How to host your own Counter Strike Global Offensive Server?

Run your own gaming server on Ubuntu 18.04

Using a Linode Server.

[ Create a Linode and Account ]

  • A Steam game server login token (GSLT) is required to host a public CS:GO server. Without the token, client connections are restricted to the LAN only. Register your GSLT on Steam’s website. Enter 730 as the App ID when creating your GSLT. Review Steam’s documentation for more information about GSLTs.

[ Prerequisites ]

After following the SteamCMD guide, some firewall modifications are needed specifically for CS:GO:

Replace a firewall rule to slightly extend the UDP port range available to the game. This command assumes that you have only the iptables rules in place from the SteamCMD guide:

sudo iptables -R INPUT 5 -p udp -m udp --dport 26900:27030 -j ACCEPT

Reconfigure iptables-persistent to ensure that your new rule persists:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure iptables-persistent

[ Install Counter Strike ]

From the SteamCMD prompt, install CS:GO to the steam user’s home directory:

force_install_dir ./csgo-ds

app_update 740 validate

This can take some time. If the download looks as if it has frozen, be patient. Once the download is complete, you should see this output:Success! App '740' fully installed. Steam>

Exit SteamCMD:

quit

[ Configure the Server ]

Create a file called server.cfg using your preferred text editor with the contents of the following snippet. The location you should save this file to depends on how you installed SteamCMD:

SteamCMD Installation MethodFile Location

Package manager ~/.steam/steamcmd/csgo-ds/csgo/cfg/server.cfg

Manual installation ~/Steam/csgo-ds/csgo/cfg/server.cfg

The value for hostname will displayed to users that join your server. Replace the values of sv_password and rcon_password with two different and unique passwords that you don’t use elsewhere.

File: server.cfg

  1. hostname "The name of your CS:GO server"
  2. sv_password "server_password"
  3. sv_timeout 60
  4. rcon_password "rcon_password"
  5. mp_autoteambalance 1
  6. mp_limitteams 1
  7. writeid
  8. writeip

sv_password is the password users will need to enter to join the server. rcon_password is the RCON password, which is used to remotely control the game server from within the game.

For an extensive list of server.cfg options, see this page.

Create a startup script for CS:GO with the following snippet. Name the file startcsgo.sh and save it to your steam user’s home directory. Set the value of the YOUR_GSLT variable at the top to be your game server login token. Set the value of the CSGO_INSTALL_LOCATION variable at the top according to the table below.

File: ~/startcsgo.sh

  1. #!/bin/sh
  3. YOUR_GSLT=
  4. CSGO_INSTALL_LOCATION=
  6. cd $CSGO_INSTALL_LOCATION
  7. screen -S "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Server" ./srcds_run -game csgo -usercon +game_type 0 +game_mode 1 +mapgroup mg_bomb +map de_dust2 +sv_setsteamaccount $YOUR_GSLT -net_port_try 1

SteamCMD Installation Method CSGO_INSTALL_LOCATION

Package manager ~/.steam/steamcmd/csgo-ds/

Manual installation ~/Steam/csgo-ds/

When run, the script will execute a Dust2 server in competitive game mode in a screen session. For more startup modes and game options, see Valve’s CS:GO wiki.

Make the script executable:

chmod +x ~/startcsgo.sh

[ Start the Server ]

Now that your server is installed and configured, it can be launched by running the startcsgo.sh script from your steam user’s home directory.

cd ~ && ./startcsgo.sh

Review instructions for detaching from or stopping SteamCMD to exit the CS:GO server.

[ Join the Game ]

  • Launch Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
  • Once launched, go to Play and click Browse Community Servers.
  • Click on the Favourites tab and then click Add a Server at the bottom.
  • Type in the IP address of your Linode and click Add this address to favourites.
  • You’ll see your new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive server. Click Connect at the bottom right and start fragging away.