your server.cfg file in hl2mp/cfg and edit sv_downloadurl to sv_downloadurl "yourwebsite.com/hl2mp" and then restart your server for it to take effect. Now whenever you load a non-standard map on your server, anyone joining should download this map automatically as long as the maps are both on your web server and on your dedicated server.
Addons can be installed on your server to allow for plugin loading, adding admins and further server customization, it is highly recommended to install addons on your dedicated server. This guide will explain how to install Metamod and Sourcemod, Sourcemod allows for plugin loading and Metamod is needed for Sourcemod to load.
Note: as of writing this guide, the most recent compatible versions of Metamod and Sourcemod for Half-Life 2: Deathmatch are:
- Metamod:Source version 2.0.0-dev+1333
- SourceMod Version: 1.12.0.7190
Go to the Metamod download page and download a version compatibale with your server, you may use the server version above as an example but these may be outdated.
Note: make sure to download the Windows version if your using the Windows guide, if you're using the Linux or Docker guides make sure to download the Linux version!
Next, unzip your file and move the addons folder into your hl2mp directory, on Windows your server will look something like this:
C:\path\to\your\server\hl2mp\
└── addons\
If youre using Docker on Windows you will have to use the path you chose when creating the docker container:
C:\path\to\your\docker\server\hl2mp\
└── addons\
On Linux it will look something like this:
/path/to/your/server/hl2mp/
└── addons/
If you're using Docker on Linux you will have to use the path you chose when creating the docker container:
/path/to/your/docker/server/hl2mp/
└── addons/
Afterwards your hl2mp directory should look something like this: (Note, this example is for Linux altough folder structure inside hl2mp should be the same on Windows)
/server/hl2mp/addons/
├─ metamod
└─ ...
Metamod is installed after moving the addons folder into your hl2mp directory, following this we can restart the server and Metamod should be loaded after the restart. We can check if Metamod is loaded by joining the server and using meta version in the console which should return something like:
Metamod:Source version 2.0.0-dev+1333
Metamod:Source Version Information
Plugin interface version: 17:14
SourceHook version: 5:5
Loaded As: Valve Server Plugin
Built from: https://github.com/alliedmodders/metamod-source/commit/d6ed444
Compiled on: Feb 20 2025 14:36:31
Build ID: 1333:d6ed444
http://www.metamodsource.net/
Note: if it says the command is not found this means Metamod is not installed, this is required for Sourcemod to work and for plugins to function. You may try different versions and or branches of Metamod until you find one that works on your server.
Go to the Sourcemod Download page and download a version compatibale with your server, you may use the server version mentioned before as an example but these may be outdated.
Note: make sure to download the Windows version if your using the Windows guide, if you're using the Linux or Docker guides make sure to download the Linux version!
Next, unzip your file and move the addons folder into your hl2mp directory, on Windows your server will look something like this:
C:\path\to\your\server\hl2mp\
└── addons\
If youre using Docker on Windows you will have to use the path you chose when creating the docker container:
C:\path\to\your\docker\server\hl2mp\
└── addons\
On Linux it will look something like this:
/path/to/your/server/hl2mp/
└── addons/
If you're using Docker on Linux you will have to use the path you chose when creating the docker container:
/path/to/your/docker/server/hl2mp/
└── addons/
Afterwards your hl2mp directory should look something like this: (Note, this example is for Linux altough folder structure inside hl2mp should be the same on Windows)
/server/hl2mp/addons/
├─ metamod
├─ sourcemod
└─ ...
Sourcemod is installed after moving the addons folder into your hl2mp directory, following this we can restart the server and Metamod should be loaded after the restart. We can check if Sourcemod is loaded by joining the server and using sm version in the console which should return something like:
SourceMod 1.12.0.7190, by AlliedModders LLC
To see running plugins, type "sm plugins"
To see credits, type "sm credits"
Visit https://www.sourcemod.net/
Sourcemod allows for adding admins to your server, admins can use a wide variety of commands to control the server, control other players, start votes, ban, kicking, muting people and more. To add a player as admin we must find the admins_simple.ini file located in:
hl2mp/addons/sourcemod/configs/admins_simple.ini
Open this file using your desired text editor and read it trough, it will explain to you the built in permission levels and how to add admins. If you want to make yourself admin and give yourself full permissions over the server, add the following line to the bottom:
"STEAM_0:0:000000000" "99:z" (Obviously, replace the steam ID with your own)
Following this restart your server and join it, you can use the console command sm_admin or the chat command !admin to open the admin menu.
Plugins can be installed on your server if you have Sourcemod running, plugins allow for further customization of your server. Plugins are written by members of the Sourcemod community, yourself or AI (if, like me, you cannot code that is), plugins for Half-Life 2: Deathmatch written by the community can be found here.
First, download the plugin you want to install onto your server, a plugin usually comes in a .smx format or in a zip file which will need extracted, a plugin can also come with a .sp file which you can use to make changes to the plugin and then compile it yourself, also, there might also be translation files which will go in their corresponding folder.
To install a plugin, move the .smx file into your hl2mp/addons/sourcemod/plugins folder, then restart your server for the plugin to be loaded. You can check if your plugin is loaded by joining your server and using the following console command:
sm plugins list
This should return an output that looks something like this:
[SM] Listing 20 plugins:
01 "Admin File Reader" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
02 "Admin Help" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
03 "Admin Menu" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
04 "Anti-Flood" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
05 "Basic Ban Commands" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
06 "Basic Chat" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
07 "Basic Comm Control" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
08 "Basic Commands" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
09 "Basic Info Triggers" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
10 "Basic Votes" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
11 "Client Preferences" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
12 "Fun Commands" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
13 "Fun Votes" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
14 "MapChooser" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
15 "Nextmap" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
16 "Map Nominations" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
17 "Player Commands" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
18 "Reserved Slots" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
19 "Rock The Vote" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
20 "Sound Commands" (1.12.0.7190) by AlliedModders LLC
As we can see here, there are a bunch of default plugins listed as these are already installed.
Sourcemod plugins are written in a language called Sourcepawn, this scriting "language" is used to write scripts .sp which are then compiled and turned into plugins .smx, an example script is shown here:
#include <sourcemod>
public Plugin myinfo = {
name = "HL2DM Welcome Plugin",
author = "YourName",
description = "Welcomes players when they join",
version = "1.0",
url = "https://example.com"
};
public void OnPluginStart() {
HookEvent("player_spawn", OnPlayerSpawn);
}
public void OnPlayerSpawn(Event event, const char[] name, bool dontBroadcast) {
int client = GetClientOfUserId(GetEventInt(event, "userid"));
if (client && IsClientInGame(client)) {
char playerName[MAX_NAME_LENGTH];
GetClientName(client, playerName, sizeof(playerName));
PrintToChatAll("\x04[HL2DM] \x03Welcome %s to the server!", playerName);
}
}
If you don't know coding like me, ChatGPT is a great source for writing simple scripts such as the one shown above, the script she wrote welcomes people whenever they join the server.
Simple scripts, like the one shown above, can be compiled using Sourcemod's compiler, simply upload it and press compile. More complicated scripts or scripts that require other binaries to be loadd will need to be compiled locally, to do this make sure your script is in the hl2mp/addons/sourcemod/scripting folder, then use the following command to compile your script:
On Windows, open powershell or command prompt and enter your hl2mp/addons/sourcemod/scripting directory, then:
.\spcomp.exe scriptname.sp
On Linux, open a terminal and enter your hl2mp/addons/sourcemod/scripting directory, then:
./compile.sh scriptname.sp
Obviously, replace scriptname with the name of your script. After the compiler finished it will have created the file scriptname.smx which is your compiled plugin. If there are any errors in your script they will be outputted into the terminal or prompt.
The last step is to move your scriptname.smx file into the hl2mp/addons/sourcemod/plugins folder and then restarting the server, after the server restart we can list all installed plugins using sm plugins list and our plugin should show up in the list like so:
[SM] Listing 21 plugins:
...
21 "HL2DM Welcome Plugin" (1.0) by YourName