How to create a dedicated CS2 Server (Counter Strike 2)

A dedicated server that you set up and host yourself is the best solution for an in­di­vidu­al gaming ex­per­i­ence, and CS2 (Counter Strike 2) is no exception. You can install the server on Windows via Steam or SteamCMD using the CS2 dedicated server app provided by Valve as long as you have the right hosting en­vir­on­ment ready.

Why is a dedicated server a good idea for CS2?

Setting up your own Counter Strike 2 server allows you to benefit from lots of game control. Unlike with public community servers, you can easily host a private online session, in which no other players par­ti­cip­ate, meaning you get to decide who joins the game. Ad­di­tion­ally, you get complete freedom over the maps played as well as the game settings such as friendly fire or rounds.

Generally speaking, you can also host the CS2 server on your own Windows computer. In this case, however, the dedicated server will only be online when your PC is on. In addition, the stability and per­form­ance of home internet con­nec­tions is often un­suit­able for hosting a gaming server. For the best possible gaming ex­per­i­ence, renting server hardware from a pro­fes­sion­al provider makes the most sense.

Re­quire­ments for a Counter Strike 2 server

A stable CS2 server without lag and game crashes is the be-all and end-all for a suc­cess­ful mul­ti­play­er ex­per­i­ence. Getting high-per­form­ance server hardware that meets the re­quire­ments of dedicated server ap­plic­a­tions is therefore integral to the success of your gaming ex­per­i­ence. The system re­quire­ments depend on various factors such as the actual load of the CS2 dedicated server. The following values are con­sidered minimum re­quire­ments for a Counter Strike 2 server:

• Computing power (CPU): min. 3.0 GHz (quad-core)
• Memory (RAM): min. 6 GB
• Hard disk space: min. 50 GB

In addition to the dedicated server software re­quire­ments, there are also operating system re­quire­ments. For example, the following ad­di­tion­al resources must be reserved for a Windows Server 2022:

• 1.4 GHz processor (64-bit)
• 512 MB or 2 GB memory (with or without graphical user interface)
• 32 or 36 GB hard disk space (with or without graphical user interface)

CS2 server rental options with IONOS

IONOS offers various server solutions suitable for setting up your own Counter Strike 2 server. You can choose between three different models, which have different packages in terms of scope and cost:

• VPS (vServer): IONOS vServers are based on vir­tu­al­ised hardware from different host systems. The package is set at a fixed monthly price.
• Cloud Server: Cloud servers from IONOS are also based on vir­tu­al­ised hardware, but in this model only a single host system is used. The per­form­ance can be flexibly scaled, and billing is done on a per-minute basis.
• Dedicated Server: A dedicated server from IONOS gives you access to a fixed hardware setup that is reserved just for you. The com­pon­ents with high single-core power are either fixed or scalable. Usage is billed by the minute, as with cloud servers.

How to set up a Counter Strike 2 server

Once you have decided on a server setup, you can start in­stalling and setting up your own CS2 server. Below you’ll find the set-up in­struc­tions which we have sum­mar­ised for you. We will use IONOS hosting (vServer, Cloud Server, Dedicated Server) and Windows Server 2022 as the operating system for our examples.

Step 1: Establish a remote con­nec­tion to the server

In order to access your rented server hardware and install ap­plic­a­tions like the dedicated server for Counter Strike 2, an active remote con­nec­tion is required. For a Windows server system, you need to set up a remote desktop con­nec­tion for this purpose. As a IONOS customer, you can do this easily in the web-based customer account.

1. Access the IONOS Customer Account Login Page and log in.
2. Select the product ‘Server & Cloud’ and then the rented hosting server.
3. Use the download link under the ‘Remote Desktop Con­nec­tion’ entry.
4. Execute the down­loaded .rdp file by double-clicking on it.
5. Confirm the new con­nec­tion by clicking on ‘Connect’.
6. Log in to the server with the login data from the customer account (‘user’ and ‘initial password’). When es­tab­lish­ing the con­nec­tion for the first time, you’ll need to confirm the server’s security cer­ti­fic­ate.

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Step 2: Install Steam command line client (SteamCMD)

You get the dedicated server ap­plic­a­tion for CS2 directly from Steam’s public servers. With SteamCMD there is even a tool that makes this step much easier for you. To install the command line client, simply download the following SteamCMD in­stall­a­tion file and unpack it in a suitable directory such as: C:\SteamCMD. Then run the file and SteamCMD will be installed auto­mat­ic­ally.

Step 3: Install CS2 Dedicated Server

By clicking on the steamcmd.exe you can now start the client at any time. Since the ap­plic­a­tion is auto­mat­ic­ally updated every time it is started, you do not have to worry about it being up to date.

The server ap­plic­a­tion for a dedicated Counter Strike 2 server is part of the general in­stall­a­tion of the shooter game. This means you have to install the full game on your server. Unlike other game servers such as a Rust server, you can’t use an anonymous login. Logging in with a valid Steam account is required. Here’s how:

login username

After suc­cess­ful login in, use the following command to create the in­stall­a­tion directory for your CS2 server:

force_install_dir C:\cs2-server

The last step is to install Counter Strike 2 and the dedicated server:

app_update 730 validate

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Step 4: Configure the CS2 server

In the next step you can define the basic con­fig­ur­a­tion of your Counter Strike 2 server. The file needed for this, ‘server.cf’, can be found in this subfolder in the server directory:

.\game\csgo\cfg\server.cfg

Open the file with the editor of your choice and insert the desired con­fig­ur­a­tion for your server. So, for a classic training setup, you’d insert the following:

// Trainings-Setup Config
hostname "CS2 Server by IONOS"
sv_lan "0"
bot_kick
mp_warmup_end
mp_limitteams
mp_autoteambalance "0"
mp_maxmoney "60000"
mp_startmoney "60000"
mp_buytime "9999"
mp_buy_anywhere "1"
mp_freezetime "0"
mp_roundtime "60"
mp_roundtime_defuse "60"
mp_respawn_on_death_ct "1"
mp_respawn_on_death_t "1"
sv_infinite_ammo "1"
sv_showimpacts "1"
sv_showimpacts_time "10"
ammo_grenade_limit_total "5"
sv_grenade_trajectory_prac_pipreview "1"
mp_restartgame "1"
echo "Trainings-Setup loaded!"

Step 5: Generate server token

In order for your dedicated server for Counter Strike 2 to show up later in the listing of available community servers, you also need to link it with a login token. You can create this token at any time in the Steam game server account man­age­ment. After logging in, simply enter the CS2 Steam ID 730 under ‘App ID of base game’ and then press ‘Create’. Op­tion­ally, you can also enter the name of the server as a note (‘Memo’).

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Step 6: Open server ports

To enable con­nec­tions to your dedicated Counter Strike 2 server, the server ports 27015 and 27016 (TCP/UDP) need to be opened. With IONOS, you can also make these ad­just­ments to the firewall settings via the customer account:

1. Log in to the customer account.
2. Click ‘Server & Cloud’.
3. Select the pre­vi­ously set up ‘Counter Strike 2’ server or the cor­res­pond­ing hosting setup.
4. In the left side menu, press the ‘Network’ and ‘Firewall Policies’ buttons in suc­ces­sion.
5. Under Inbound, add two new rules for TCP/UDP port 27105 and 27106.

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Step 7: Start Counter Strike 2 server

Now you can start your dedicated server. Either create a batch script for this or execute the command sequence directly via the command prompt. A small overview of the most important para­met­ers can be found in the following ‘Launch Command’ wiki on GitHub.

On our server, we’ll start the training mode (+game_type 2 +game_mode 0) based on our pre­vi­ously recorded server con­fig­ur­a­tion (+servercfgfile server.cfg). We’ll leave the anti-cheat system switched off for now (-insecure). The selected map is Dust 2 (+map de_dust2). The appended parameter -dedicated starts the dedicated server ap­plic­a­tion instead of the game.

start cs2.exe -dedicated -insecure +game_type 2 +game_mode 0 +map de_dust2 +servercfgfile server.cfg

Step 8: Connect to the CS2 server

As soon as the server is started, you and your friends will be able to connect to it as follows:

1. Start Counter Strike 2 as you would Steam.
2. Press the ‘Game’ button.
3. Click the small globe icon next to ‘Match­mak­ing’ and ‘Practice’ to open the server browser.

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4. Use the filter search to look for your server. Al­tern­at­ively, go to the ‘Favorites’ tab to add the Counter Strike 2 server manually via IP address.

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Once you have found your dedicated server, you can start your online adventure on the training server or, of course, try out any other modes together with your friends!

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It is possible to opt for an in­di­vidu­al server address by linking your CS2 server with your own domain. Use the name of your team or let your cre­ativ­ity run wild and choose your ideal server address with the ap­pro­pri­ate domain extension!