How to set up and configure an En­shrouded server

Having your own En­shrouded server is perfect for creating a per­son­al­ised gaming ex­per­i­ence. It also gives you maximum control over who can play and when the server is online. Leaving the hardware re­quire­ments up to a hosting provider makes in­stalling and con­fig­ur­ing the game server quick and easy.

What are the re­quire­ments for an En­shrouded server?

If you want to host a dedicated En­shrouded server yourself, you can either run the server ap­plic­a­tion on your own computer or run the software on server resources from a pro­fes­sion­al hosting provider. Going with a pro­fes­sion­al hosting provider means you won’t have to have your personal computer turned on in order for the server to be online. Ad­di­tion­ally, with a hosting provider, you’ll have sig­ni­fic­antly better broadband con­nectiv­ity and your computer won’t have to endure the extra strain of hosting a game server.

The amount of computing power you need for your En­shrouded server ul­ti­mately depends on how many players will be using the server at the same time. Your hardware should meet the following minimum re­quire­ments:

• Processor (CPU): min. 3.2 GHz (dual-core)
• Memory (RAM): min. 5 GB
• Disk space: 30 GB

You also need to consider the re­quire­ments for the server operating system you will be using. For Windows Server 2022 from Microsoft, for example, you’ll need to allocate an ad­di­tion­al 1.4 GHz processor speed, 2 GB of Ram and 36 gigabytes of disk space (512 MB and 32 GB without a graphical user interface).

Hosting an En­shrouded server with IONOS

When it comes to hosting games that have dedicated servers, you can choose from various hosting providers. IONOS offers three different types of servers that can be used for hosting games. Each server comes with fast broadband con­nectiv­ity of up to 1 Gbps:

• vServers/VPS: IONOS vServers, or VPS, are vir­tu­al­ised server resources that have a fixed host system. For a monthly fee, you receive a fixed hardware setup.
• Cloud servers: Cloud servers from IONOS are vir­tu­al­ised hardware that come from various systems and can be scaled at any time. You are billed for what you use by the minute.
• Dedicated servers: With a dedicated server from IONOS, you receive a high-per­form­ance setup made up of physical hardware. Billing is by the minute and based on what you use.

Server re­com­mend­a­tions for different En­shrouded server gaming scenarios

In the following table, there are three different En­shrouded server gaming scenarios that differ in terms of number of players and when the server will be online. For each scenario, we’ve provided a IONOS server re­com­mend­a­tion that is most suitable for the scenario.

How to set up an En­shrouded server step by step (Windows)

Now, we’ll take a look at the in­di­vidu­al steps for in­stalling and con­fig­ur­ing a dedicated En­shrouded server. This tutorial has been created with IONOS customers (vServer, Cloud Server, Dedicated Server) in mind and uses Windows Server 2022.

Step 1: Establish a remote con­nec­tion to the server

First, you need to connect to the server hardware using remote access. At IONOS, you can con­veni­ently set up a remote con­nec­tion through your customer account, which you can access online:

1. Go to the IONOS customer login page and sign in with your login in­form­a­tion.
2. Click on Server & Cloud.
3. Select the IONOS package that you have purchased for your En­shrouded server.
4. Use the download link in the row Remote Desktop con­nec­tion (You can find this under Login data).
5. Run the .rdp file that has been down­loaded and log in with your server cre­den­tials (User and Initial Password). If you are con­nect­ing for the first time, you’ll need to verify the server cer­ti­fic­ate.

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Step 2: Install SteamCMD

The easiest way to get the dedicated server ap­plic­a­tion for En­shrouded is by down­load­ing it from the public Steam servers. You can establish a con­nec­tion to the public servers using the SteamCmd client, which you can install by com­plet­ing the following steps:

1. Use the SteamCMD download link to download the in­stall­a­tion package.
2. Extract the package to a folder of your choice. You can unpack it, for example, in the directory C:\SteamCmd.
3. Run the extracted file to install SteamCMD.

Step 3: Download the En­shrouded dedicated server ap­plic­a­tion

After in­stalling SteamCMD, you can start the command-line client at any time by running steamcmd.exe. Once you see the input line Steam>, you can connect to the Steam servers. To do this, log in an­onym­ously using the following command:

login anonymous

Next, use the command below to set up a directory for your En­shrouded server. We’ve named the folder C:\enshrouded-server:

force_install_dir C:\enshrouded-server

Now, run the command app_update with the app ID 2278520 to download the En­shrouded dedicated server app:

app_update 2278520 validate

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Step 4: Configure your En­shrouded server

To configure the server software that you’ve just installed, you need to launch it for the first time. You can do this by double-clicking on the file enshrouded_server.exe. Once you have suc­cess­fully launched the app (if you receive the message 'HostOnline' (up)!, the launch was suc­cess­ful), you can close the window. You should now be able to find the auto­mat­ic­ally generated con­fig­ur­a­tion file enshrouded_server.json in the server directory. You can adjust the para­met­ers below by opening the file with the text editor of your choice:

• name: server name
• password: server password
• saveDirectory: directory of save files, default location is the server sub­dir­ect­ory)
• logDirectory: directory for server logs, default location is the server sub­dir­ect­ory)
• ip: your server’s IP address (if you need it for internal network con­fig­ur­a­tion)
• gamePort: game port, default TCP/UDP 15636
• queryPort: query port, default TCP/UDP 15637
• slotCount: maximum number of players, can be from 1 to 16

Step 5: Open server ports

In your server’s firewall settings, you need to open the game port to make your server publicly ac­cess­ible, as well as the query port, which regulates game data traffic. Opening these ports will make it possible for you and your fellow player to connect to your En­shrouded server. If you are not using the standard TCP/UDP 15636 and 15637 ports, you’ll need to open the ports that you des­ig­nated in the con­fig­ur­a­tion file. You can adjust firewall rules in the IONOS Control Panel by doing the following:

1. Log in to your IONOS customer account an.
2. Go to Server & Cloud and select the hardware you are using for the En­shrouded server.
3. In the left-hand menu, click on Network and select Firewall Policies.
4. Under Incoming, create rules for TCP/UDP-Port 15636 and 15637.

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Step 6: Start your En­shrouded server

You can start your En­shrouded server at any time by running enshrouded_server.exe. A command prompt window will auto­mat­ic­ally open just like when you did the initial launch in step 4. You’ll know that the server has suc­cess­fully been started when the message 'HostOnline' (up)! appears.

Step 7: Connect to your En­shrouded server

Once you have started the server, you and your fellow players can connect by com­plet­ing the following steps:

1. Launch En­shrouded as you normally would and click Play in the main menu.
2. Create the character you want to play on your En­shrouded server.
3. Click on Join.
4. You can search for your server using the Search for server name option. It can take a few minutes for the results to load. This is because the pages that list the servers load one page at a time each time the server list is accessed.
5. Once your server is displayed in the results, you can click on Join next to your server to establish a con­nec­tion.

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Now, there’s nothing to stand in the way of a new adventure on your very own En­shrouded server!

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