Arma 3 Dedicated Server

This is a docker image for hosting an Arma 3 dedicated server. It is forked from BrettMayson's image, with some changes made by me to fix a couple of issues I was having with it, as well as making modification of the basic.cfg settings a little bit easier.

We removed the need to statically pass in the password via env vars, and accomodate 2FA via a startup script that prompts you to exec into the container to login, this means that it doesn't stun-lock your login so that it rate limits your login.

Usage

Docker CLI

    docker run \
        --name arma3server \
        -p 2302:2302/udp \
        -p 2303:2303/udp \
        -p 2304:2304/udp \
        -p 2305:2305/udp \
        -p 2306:2306/udp \
        -v path/to/arma3:/arma3/ \
        --env-file ".env" \
        --restart unless-stopped \
        ghcr.io/mylesagray/arma3-server

docker-compose

Use the docker-compose.yml file inside a folder. It will automatically create an "arma3" folder in which the missions, configs, mods and servermods can be loaded into their respective subfolders.

Copy the .env.example file to .env, containing at least STEAM_USER.

Rename arma3/configs/main.cfg.example to main.cfg and configure it to your liking.

Use docker-compose start to start the server.

Use docker-compose logs to see server logs.

Use docker-compose down to shutdown the server.

The network_mode: host can be changed to explicit ports if needed.

Use docker-compose up -d to start the server, detached.

See Docker-compose for an installation guide.

Profiles are saved in /arma3/configs/profiles

Parameters

Parameter	Function	Default
-p 2302-2306	Ports required by Arma 3
-v /arma3	Folder containing Arma 3 files
-e PORT	Port used by the server, (uses PORT to PORT+3)	2302
-e ARMA_BINARY	Arma 3 server binary to use, ./arma3server_x64 for x64	./arma3server
-e ARMA_CONFIG	Config file to load from /arma3/configs	main.cfg
-e ARMA_PROFILE	Profile name, stored in /arma3/configs/profiles	main
-e ARMA_WORLD	World to load on startup	empty
-e ARMA_LIMITFPS	Maximum FPS	1000
-e ARMA_CDLC	cDLCs to load
-e STEAM_BRANCH	Steam branch used by steamcmd	public
-e STEAM_BRANCH_PASSWORD	Steam branch password used by steamcmd
-e STEAM_USER	Steam username used to login to steamcmd
-e HEADLESS_CLIENTS	Launch n number of headless clients	0
-e MODS_LOCAL	Should the mods folder be loaded	true
-e MODS_PRESET	An Arma 3 Launcher preset to load
-e BASIC_CONFIG	Basic config file to load from arma3/configs	basic.cfg

List of Steam branches can be found on the Community Wiki, Arma 3: Steam Branches.

If you change the steamPort in main.cfg to something non-default change your docker ports command according to this official wiki entry.

Creator DLC

To use a Creator DLC the STEAM_BRANCH must be set to creatordlc

Name	Flag
CSLA Iron Curtain	CSLA
Global Mobilization - Cold War Germany	GM
S.O.G. Prairie Fire (see below)	vn
Western Sahara	WS

Example

-e ARMA_CDLC="csla;gm;vn;ws"

A note on S.O.G. Prairie Fire Headless Clients

There is a bug in the S.O.G. Prairie Fire CDLC which causes headless clients to crash on launch. This appears to be caused by the way the main menu UI is created (the headless client has no screen resolution, which causes divide by zero errors. To get around this on my own servers I use the below Steam Workshop asset (I'm not providing an endorse and do not have any association with the asset or its creators).

S.O.G. Prairie Fire Vanilla Main Menu

Loading mods

Local

1. Place the mods inside arma3/mods or arma3/servermods.
2. Be sure that the mod folder is all lowercase and does not show up with quotation marks around it when listing the directory eg '@ACE(v2)'
3. Run the following command from the mods and/or servermods directory to confirm that all the files are lowercase. find . -depth -exec rename 's/(.*)\/([^\/]*)/$1\/\L$2/' {} \; If this is NOT the case, the mods will prevent the server from booting. (The server should run it automatically while starting)
4. Make sure that each mod contains a lowercase /addons folder. This folder also needs to be lowercase in order for the server to load the required PBO files inside.
5. Start the server.

Workshop

Set the environment variable MODS_PRESET to the HTML preset file exported from the Arma 3 Launcher. The path can be local file or a URL.

-e MODS_PRESET="my_mods.html"

-e MODS_PRESET="http://example.com/my_mods.html"

Discord bot

To use the discord bot and get status updates in your preferred server and channel, you need to create an Application in Discords Developer Portal.

After doing so you need to create a bot for that application and copy the created Token into your .envs DISCORD_TOKEN. Now head over to OAuth2\URL Generator and create a URL asking for bot permissions Read Messages/View Channels, Send Messages and Manage Messages.

Via the generated url you can now invite the bot to your preferred server, check out the provided functions using !help.

TODO

• Clean up Dockerfile to make builds faster
• Make bot resilient to SteamQuery failures
• Re-visit Exception handling across the board
• Add unit tests
• Run autopep8 and pylint as part of CI