og-cod-plutainer/docs/quickstart.md

Quickstart

Getting one server running, start to finish. Budget ten minutes, most of it waiting for downloads.

Before you start

You need three things:

1. Docker and Docker Compose on a Linux host.
2. The base game files, which you must own. Plutainer ships no game content. What exactly each game needs is in Games.
3. A server key or token, depending on the game:
   • T4, T5, T6, IW5 need a Plutonium server key, free from https://platform.plutonium.pw/serverkeys. The server will not start without one.
   • CoD4x needs a masterserver token from http://cod4master.cod4x.ovh to be listed in the server browser. It runs without one, but nobody will find it.
   • IW4x and T7x need nothing.

1. Put the game files somewhere

Anywhere on the host. They're mounted read-only, so they can be shared by as many servers as you like:

/opt/game-files/
  T6ServerFiles/
  IW4xServerFiles/

2. Write a compose file

Pick your game's example from examples/, or start from this one:

services:
  t6zm-1:
    image: ghcr.io/ayymoss/plutainer:latest
    container_name: t6zm-1
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "4976:4976/udp"
    volumes:
      - /opt/game-files/T6ServerFiles:/home/plutainer/gamefiles:ro
      - ./t6zm-1:/home/plutainer/app
    environment:
      PLUTAINER_GAME: t6zm
      PLUTAINER_CONFIG_FILE: dedicated_zm.cfg
      PLUTO_SERVER_KEY: ${T6ZM_KEY}
      PLUTAINER_RCON_PASSWORD: change-me-or-remove-this-line

Four settings matter:

PLUTAINER_GAME	Which game. Full list
PLUTAINER_CONFIG_FILE	Which config to run. Must be one Plutainer seeds unless you supply your own — names per game
the gamefiles mount	Your base game files, read-only
the app mount	Where server data, configs and logs live

Put the key in a .env file next to your compose file so it stays out of the compose:

T6ZM_KEY=your-key-here

3. Start it

docker compose up -d
docker compose logs -f

First start takes a while. Plutonium downloads ~500 MB, IW4x 1–2 GB. CoD4x is ready in under a minute since everything ships in the image. The healthcheck allows five minutes before it starts judging.

4. Check it worked

docker ps

healthy means the server answered a status query and reported a loaded map — it's genuinely up, not just running. If it says unhealthy or never leaves starting, go to Troubleshooting.

5. Edit your config

Everything is in one folder, whatever the game:

nano ./t6zm-1/configs/dedicated_zm.cfg
docker restart t6zm-1

Plutainer symlinks that file to wherever the engine expects it, so you never go hunting through runtime/. Details in Volumes & configs.

What you get

t6zm-1/
  configs/          ← edit your *.cfg here
  logs/             ← stable symlinks to the live logs
  runtime/          ← game files, binaries, engine state (leave alone)

Next steps

• Send commands to the server → RCON. Set PLUTAINER_RCON_PASSWORD first; it's empty by default so RCON is off.
• Add an admin tool → IW4MAdmin
• Run several servers → examples/multi-server.yml. Each needs its own port and its own app directory; the gamefiles mount can be shared.
• Restart servers automatically when they die → Healthcheck & restarts

A note on permissions

The container runs as UID 1000. If you create the app directory as root, the container may not be able to write to it:

sudo chown -R 1000:1000 ./t6zm-1

Most desktop Linux users are already UID 1000 and never hit this. If the logs say Permission denied while creating configs, logs or runtime, this is why.