Set up a Steam Dedicated Server

Steam is a content delivery, digital rights management and multiplayer system developed by Valve Software. It is currently used to distribute and serve multiplayer games for Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Steam replaces WON, which was originally used for Half-Life multiplayer games.

The difference between a normal server and a dedicated server reside in the fact that one of them is dedicated to do only one thing, hosting the server. Setting up a Dedicated Server is relatively easy, unless you're installing it with the "HLDS Update Tool". If you're ready to get dirty into your terminal in order to get the maximum performance out of your CPU.

Steps

  1. Make sure the Windows user you're logged-in as has permission to overwrite the "HldsUpdateTool" executable.
  2. Download the HLDS Update Tool according to your Operating System (OS). Whether you run a Linux distro or a Windows build, you may get your files under the Dedicated Server title on the right.
  3. Install the update tool in x:\HLServer.
  4. Open a terminal (Start>Run>cmd).
  5. Use directory traversal and go to your HLServer directory (cd \HLServer).
  6. Type in "HldsUpdateTool" (or just "h" then cycle tab through the files until you got the exe) or ./steam for Linux users then a space then enter -command update -game <game>. Replace <game> with the game you want to host, be it "cstrike", "dmc", "dod", "ricochet", "tfc", "valve", "Counter-Strike Source", or "hl2mp". Enter -dir x:\hlserver afterwards and then press enter and let it rest. A correct example would be: 
    HldsUpdateTool -command update -game cstrike -dir c:\hlserver
  7. If it worked so far, it should now be installing the files needed to run the server.
  8. When it is over, make a shortcut of hlds.exe on your desktop.
  9. Go into the properties of the shortcut.
  10. In the Target line, go to the very end of the address then add -console -game <Game> +maxplayers <Number> +map '<StartMap>'. By doing this, each time you will load the HLDS with this shortcut, you will open it in a console, meaning less memory usage and more CPU power available.

Tips

  • Throw the shortcut in the startup directory. That way, if your computer crashes, it will reload the server.

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