Guide – How To Start – Garry’s Mod Game Server on Windows Server 2016

Garry’s Mod is a physics sandbox game. One of the great strengths is that it is incredibly modder-friendly. This has lead to a thriving community that is always coming up with new addons and game modes for everyone to enjoy.

This is a quick deployment and ready-to-run image.
Simple and rapid installation. Easy to maintain.

How to create and connect to Garry’s Mod for Windows 2016

1. Before starting the server, open the “start server.bat” file with a text editor. To do this, click on it with right mouse button and select “Edit”.

2. Set the parameters in a way convenient for you:

+maxplayers 20 – indicates the maximum number of players on the server.

-console – required to start the server only in console mode. Helps to reduce VM’s load.

+game mode sandbox – setting the game mod (sandbox is a classic mode for building)

+map gm_construct – determine first map on the server

+sv_setsteamaccount – after this parameter, you must specify the Steam Game Server Login Token

3. To receive the Steam Game Server Login Token, go to the Steam Game Server Account Management page – https://steamcommunity.com/dev/managegameservers
4. Log in with your Steam account where the game Garry’s Mod is purchased.
5. Enter 4000 in the “App ID of the base game” field. In the Memo field, enter any text that will help you further determine the ownership of the generated token. Then click “Create”.
   
6. After that, the Steam Game Server Login Token will be created. This token must be specified after the + sv_setsteamaccount parameter in the server start file (start server.bat) on the VM.
7. After setting up the “start server.bat” file, run it.
8. To connect to the server, start the “Garry’s Mod” game on your PC, open the console with the “~” key on your keyboard, write connect %vm_adress% and press “Enter” to connect. For example: connect 127.0.0.1

Server update

If you were unable to connect to the the server, you should update the server. To do this, connect to the VM through RDP and do the following:

1. Shutdown the server (type exit in server console)
2. Go to the “C:\steamcmd” folder and open the “steamcmd” file
3. Enter the following commands in sequence:

> login anonymous

> force_install_dir “C:\garrysmod”

> app_update 4020 validate

4. Wait until the server is updated, and run “start server.bat” file from the desktop again.