Hosting a server

Server on Linux

The Linux build runs on x64 with glibc 2.38 or newer: Ubuntu 24.04, Debian 13 and their peers. On an older system, run the Docker image.

Download and unpack

sudo mkdir -p /opt/nodemp && sudo chown "$USER" /opt/nodemp
cd /opt/nodemp
url=https://github.com/NodeMP-BeamNG/releases/releases/download/server-v1.12.0
curl -LO "$url/Node-Server-1.12.0-linux-x64.tar.gz"
curl -LO "$url/Node-Server-1.12.0-linux-x64.tar.gz.sha256"
sha256sum -c Node-Server-1.12.0-linux-x64.tar.gz.sha256
tar -xzf Node-Server-1.12.0-linux-x64.tar.gz

sha256sum should say OK. The folder now holds Node-Server, tools/, modules/ and examples/.

Install Lua 5.1

The server obfuscates the client scripts of plugins before it sends them to players. The obfuscator is written in Lua and runs on Lua 5.1, which the Linux archive doesn’t include:

sudo apt install -y lua5.1

The server finds it through the NODE_LUA variable. Without Lua the server still runs; it sends client scripts as they are and says so at start.

Start it

NODE_LUA=/usr/bin/lua5.1 ./Node-Server

The server writes server.toml, logs/ and content/ into the current folder. Ctrl+C or stop stops it.

Open the port

With ufw:

sudo ufw allow 30814/tcp
sudo ufw allow 30814/udp

A VPS provider often has a firewall of its own in its control panel; open the port there too.

A systemd service

This starts the server with the system and brings it back after a crash. Give the server a user and the folder:

sudo useradd -r -s /usr/sbin/nologin -d /opt/nodemp nodemp
sudo chown -R nodemp:nodemp /opt/nodemp

Create /etc/systemd/system/nodemp.service:

[Unit]
Description=NodeMP server
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
User=nodemp
WorkingDirectory=/opt/nodemp
Environment=NODE_LUA=/usr/bin/lua5.1
EnvironmentFile=-/etc/nodemp.env
ExecStart=/opt/nodemp/Node-Server
Restart=always
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start it, then follow the log:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now nodemp
journalctl -u nodemp -f

/etc/nodemp.env is a good place for secrets such as the server key: one NAME=value per line, without quotes. Environment variables win over server.toml, so the secret never ends up in a file you might paste into a support chat one day. Get listed has an example.

A service has no terminal, so the server’s console is off. [server] console makes it read standard input anyway, but a service rarely needs that.