What do you need to host a DayZ server?

By setting up your own DayZ server, you can enjoy the online game with optimal per­for­mance and decide who’s allowed to join your world and which mods are used. But what re­quire­ments do you need to meet, and how exactly does setting up a personal DayZ server work?

If you want to enjoy the online game with the best possible per­for­mance and decide for yourself who can join the game world and which mods can be used in it, you should look into hosting a DayZ server yourself. What are the re­quire­ments for this and how exactly does setting up your own DayZ server work?

Host a DayZ server on your own PC or rent a server?

If you want to explore DayZ’s world with friends but don’t have your own server, you’re limited to two options — the official servers, which are public by default, or community servers hosted by other players. In both cases, you have no control over who can join, which mods are active, or when the server is online. You only get that level of freedom by hosting your own DayZ server.

If you have a powerful computer and a strong internet con­nec­tion, you can install and run a DayZ server on your own machine. The downside is that the moment you shut down the PC or lose con­nec­tiv­i­ty, the online session ends im­me­di­ate­ly. You should also avoid running the DayZ game client on the same device, which means you’ll need a second computer if you plan to play at the same time.

If you rent a server from a provider to host a DayZ server instead, you won’t have to worry about aspects such as internet con­nec­tion and avail­abil­i­ty. The func­tion­al­i­ty of the hardware is guar­an­teed, and you can focus entirely on setting up and ad­min­is­ter­ing the server.

What are the system re­quire­ments for a DayZ server?

The system re­quire­ments for your own DayZ server depend on how you intend to set up and use the server. Which mods should be allowed and how many players are in the world at the same time? Developer Bohemia In­ter­ac­tive basically rec­om­mends the following minimum setup for a dedicated server:

• Processor: Intel dual-core 2.4 GHz or AMD dual-core Athlon 2.5 GHz
• Memory: at least 6 to 8 GB of RAM
• Storage space: 2.5 gigabytes

Bohemia In­ter­ac­tive also considers SSD storage essential for in­stalling the software and managing server logs. For the operating system, you should use Windows Server. There’s no native Linux support, so hosting a DayZ server on Linux is only possible through workarounds like Wine. Because DayZ’s dedicated server software relies heavily on single-core per­for­mance, choosing a CPU with strong single-core ca­pa­bil­i­ties is rec­om­mend­ed.

One aspect the de­vel­op­ment team doesn’t address is the bandwidth re­quire­ments of a DayZ server, which are just as important for the gameplay ex­pe­ri­ence as the un­der­ly­ing server hardware. Steam publisher Valve provides a general upload guideline of 53.4 Kbit/s per player for other dedicated ap­pli­ca­tions such as CS:GO servers or Rust servers. For your DayZ instance, however, you should plan for around 80 to 120 Kbit/s per player.

What options do you have for hosting a DayZ server with IONOS?

A strong broadband con­nec­tion is crucial, and relying on a hosting provider ensures your DayZ server runs at a high level. When you rent resources from IONOS, you benefit from a server broadband con­nec­tion of up to 1 Gbit/s, no matter which server model you choose.

IONOS server models in com­par­i­son

IONOS offers the following three cat­e­gories of servers:

• Cloud server
• vServer
• Dedicated server

When you choose a cloud server you get access to vir­tu­al­ized resources. How high the per­for­mance of this virtual server en­vi­ron­ment is, depends on the chosen plan, whereby you can increase or decrease the per­for­mance at any time. In the cloud server model, you are billed by the minute, so you only pay for the per­for­mance that your DayZ server actually uses.

Vir­tu­al­iza­tion is also the un­der­ly­ing concept of IONOS’s vServer (also known as Virtual Private Server, or VPS for short). Unlike cloud servers, however, you are dealing with fixed per­for­mance setups that are available for a fixed monthly amount. If you want to run the DayZ server con­tin­u­ous­ly, you will make sig­nif­i­cant savings with this model.

The most suitable, but at the same time the most expensive model for anyone who wants to host a DayZ server is a dedicated server. With this server variant, you get fixed hardware setups for a fixed monthly price, which are optimal for hosting in­di­vid­ual ap­pli­ca­tions like a dedicated server software thanks to strong single-core power.

Three typical DayZ server scenarios and matching IONOS plans

IONOS offers each of its three server models in multiple plans that vary in price and per­for­mance. So when you host a DayZ server with IONOS, you’re not just picking a server type — you’re also selecting a specific com­bi­na­tion of CPU power, memory, and storage.

To help you choose, we’ve outlined three typical DayZ server scenarios in the table below and matched them with the suitable plans from each server category.

How to host a DayZ server step by step

With the right hardware in place, you can now move on to setting up the server and in­stalling the DayZ server ap­pli­ca­tion. In the following tutorial, we’ll guide you through the process step by step, using an IONOS server with Windows Server 2025 as the basis.

Step 1: Establish a con­nec­tion to the server

The first step is to establish a remote con­nec­tion to your server so that you can work with the rented resources. As an IONOS customer, you can set up this con­nec­tion through the Cloud Panel using the device of your choice. To do this, access the Login area and enter your account cre­den­tials, go to the “Server & Cloud” section and select the rented hardware on which you would like to host your DayZ server.

In the “Features” section, the Cloud Panel displays key in­for­ma­tion about your server — including login cre­den­tials and a download link for setting up the remote con­nec­tion. Click the link to begin the con­fig­u­ra­tion.

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Keep the selected default choice (“Remote desktop con­nec­tion”) to open the link and confirm it by clicking “OK”. In the following dialog continue by clicking “Connect”.

Enter your cre­den­tials for the server by pressing “More options” and “Use another account” and typing in the in­for­ma­tion. If you have not yet changed your login cre­den­tials, you will find your “Initial Password” in the cre­den­tials listing in the Cloud Panel.

Step 2: Install SteamCMD

The software for hosting a DayZ server can be obtained and updated via the Steam Console Client or SteamCMD. In­stalling this tool is therefore next on the agenda. To do this, download the in­stal­la­tion files via the following download link and extract them into any directory on your server, such as C:\SteamCMD.

Double-click the extracted steamcmd.exe to run the SteamCMD in­stal­la­tion. Once the in­stal­la­tion is complete, the Windows Command Prompt will display the Steam> prompt.

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Step 3: Install the DayZ Dedicated server

Using the SteamCMD client, you can now obtain and install DayZ’s dedicated server software. For this purpose, first log in to the public Steam servers with your Steam login details:

login username

Next, create a directory for the server — for example, the classic C:\dayz-server — by entering and con­firm­ing the following command:

force_install_dir C:\dayz-server

Use the app_update command together with the Steam app ID (223350) to download the latest version of the DayZ server software:

app_update 223350 validate

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After the in­stal­la­tion is complete, log out of the Steam servers by typing quit.

Step 4: Enable UDP ports

In order for your DayZ server to be found later by your friends or others, or to show up in the community server listing, you must also allow com­mu­ni­ca­tion through the following ports:

• UDP ports 2302 to 2305 (Game Ports)
• UDP port 27016 (Steam Query Port)

Enabling TCP and UDP ports can be done by IONOS customers via the Cloud Panel, just like con­fig­ur­ing the remote con­nec­tion. So log in again and go to the “Server & Cloud” category. Then, in the left side menu, click on “Network” and “Firewall Policies”.

Select your DayZ server or operating system from the list and under “Incoming”, create the rules for the ports mentioned according to the following pattern:

• Allowed IP: all (just leave the field blank for this).
• Protocol: UDP
• Port(s): Port number
• De­scrip­tion: in­di­vid­ual de­scrip­tion of the port release

After you create the rules, it takes a little while for the ports to be enabled. You can track the progress using the small status indicator next to the operating system entry.

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Step 5: Launch the DayZ Server

In the directory of your DayZ server, now create a new batch file for launching the server. For this, choose any editor and paste the following minimal setup for a simple DayZ server:

start DayZServer_x64.exe -config=serverDZ.cfg -port=2302 --dologs -adminlog -netlog -freezecheck -profiles=C:\dayz-server\DayZServerprofiles

Save your batch file and double-click it to launch the server. The DayZ Console will open au­to­mat­i­cal­ly and you will be able to follow the server setup process step by step.

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For an exact list of available pa­ra­me­ters for the server launch BAT, see the “Launch Pa­ra­me­ters” paragraph of the article “DayZ: Server Con­fig­u­ra­tion” in the official community wiki of Bohemia In­ter­ac­tive. It will also tell you what other con­fig­u­ra­tion options you have for your DayZ server.

Step 6: Join the DayZ server you created

Once your DayZ server is hosted and running, you and other players can join the world. To do this, you will need to complete the following steps:

1. Launch DayZ from your Steam client.
2. Go to the “Community” tab.
3. Search for the name or IP address of your server.
4. Select your DayZ server and press “Play”.

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After a short loading time, the ad­ven­tures on your own DayZ server can finally begin.

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Step 7: Register your own domain for the DayZ server

If you want your server to appear under a custom address, you can op­tion­al­ly link it to a domain. For example, register your own .gg domain such as dayz-with-friends.gg to make access even easier for your fellow players.