Unraid Valheim Dedicated Server

This is a guide to setup a Valheim dedicated server within Unraid 6.9+. It is thankfully pretty simple to do. Let’s jump straight in.

Server Requirements

The server requirements are very low and because I am running Valheim as a container I chose not limit the resources available to it and let it use whatever it needs on demand. The developers recommend a Quad Core CPU and 2GB of RAM.

My Server Specs

My server is clearly overkill but it doesn’t just host Valheim, it does other things too.

CPU: Intel Xeon 1230 v5 4 cores 8 threads @3.40Ghz

RAM: 32GB DDR4 ECC 2133Mhz

Guide

This guide assumes you have already installed the Community Apps plugin for Unraid and know how to port forward on your router.

  1. Download and Install ich777’s Valheim container

  2. When you are allowed to edit the server make the following changes

    1. Network Type: br0

    2. Fixed IP Address: 192.168.1.69

    3. Validate Installation: true

    4. Server Name: SPX Labs Valheim Server

    5. World Name: Dethklok

    6. Server Password: unraidRules (must be a minimum of 5 characters)

  3. Done, wait several minutes for the server to become available

  4. On your game client Join the server by IP 192.168.1.69:2456

Here is a rough visual guide.

valheimDownload.PNG

Everything you see highlighted below are all the changes I made during the first time setup!

valheimSetup.png


How to get your friends to join?

The simplest way would be to give them your WAN IP Address. If you Google search “What is my IP” Google will provide you with your IP address. In my case, google says my WAN IP address is 198.49.23.144

Your friends will then Join the server by IP 198.49.23.144:2456

Don’t forget to port forward 2456 so your friends can play

Below is an example of the ports 2456-2458 being forwarded to my physical local Valheim Server

Screen Shot 2021-03-21 at 4.55.10 PM.png

How to setup a domain name instead of IP address?

This is a bit more complex but I’ll show you how I have it setup while using Google Domains. I already own the domain name “spxlabs.com”. So setting it up is pretty simple for me. You can buy a domain for $12 a year from Google if you want. There are cheaper alternatives and the setup should be pretty similar.

First

I need to setup Google Domains to forward the DNS name to my WAN IP address. I want my friends to be able to type in the the name below to play on my server.

valheim.spxlabs.com

In Google DNS I will need to edit the following items.

Screen Shot 2021-03-21 at 4.41.57 PM.png

Second

Now we can confirm on the same page that Google is now forwarding valheim.spxlabs.com to my WAN IP address. Note: it can take up to 48 hours for this to work but usually it works within about an hour.

Screen Shot 2021-03-21 at 4.42.11 PM.png

Test

Let’s see if it all works meow.

valConnect.PNG
valconnected.PNG
valheim.PNG


Troubleshooting

Incompatible Version

Make sure you set “Validate Installation” to true the very first time you setup the server. That should fix this issue.

Disconnecting after prompting for password

Verify the IP address is correct and the correct ports are forwarded

Conclusion

If you have any questions feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer them. If not, enjoy!