Hosting a Valheim Dedicated Server on Centos 8

Step by step guide to install a Valheim dedicated server on Centos 8

  1. Firstly, install Centos 8, either as a VM or on a physical box. I won't cover this here, as I will call it assumed knowledge.
  2. Once you have done this, I generally like to do a full system update before installing anything else.
dnf update -y

3. Next we prepare our packages and requirements, this requires installing 32bit packages (i686) as steamcmd is 32bit

dnf install wget tar glibc.i686 libstdc++.i686 -y
dnf --enablerepo=powertools install SDL2.i686 -y

4. After this is done, source our SteamCMD files

mkdir ~/Steam
cd ~/Steam
wget https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/installer/steamcmd_linux.tar.gz
tar -xzvf steamcmd_linux.tar.gz

5. After extracting the files, its time to run Steam

./steamcmd.sh

6. Steamcmd should start and try to update itself. Then you should see the following.

Steam>

7. Login anonymously

Steam>login anonymous

8. It's time to install Valheim

Steam>app_update 896660
Steam>quit

9. Before running Valheim, you'll need to open up your firewall port if you have any intention of hosting the server online.

firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=2456-2458/udp --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload
setenforce 0

Don't forget to port forward 2456:2458 on your router! (Not explained here)

9. Navigate to the game folder

cd steamapps/common/Valheim\ dedicated\ server/

10. At this point you can modify your start file, in order to name your server etc, use your favorite editor to modify start_server.sh

11. Once you are happy with your settings, it's time to start Valheim!!

./start_server.sh

Happy Gaming!