Valheim server on Azure

Table of contents

1. About
2. Disclaimer
3. Known issue
4. Usage

About

A Docker image to easily setup and run a dedicated server for the early access game Valheim.

Disclaimer

This software comes with no warranty of any kind. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK! This a personal project and is NOT endorsed by Microsoft. If you encounter an issue, please submit it on GitHub.

Known issue

• Backup scheduling - #3

Usage

Create the infrastructure in Azure

For Valheim, you need a strong CPU, so I pick a Standard_F2s_v2 (2 vcpus, 4 GiB memory) The Fsv2-series runs on the Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8272CL (Cascade Lake) processors and Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8168 (Skylake) processors. It features a sustained all core Turbo clock speed of 3.4 GHz and a maximum single-core turbo frequency of 3.7 GHz.

You can launch an Azure Cloud Shell to run the following notebook. (It will create automatically a storage account in the proper location)

All commands are documented here:

For France Central

(
[[ ! -d "${HOME}/docker-valheim" ]] && git clone https://github.com/nVentiveUX/docker-valheim.git ~/docker-valheim
cd ~/docker-valheim
git fetch --prune
git pull

# Yvesub example
./create_vm.sh \
    --subscription="8d8af6bf-9138-4d9d-a2e6-5bff1e3044c5" \
    --location="francecentral" \
    --rg-vnet="rg-shared-001" \
    --vnet-name="vnt-shared-001" \
    --subnet-name="snt-lebonserv-001" \
    --subnet="10.1.0.0/29" \
    --rg-vm="rg-app-lebonserv-001" \
    --vm-name="vm-lebonserv-001" \
    --lb-name="lb-lebonserv-001" \
    --dns-name="lebonserv"
)

First run

Disconnect and reconnect so docker command will be knowned.

$ scp -P 4160 ~/lebonservfrancecentral_backup-001_sas.txt $(id -un)@lebonserv.francecentral.cloudapp.azure.com:~/
$ ssh lebonserv.francecentral.cloudapp.azure.com -p 4160 -l $(id -un)
{
sudo mkdir -p /srv/valheim/saves /srv/valheim/server
sudo chown -R 1000:1000 /srv/valheim
docker run -d \
  --name valheim \
  --publish 2456-2457:2456-2457/udp \
  --volume "/srv/valheim/server:/home/steam/valheim" \
  --volume "/srv/valheim/saves:/home/steam/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim" \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  nventiveux/docker-valheim:latest ./valheim_server.x86_64 -name "nVentiveUX" -port 2456 -world "Dedicated" -password "ChangeMe1234"
}

You can test on you laptop the connectivity.

nc -v lebonserv.francecentral.cloudapp.azure.com 2457 -u

Set-up the backup system

(
STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME="lebonservfrancecentral"
STORAGE_SAS_TOKEN="$(cat lebonservfrancecentral_backup-001_sas.txt)"
STORAGE_ACCOUNT_CONTAINER="backup-001"

printf "Set-up \"/etc/cron.d/valheim\" backup system...\\n"
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/share/valheim/maintenance
sudo wget -q "https://github.com/nVentiveUX/docker-valheim/raw/main/azure_backup.sh" -O /usr/local/share/valheim/maintenance/azure_backup.sh
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/share/valheim/maintenance/azure_backup.sh
cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/cron.d/valheim >/dev/null 2>&1
SHELL=/bin/bash
# m h dom mon dow user    command
0 5 * * * root    /usr/local/share/valheim/maintenance/azure_backup.sh "$STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME" "$STORAGE_SAS_TOKEN" "$STORAGE_ACCOUNT_CONTAINER" >/dev/null 2>&1
EOF
)

Update

docker restart valheim
# or
{
docker stop valheim
docker run -it --rm -v "/srv/valheim/server:/home/steam/valheim" -v "/srv/valheim/saves:/home/steam/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim" nventiveux/docker-valheim:latest ./steamcmd.sh +login anonymous +force_install_dir "/home/steam/valheim" +app_update "896660" +quit
docker start valheim
}

Play

Connect on lebonserv.francecentral.cloudapp.azure.com:2456. (If you would like to connect using Steam server list, use port+1: 2457)

Get the logs

# Server logs
docker logs --tail 20 -f valheim
# Backup logs
tail -f /var/log/valheim/azure_backup.sh.log