valheim_dedicated

Dedicated Valheim Game Server in a Docker container

Setup

Change permissions on valheim-data and Valheim directories to 777 so that Steam user within Docker container can read and write data to that directory which will be volumed in. This ensures that world and player data is persistent across container restarts

chmod 0777 valheim-data/
chmod 0777 Valheim/
chmod 0777 Valheim/worlds

The container will require and use ports 2456-2458 so make sure to forward those to the host machine.

If you have existing world files, copy them into Valheim/worlds directory before starting.

Change the arguments used in valheim-scripts/runserver.sh to suit your server details.

Start the container

To spin up the container with docker-compose:

docker-compose up

If compose is not available, to start the container manually and then detach:

docker run -d -p 2456:2456/udp -p 2457:2457/udp -p 2458:2458/udp -v $(pwd)/valheim-data:/home/steam/valheim/ -v $(pwd)/valheim-scripts:/home/steam/valheim-scripts/ -v $(pwd)/Valheim:/home/steam/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/ --name=valheim-dedicated cm2network/steamcmd:latest /home/steam/valheim-scripts/runserver.sh

If you want to enter the container interactively for debug:

docker-compose -f docker-compose.scratch.yml run --service-ports valheim-dedicated-scratch

Managing the container

To stop the server, input Ctrl-C from the shell the container is running in OR

docker kill --signal="SIGINT" <container-id>

To remove the container in case you want to start a new one completely:

docker container rm <container-id | container-name>

Connecting to the sever

Find the server name in the Valheim client server browser or connect to the IP address directly with port 2456.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to @cm2network's steamcmd docker container [https://hub.docker.com/r/cm2network/steamcmd/] [https://github.com/CM2Walki/steamcmd]