Server operation details

If you're reading this on the config examples repo: hello, the upstream hosting docs are a bit shit right now so hopefully this helps. examples are king.

This was written to keep the VPS organised and documented which is where you'll be reading this otherwise. If so hi and check out ~/.bash_history and ~/.local/share/fish/fish_history if any steps are unclear and that might help

Root directory

/root is the home directory for the root directory.

The ssh keys for meda, ghoul, and I (imcb) are in .ssh/authorized keys to allow us to connect.

The root directory has the following scripts:

• backup-config.sh - (OLD - I realised you can just use symlinks) Copy appsettings.yml et cetera from various services into /etc/ss14 to be staged by etckeeper
• backup-postgres.sh - Use pg_dump to export data excluding logs into backup/postgres. Called by a systemd timer
• backup-sqlite.sh - Old script to use sqlite3 to copy data into backup/server
• cdn-update.sh - Build the game in src/ and send it to Robust.Cdn with curl. Local alternative to "publish" GitHub action
• make-config-symlinks.sh - Run once to link files in /etc/ss14 to everywhere needed in /opt to allow easily versioning them with etckeeper. You need to create the files in /etc/ss14 first.
• vacuum-replays.sh - Delete files older than a certain age from the replays server
• watchdog-update - Send an update ping instruction to the watchdog with curl

The root directory contains the src/ directory, which has the git source trees of all the ss14 software we're using. These are used to build the dotnet applications and then they're copied into /opt where we run them.

Example:

cd ~/src/SS14.Changelog
dotnet publish -c Release -r linux-x64 --no-self-contained
rsync --archive -P -r ~/src/SS14.Changelog/SS14.Changelog/bin/Release/net8.0/linux-x64/publish/ /opt/SS14.Changelog

rsync allows us to see which files have changed.

Systemd units

The following custom systemd units are automatically running software. They are placed in /etc/systemd/system and versioned with etckeeper.

• backup-postgres.timer, backup-postgres.service - Periodically run /root/backup-postgres.sh
• vacuum-replays.timer, vacuum-replays.service - Periodically run /root/vacuum-replays.sh
• byobu-watchdog.service - Starts a tmux session and runs the watchdog in it as soon as the server boots up. Allows us to do fully unattended upgrades but still access the server console.
• loki.service - Runs log aggregator for grafana
• prometheus.service - Runs data collector for grafana
• grafana.service - Grafana stats server at https://grafana.impstation.gay
• red@.service - Red bot service to update Discord server status embed
• robust-cdn.service - Serves builds at https://impstation.gay/cdn allowing better updates and replays
• ss14-admin.service - Runs admin panel at https://impstation.gay/admin
• ss14-changelog.service - Runs auto changelog bot

We also need the stock units nginx.service and postgresql.service for the web proxying and the Postgres server which is servicing the game server, the Red bot, and grafana.

NOTE: doing an apt update with a new dotnet runtime will cause needrestart to try to automatically restart stuff. You can put byobu-watchdog in the blocklist in needrestart config to prevent hiccups

Nginx config

Nginx is the web server running our proxies and stuff. The setup is all in /etc/nginx/sites-available/ss14 and should be commented and somewhat self explanatory. You will need the docs, links at the end.

TLS stuff was set up with certbot --nginx -d impstation.gay -d cdn.impstation.gay -d grafana.impstation.gay and then copying some bits around to config sections it missed.

The watchdog

The watchdog is the main piece of software, responsible for spooling up and auto-restarting the game server. It's next to the other software at /opt/SS14.Watchdog but instead of a systemd service it's running in a terminal screen so we can access the server console. Use tmux ls to list the session and byobu-select-session to connect. All that's happening in there is cd /opt/SS14.Watchdog and then ./SS14.Watchdog. If you need to restart the watchdog just use ctrl+c to stop it then run ./SS14.Watchdog again.

Game server deployments

The way server updates work now is you should go to https://github.com/impstation/imp-station-14/actions/workflows/publish.yml and click "Run workflow". that will build the server and client then send it to the CDN. the cdn sends a ping to the watchdog and then at the end of the round the watchdog will automatically restart the server. so it should be one-click anytime upgrade. if you want to not use github actions I put /root/cdn-update.sh which should work

Tokens

Auth tokens in the config can be any text, the same token just has to match in corresponding config files. I used bitwarden to generate simple three word passwords but they can be anything as long as it matches.

We have the following tokens to think about:

• Watchdog instance tokens should match in the watchdog's per-instance ApiToken and the CDN's ApiToken. It's also used in watchdog-update.sh.
• The CDN's isntance tokens should match in its UpdateToken and in GitHub Actions' PUBLISH_TOKEN as well as in cdn-update.sh.
• The changelog bot's token should match in its GitHubSecret and in the GitHub webhook settings
• The admin panel's Auth.ClientSecret should match centcomm's dev settings one
  • https://account.spacestation14.com/Identity/Account/Manage/Developer
• Discord webhooks should be in the game's discord.*_webhook as well as the watchdog's Notification.DiscordWebhook
• Postgres passwords
  • The server database password should match in the server's database.pg_password and in SS14.Admin's DefaultConnection
  • The Grafana database is in database.password
  • Red bot's password is in its config somewhere

Large disk space users

• client builds at /var/robust-cdn/builds/
• server replays at /opt/SS14.Watchdog/instances/impstation/data/www/replays
• database at /var/lib/postgresql/16/main/

you can view these with du --human-readable --summarize /var/robust-cdn/builds/ /opt/SS14.Watchdog/instances/impstation/data/ /var/lib/postgresql/16/main/

Relevant docs

SS14 wiki

• https://docs.spacestation14.com/en/general-development/setup/server-hosting-tutorial.html
• https://docs.spacestation14.com/en/server-hosting/server-replay-recording.html
• https://docs.spacestation14.com/en/server-hosting/setting-up-robust-cdn.html
• https://docs.spacestation14.com/en/server-hosting/setting-up-ss14-admin.html
• https://docs.spacestation14.com/en/server-hosting/setting-up-ss14-watchdog.html
• https://docs.spacestation14.com/en/server-hosting/oauth.html
• https://docs.spacestation14.com/en/server-hosting/setting-up-redbot.html

Red bot

• https://docs.discord.red/en/stable/install_guides/ubuntu-2404.html

Nginx

• https://nginx.org/en/docs/

Grafana

• https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/setup-grafana/installation/debian/
• https://grafana.com/tutorials/run-grafana-behind-a-proxy/
• https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/setup-grafana/configure-grafana/
• https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/setup-grafana/configure-security/configure-authentication/github/
• https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/setup-grafana/configure-security/configure-authentication/generic-oauth/