Administering a Rust server

A Rust server almost never dies for technical reasons. It dies when nobody has the time to look after it any more.

Admins before opening

At least two people must be able to act. One admin means that on half the evenings nobody resolves anything.

Cheating is a reality

Rust is among the most affected games. A server with no protection and no active admins empties out within weeks.

Short rules

Three or four clear rules work better than a long list. The most important one usually concerns what teams are allowed to do.

The same rule for everyone

One exception made for a friend voids the entire rulebook. It is always noticed and never forgotten.

Regular restarts

A nightly restart frees memory held by a long session. On Rust the effect is much clearer than continuous uptime.

Warn before downtime

A player who knows the reason comes back. A player thrown out mid-raid usually does not.

Never moderate while angry

A decision made right after an incident is almost always too harsh. An hour of waiting changes nothing but the quality of the outcome.

Hear both sides

Most conflicts look perfectly clear from one account and entirely different from the other.

Record your decisions

A short note on who was warned and why prevents the same person receiving a first warning three times.

Watch the logs

Crashes and errors leave a trace. A regular look finds the pattern no player can describe.

Consistency wins

A server that is there every evening with rules that do not move builds a group faster than a technically better one.

Most of what precedes is a matter of organisation rather than technique: the decisions are made before you start, the backups have to actually run, and the rules are written while nothing has gone wrong yet. Our Rust server hosting takes on the part there is no reason to do by hand — automatic backups, map management and instant setup, along with a panel where settings, files, mods and restarts are handled without ever opening a command line.