A Rust dedicated server your players can count on

Will your server keep up?

It will if you give it room to grow. Facepunch publishes one baseline: 12 GB of RAM left free for the server and 15 GB of disk space to spare, with fast SSD or NVMe storage strongly preferred. It adds that a 6000-sized map needs more memory than that, and that the real figure depends on how the server is used and how many people are on it.

Here is what pushes the need up, in plain terms:

• Map size. You pick it with server.worldsize, anywhere from 1000 to 6000. Facepunch says a bigger map takes more disk and more memory.
• Player slots. server.maxplayers caps how many people can be on at once, and Facepunch notes that more players call for a faster processor.
• Time since the wipe. Every wall, box and turret your players place is saved with the map, so the world gets heavier as the weeks go on.

Facepunch doesn't give a memory figure per player, and neither will we. Start above the baseline, check memory use in the last days before a wipe, and grow from there.

The server that fits

A Rust world is never really idle, so it does best on a machine nobody else is using. Our servers for game hosting are whole physical machines on HPE enterprise hardware: every core, all the memory and all the disks belong to your server, with root access and a remote console on the rack servers and blades.

• Close to your players. Your server can live in Amsterdam, Bucharest, Miami, New York or San Francisco. Choose whichever city sits closest to your players.
• Traffic nobody counts. Each machine ships on an unmetered port, 500 Mbps or 1 Gbps depending on the line, not shared with any other customer at the access switch.
• Room to grow. Memory and disks can be added to the machine you already have later, with no migration and no new IP address, so your server address stays the same.
• Quick to start. A machine already in a rack is ready in about 30 minutes once the order is approved; payment checks can add time. Ready servers shows what is racked.
• No lock-in. Billing is monthly with no long-term contract, and people answer by live chat, email and phone around the clock.

Up and running in an evening (Windows)

Windows is the friendliest place to start, because the server window takes commands directly. Windows Server and Windows 11 Pro are among the systems you can choose at order.

1. Download SteamCMD from Valve's SteamCMD page and unpack it into C:\Rust\SteamCMD.
2. Create C:\Rust\MyServer and, inside it, a text file renamed to RunServer.bat. Turn on file extensions in Explorer first so the name really ends in .bat.
3. Paste the script below into it, then set your own server name, seed, world size, player slots and RCON password.
4. Double-click it. The first run downloads the game files (app 258550), then starts the server.
5. Startup takes several minutes. When the window shows Server startup complete, open Rust, press F1 and type connect followed by your server's IP and :28015.

:start
C:\Rust\SteamCMD\steamcmd.exe +force_install_dir C:\Rust\MyServer\ +login anonymous +app_update 258550 +quit
RustDedicated.exe -batchmode +server.port 28015 +server.level "Procedural Map" +server.seed 4242 +server.worldsize 3500 +server.maxplayers 75 +server.hostname "Our Rust Island" +server.identity "island" +rcon.port 28016 +rcon.password "pick-a-long-one" +rcon.web 1 -logfile island.txt
goto start

The goto start line brings the server back after a crash or a restart command, and the SteamCMD line updates it each time. Prefer Linux? Facepunch documents that too, with a runds.sh script and a screen session, and our Linux servers come with Ubuntu, Debian and more; just know that the Linux console doesn't take typed commands, so you'll manage it through RCON.

Change the RCON password before the first start. Anyone who has it controls your server.

Opening the right doors

Rust uses up to four ports. Only the first is required to play, so get that one working before the rest.

• Game, UDP 28015 (server.port): how players connect.
• Query, UDP (server.queryport): lists you in the in-game server browser. If you leave it unset it takes the larger of your game and RCON port numbers plus one, and it can never share the game port.
• RCON, TCP (rcon.port): remote admin tools connect here. Allow only your own IP addresses.
• Rust+, TCP (app.port): the companion phone app. If you leave it unset, it takes the larger of your game and RCON port numbers plus 67 (28083 with the script above; run app.info to see it); any port you set must be 10000 or above, and the server must be able to reach companion-rust.facepunch.com.

If Rust+ cannot reach your server, the server switches the feature off by itself and writes a connectivity error to the log.

Wipe day without surprises

Your players will ask when the next wipe is, and Rust can answer for you. Add a schedule tag, monthly, biweekly or weekly, to server.tags and the in-game wipe timer follows it. Out of the box a monthly server wipes at 7 PM London time on the month's first Thursday, which matches Facepunch's forced wipes.

1. Move the day and hour with wipetimer.wipeDayofWeek (0 is Sunday) and wipetimer.wipeHourofDay (14.5 means 2:30 PM).
2. Set your own time zone with wipetimer.wipeTimezone.
3. Need a three-day cycle or a one-off date? Use wipeCronOverride or wipeUnixTimestampOverride.
4. Run PrintWipe to confirm the next wipe before announcing it.

On a forced wipe the save file's version number goes up, so your island begins again on a new map. To wipe blueprints as well, delete the player.blueprints file along with the .sav while the server is stopped.

Keeping your world safe

Copy your server's identity folder somewhere else on a schedule. It holds the map and save, the player files, your cfg folder with server.cfg and users.cfg, and companion.id, the file that ties your server to Rust+. Keep that one with your backups and never reuse it on a second server, or players will need to pair the app again.

If you add plugins through Oxide, remember that a SteamCMD update puts the vanilla files back, so reinstall Oxide after each game update.

When renting is overkill

For a one-off session with two or three friends, running the server on your own PC and joining with connect localhost:28015 is fine. Renting a machine starts to make sense once your world has to stay online while you are asleep. Hosting more than Rust? See how a Palworld world compares.

Questions people ask

Is 16 GB of memory enough for my Rust server?

Only just. Facepunch asks for 12 GB of memory free for the server, and the operating system needs some of the 16 GB too. Facepunch also says the figure is not fixed and depends on how the server is used and how many people play on it. A large map late in a busy wipe can need more. Because memory can be added to the same machine later, you can start there and grow.

Do I have to own Rust to run a server?

Not to run it. SteamCMD downloads the server files anonymously. To join and play on it, though, you need Rust in your own Steam library.

What is the quickest way to get admin rights?

Join your server, type users in the server console to find your SteamID, then use ownerid with that SteamID and your name. Reconnect and you will have admin rights. On Linux, send the same commands through an RCON tool.

Why can't other people see my server in the list?

The browser listing uses the query port, which is UDP and separate from the game port. Make sure it is open in your firewall and is not set to the same number as server.port.

Where should I put all my settings?

Keep ports and RCON on the launch line and the rest in server.cfg inside your identity's cfg folder, one setting per line without the plus sign. The server reads it at startup and it wins over the launch line.