Turning on RCON

Turning on RCON

Nine out of ten setup problems are here, so do this carefully and the rest is easy.

What your after

Somewhere in your servers config theres a block like this. If it isnt there, add it:

[/Script/WDRCON.WDRCONSettings]
bEnabled=true
Password=pick-somthing-long-and-random
Port=7779

Three things, and only one of them is interesting:

• bEnabled=true — if this is false or missing, nothing works.
• Password — make one up. Long, random, not reused from anything else. Whoever has this controls your server.
• Port — this is not your game port. If your game is on 7777, RCON is somthing else. Whatever number is in this block is what goes in your balancer config.

Restart the server after changing it. It reads this at startup and nowhere else.

The port catch that wastes an afternoon

Some hosts start the server with -RCONPort=xxxx on the command line. When they do, the command line wins and the number in your config file is ignored completly.

So if youve set Port=7779, restarted, and it still says no player list, go and look at your servers startup command or launch arguments in the panel. Whatever port is on there is the real one.

By host

The block is the same everywhere. The only difference is where you edit it.

Rented from a host with a web panel — look for Configuration Files, File Manager, or an RCON section in the settings. The ini is usually editable right in the browser. Save, then Restart from the panel, not just Stop.

Some panels put RCON in the settings as a tickbox with its own password and port fields. If yours does, use those rather than editing the ini by hand, becuase the panel will overwrite your file the next time it writes the config.

Your own box — the ini sits next to the server install. Edit, restart the service.

If your panel has no file access at all, open a ticket with the host and ask them to enable RCON and tell you the port. Its a normal request, every game server host deals with it daily.

Checking it works before you touch the balancer

From the machine your going to run the balancer on:

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_RCON_PASSWORD" http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:7779/v1/status

• A lump of JSON with your server name in it — its working, go and set the balancer up.
• Nothing, or it hangs — wrong port, or a firewall between you and it.
• credential_invalid — right port, wrong password. Progress.
• Connection refused — RCON isnt enabled, or the server didnt restart.

Firewalls

If your running the balancer somewhere else (a VPS, your desktop), that RCON port has to be reachable from there. Most hosts open it when you enable RCON, some dont. If curl hangs from your machine but works from the game box itself, its a firewall.

Dont open RCON to the whole internet if you can avoid it. Restrict it to the IP your running the balancer from.