How to make a Rust server: admin and wipes

Your Rust server is online. Here's how to join it, make yourself admin, run your first wipe and load a plugin framework.

Find your server address

1. Log in to the dashboard and open your server.
2. The server address sits in the panel's left rail, right under your server's name - an IP or a name, then a colon, then a port (it looks like 27.124.105.40:28015).
3. Press the copy button beside it so you take the whole thing, including the number after the colon.

Join from Rust

1. Open Rust and press F1 to open the console.
2. Type client.connect <your address> (for example client.connect 27.124.105.40:28015) and press Enter.

Your server also appears in the in-game server browser (under Community, or Modded once you run Oxide or Carbon) - the console is just faster the first time. Can't find it there? See Server not showing in the server browser below.

Your first wipe

Rust servers reset on a schedule - that's a wipe, and regulars expect one.

• A map wipe replaces the world. Bases, loot and sleeping bags are gone and everyone starts fresh on a new map.
• A blueprint wipe also clears what players have learned to craft. Most servers keep blueprints across map wipes and only clear them now and then.

The Wipes tab can run map and blueprint wipes for you, on a schedule or straight away: Rust wipe schedule and forced wipe dates covers it. To map-wipe by hand:

1. Take a backup in the Backups tab. A wipe can't be undone.
2. In the Startup tab, change World Seed to any new number. To move to a bigger map, change World Size too - check your plan has the RAM for it first (see How much RAM does a Rust server need? below).
3. Restart the server. It generates a brand-new map on the way up - the first boot after a wipe takes a few minutes.

To also wipe blueprints: after that backup, stop the server, open the File Manager, and in server/rust delete the files whose names start with player.blueprints. Then start the server again.

How much RAM does a Rust server need?

The map size decides most of it: the bigger the World Size, the more memory the server needs. Player count and plugins add to that. Our Rust plans start at 8 GB and are sized by map:

Memory creeps up over a long run, so keep the daily restart below even on a big plan. If you're between two sizes, run a long plugin list or find the server running short of memory late in a wipe, take the bigger plan. You can upgrade from the dashboard at any time. If only one player lags, check their ping against what ping to expect from each city before you upgrade.

Schedule restarts

A Rust server likes a regular restart - memory use creeps up over a long run.

1. Open More in the left rail, choose Schedules and press New schedule.
2. On Pick a starting point, pick Daily restart and press Next.
3. Under When it runs, keep Every day and set a time, for example 7:00 AM. The Time zone starts on your server's location.
4. Press Create schedule.

To skip a restart rather than disconnect players, press Edit on the restart task, choose Add condition, pick Players online is exactly 0 and press Save task.

Oxide and Carbon (plugins)

Plugins need a framework: Oxide is the long-standing standard, Carbon the newer alternative - pick one, not both.

1. In the Startup tab, set Modding Framework to oxide or carbon.
2. Take a backup (Backups tab), then go to Settings and press Reinstall. The framework is downloaded and applied during the install; your world and player data are kept.
3. Drop plugin .cs files into oxide/plugins (or carbon/plugins) with the File Manager - they load on their own, no restart needed.

How to install Oxide/uMod plugins on your Rust server covers plugin configs, permissions and dependencies.

Remote admin (RCON)

Admin tools like RustAdmin connect with the RCON Port and RCON Password shown in your Startup tab. Anyone with that password controls your server - keep it out of your Discord. For everyday admin, the panel's Console does the same job with nothing to set up.

Make yourself admin (ownerid)

Owners can use every admin command in game. You add yourself from the panel using your Steam ID:

1. Join your server. Then, in the panel, open the Console tab and type users. It lists everyone connected with their 17-digit Steam ID, a number starting with 7656.
2. Type ownerid <SteamID> "YourName", for example ownerid 76561198123456789 "TomSmith". The console confirms with Added owner TomSmith, steamid 76561198123456789.
3. Leave the server and join again: Rust gives you the new admin level when you reconnect.

To add a moderator instead, use moderatorid the same way. You don't need to run server.writecfg afterwards: Rust saves admins to server/rust/cfg/users.cfg automatically.

Edit server.cfg

Rust reads a server.cfg file on every start, for settings the Startup tab doesn't cover.

1. Stop the server.
2. In the File Manager, open server/rust/cfg. If there's no server.cfg, create one: the server never creates or edits this file itself.
3. Add one setting per line, without the + you see in launch commands. For example, server.tags weekly,vanilla sets the tags players filter by in the server browser (up to four show at a time).
4. Save, then Start the server.

Server not showing in the server browser

1. Wait for Server startup complete. Map generation on a fresh server, or after a wipe, takes a few minutes, and the server isn't ready for players until that line shows in the Console.
2. Check more than one tab. If your server isn't under Community, look under Modded as well, especially once you run Oxide or Carbon.
3. Search for your exact name. Type the Server Name from your Startup tab into the browser's search box.
4. Leave the Query Port as we set it. The browser finds your server through the Query Port in the Startup tab, and it can't be the same number as the game port.
5. Join from the console in the meantime. client.connect <your address> works as soon as the server is up.

Common first-boot problems

1. The console sits on map generation for ages - normal on a fresh server and after every wipe; bigger worlds take longer. Wait for Server startup complete.
2. "Incompatible version" when connecting - Steam updated your game before your server restarted. Restart the server; it picks the new build up on the way up.
3. Plugins don't load - the Modding Framework is still vanilla, or Rust updated and the framework needs the Reinstall pass above.
4. Your server isn't in the server browser - see Server not showing in the server browser above.
5. Something else stops it booting - copy the exact error from the Console and paste it into your support ticket, so we can see what failed.