ZST - Zamboni Server Tools - Say goodbye to BEC

[ZamboniBambino]

Hi guys,

 

Apologies for the sabbatical on ZFM, but I come bearing gifts. On our server, one thing I really found frustrating was the requirements of BattleEye Extended Controls, because quite frankly I felt it was a big heap of config files for something that was a pain in the ass to update, and that didn't always work smoothly. So, I created this; a simple solution for Windows servers for managing server restarts, server crashes, and messages. It requires knowledge of creating tasks.

 

What is it?

ZST consists of three PowerShell scripts which are used to perform server restarting, sending messages to servers (i.e news, rules) and restarting servers in case of error/crash. The three scripts are:

• ServerMonitor - If the arma2/arma3 server instance drops out, it will restart it. Also performs the following tasks:
  • Backs up PBO if it's changed.
  • Moves log files in BattlEye, InfiSTAR & RPT to prevent them from growing huge.
  • Performs optimisation of game databases.
  • Performs backup of game databases.
  • Supports backup to off-site location / cloud storage folder (We use SpiderOak as it's got good encryption)
  • Backs up to WinRAR archives with password.
• ServerMessenger - Simple application that will send messages to a server for informational purposes (i.e. rules, updates, news, etc).
• ServerKiller - Performs the "server will restart in X minutes" function, and restarts the server.

What do I require to run it?

• mysqldump (Should be default with MySQL tools or MariaDB 10)
• mysqlcheck (Should be default with MySQL tools or MariaDB 10)
• WinRAR (For archiving of backups)
• BERcon (https://github.com/zambino/bercon/blob/master/bercon/bin/Release/bercon.exe?raw=true)
• Knowledge of creating tasks on windows server :

Where do I download it?

 

Download it HERE: https://github.com/zambino/servertools/archive/master.zip

 

 

How do I use it?

1. Download the latest archive from GitHub: https://github.com/zambino/servertools
2. Copy the files to your server in a location for an individual server instance (i.e Server1 or something)
3. Open all 3 of the files and edit the settings to match the locations of your Arma2/Arma3 server, provide Rcon passwords, and so on.
4. Open the windows tasks console, and create a task for each of the scripts listed above:
   1. For the ServerMonitor (ZST_ServerMonitor.ps1), set the "run when" to "system startup" and then create another "run when" which says to run the script after a set time, and then set the time to the current time. This will allow the monitor to start up if your server restarts and start monitoring your arma2oaserver instance.
   2. For the ServerMessenger (ZST_ServerMessenger.ps1), set the "run when" as with the script above. In the "action" dialog, set options so that the script runs every X minutes, indefinitely. This will allow the script to periodically open and send messages to your server.
   3. For the ServerKiller (ZST_ServerKiller.ps1), set the "run when" as above, and set the "actions" dialog as follows. The script itself takes 10 minutes to run, so suppose you have a restart every 3 hours, set the script to run every 170 minutes (i.e. 2 hours, 50 mins) and it will run the restarter 10 minutes before restart occurs to give players a countdown.
   4. For each task, select "run a program" and point it to your location of Powershell.exe. This is located in C:/Windows/System32/WindowsPowershell/ in most instances.
   5. For each task, in the "run a program" part, under "parameters" type in "-File <path to script>" and replace the "<path to script>" to the full path of the script you're creating a task for.

A more detailed install tutorial will be added in a short while. :)

[Defent]

Looks really interesting! May try it when I get time!

[ZamboniBambino]

Also updated for Arma 3 and REDIS.

[Basti890]

sound intresting.. does it work on linux-root too or can you make it work there?

[Kimzer]

Are there any screenshots of this in action? :)

[ZamboniBambino]

Sadly not as it runs in the background if you use it as a service. I can create some but it'd just be pictures of the task scheduler :-)