Deploy Team Fortress 2 Game Servers

LinuxGSM is the command-line tool for quick, simple deployment and management of Linux dedicated game servers.

Team Fortress 2 Logo

Compatibility

Team Fortress 2 will run on popular distros as long as the minimum requirements are met.

Install Notes

Does not currently run on CentOS 8 because of a broken dependency libcurl.i686

Server

For consistant uptime it is recomended you host a server in a data center. If you dont already have a server, you can rent a dedicated or vitual server from one of our sponsored providers, OVHCloud, Linode, Vultr.

Minimum Recommended Distros

Other Distros

Although not tested, any distro with tmux => 1.6 and glibc => 2.15 should also be compatible with Team Fortress 2 servers. For distros not listed above LinuxGSM does not check dependencies and should be manually checked.

Game Server Binary

Only 32-Bit game server binary is available.

SteamCMD

SteamCMD by Valve is used to install and update this game server.

steamdb icon SteamDB

Steam uses appid 232250.
Update history is available from SteamDB.

Install Dependencies Using LinuxGSM

LinuxGSM will attempt to install dependencies either by having the tf2server user account with sudo access or running the installer as root.

user with sudo access

During the installation if the game server user has sudo permissions LinuxGSM will attempt to install any missing dependencies itself.

root user

if tf2server is already installed run ./tf2server install as root and LinuxGSM will automatically install missing dependencies.

Install

From the command-line do the following. Ensuring you have also installed the required dependencies.

1. Create a user and login. 
adduser tf2server
For security best practice, ensure you set a strong password. Random password: 
su - tf2server
2. Download linuxgsm.sh. 
curl -Lo linuxgsm.sh https://linuxgsm.sh && chmod +x linuxgsm.sh && bash linuxgsm.sh tf2server
3. Run the installer following the on-screen instructions. 
./tf2server install

Basic Usage

All Commands

A complete list of commands can be found by typing. 
./tf2server
Below are the most common commands available.

Running

start

./tf2server start

stop

./tf2server stop

restart

./tf2server restart

console

Console allows you to view the live console of a server as it is running and allow you to enter commands; if supported. 
./tf2server console
To exit the console press CTRL+b d. Pressing CTRL+c will terminate the server.

Updating

update

Update checks for any server updates and applies them. The server will update and restart only if required. 
./tf2server update
Bypass the check and go straight to SteamCMD update. 
./tf2server force-update

validate

You can use the SteamCMD validate option when updating the server. 
./tf2server validate

Debugging

Details

You can get all important and useful details about the server such as passwords, ports, config files etc.

./tf2server details

Debug

Use debug mode to help you if you are having issues with the server. Debug allows you to see the output of the server directly to your terminal allowing you to diagnose any problems the server might be having.

./tf2server debug

Logs

Server logs are available to monitor and diagnose your server. Script, console and game server (if available) logs are created for the server.

/home/tf2server/logs

Backup

Backup will allow you to create a complete tar bzip2 archive of the whole server.

./tf2server backup

Monitor

LinuxGSM can monitor the game server by checking that the proccess is running and querying it. Should the server go offline LinuxGSM can restart the server and send you an alert. You can use cronjobs to setup monitoring.

./tf2server monitor

Configure LinuxGSM

For details on how to alter LinuxGSM settings visit LinuxGSM Config Files page.

Documentation

For detailed documentation visit the LinuxGSM docs.

Cronjobs

To automate LinuxGSM you can set scheduled tasks using cronjobs, to run any command at any given time. You can edit the crontab using the following.

crontab -e

Below are the recommended cron tasks.

*/5 * * * * /home/tf2server/tf2server monitor > /dev/null 2>&1
*/30 * * * * /home/tf2server/tf2server update > /dev/null 2>&1
0 0 * * 0 /home/tf2server/tf2server update-lgsm > /dev/null 2>&1

Configure LinuxGSM

For details on how to alter LinuxGSM settings visit LinuxGSM Config Files page.

Documentation

For detailed documentation visit the LinuxGSM docs.