nsnow/valheim-server repository overview

⁠valheim-server

Run a Valheim dedicated server in a Docker container.

This uses steamCMD to automatically update your server software.

This Dockerfile will download the Valheim dedicated server app and set it up, along with its dependencies.

If you run the container as is, the game directory will be created inside the container, which is inadvisable. It is highly recommended that you store your game files outside the container using a mount (see the example below). Ensure that your file system permissions are correct, chown 1000:1000 mount/path, and/or modify the UID/GUID variables as needed (see below).

It is also likely that you will want to customize your start.sh file. To do this, use the -e <ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE>=<value> for each setting in the start.sh file. The start.sh file will be overwritten every time the container is launched. See below for details.

⁠Run the server

⁠Docker

Use this docker run command to launch a container with a few customized start.sh options. Replace <ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE>=<VALUE> with the appropriate values (see section "Server properties and environment variables" below).

docker run --name valheim -it --rm \
  -p 28015:28015 \
  -v /home/$(whoami)/valheim:/home/valheim/server \
  -e STEAMCMD_VALIDATE="validate" # can be "" or "validate" \
  -v /opt/valheim/world1:/home/valheim/server \
  -p 2456-2458:2456-2458/tcp \
  -e VALHEIM_NAME="valheim" \
  -e <ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE>=<VALUE> \
  nsnow/valheim-server

⁠Set selinux context for mounted volumes

chcon -Rt svirt_sandbox_file_t /path/to/volume

⁠Additional Docker commands

kill and remove all docker containers

docker kill $(docker ps -qa); docker rm $(docker ps -qa)

docker logs

docker logs -f valheim

attach to the valheim server console

Use ctrl+p then ctrl+q to quit.

docker attach valheim

exec into the container's bash console

docker exec valheim bash

NOTE: referencing containers by name is only possible if you specify the --name flag in your docker run command.

⁠Helm

• git clone https://gitlab.com/japtain_cack/valheim-server.git
• cp valheim-server/helm_chart/values.yaml valheim_config.yaml
• Customize valheim_config.yaml as necessary.
• Install: helm install -n valheim valheim-world1 valheim-server/helm_chart -f valheim_config.yaml
• Upgrade: helm upgrade -n valheim valheim-world1 valheim-server/helm_chart -f valheim_config.yaml
• Keep your valheim_config.yaml in git.

⁠Configuration

⁠Reference files

• start.sh⁠

⁠Faster startup, no steamCMD validation

SteamCMD validation is disabled by default, it was causing the server to take a lot more time on boot. Valheim already takes FOREVER to boot, so this is disabled by default.

To enable SteamCMD file validation, in case you need to re-validate your pod/container data. This can be enabled on demand by adding an environment variable STEAMCMD_VALIDATE to your helm values or docker run command.

This project uses Remco config management⁠ and envtpl⁠. This allows for templatization of config files and options can be set using environment variables. This allows for easier deployments using most docker orchistration/management platforms including Kubernetes.

⁠Environment Variables

⁠Set user and/or group id (optional)

• VALHEIM_UID=1000
• VALHEIM_GUID=1000

⁠Enable Valheim Plus mod

• Use latest or pin a specific version. Use only one environment variable below, I'm just showing you how to define latest, or a specific version.
  • VALHEIM_PLUS_VERSION=latest
  • VALHEIM_PLUS_VERSION=0.9.9.11
• vim server/BepInEx/config/valheim_plus.cfg

⁠Statically defined environment variables

Let's start by looking at start.sh. You should see something like this -name "{{ getv("/valheim/name", "0.0.0.0") }}". start.sh` uses statically defined keys, meaning I typed them out fully. Let's break this down.

• -name is simply static text, in this example we are setting the -name option.
• {{ ... }}. Everything in the brackets will be rendered using the templating language processor.
• getv("/key", "default_value") is a function that takes two arguments. This looks up the environment variable based on the key, "/valheim/name", and sets the value. If there is no value set in the env, the default is used.
• "/valheim/name" this is a key, which maps to an environment variable. Envs are all CAPS and separated by underscores. "/valheim/name" becomes VALHEIM_NAME. Simple.