[Guide] How to set up a server

[minhngoc25a]

Installing prerequisites

MongoDB

Step 1: Go to the MongoDB Community download page and then download it. You'd want to download that edition because others are for business or premium users. So choose the correct one for your distribution.

Windows

Step 2: Installation for Windows should be straightforward. From here, choose the Complete setup type.

Although this is an image for an older version of MongoDB, the installation steps should remain the same.

Step 3: Install MongoDB as a service, and run it as a Network Service user. If your C drive has enough space, keep the default data and log directory. If your Grasscutter installation would generate a lot of data, you should consider storing those on a different drive other than C (if drive C doesn't have enough space).

Step 4: Also install MongoDB Compass. It is a very excellent graphical user interface made by MongoDB developers to manage data more straightforwardly. It would take time for MongoDB Compass to install, as it's not a local install. You need an active internet connection for the installer to download it.

MacOS

Step 1: The easiest way to install MongoDB on macOS is by using the Homebrew package manager. Get started on the Homebrew homepage to get the instructions on installing it.

Step 2: After you've installed Homebrew, let's start by launching the terminal. Execute brew tap mongodb/brew to add the related third-party repository. Then use brew install mongodb-community to download and install it.

Step 3: If you need MongoDB to launch at every startup (what you'd want if you run Grasscutter), execute brew services start mongodb/brew/mongodb-community.

Step 4: Download and install MongoDB Compass for OSX. I have explained the use of this in the Windows installation steps. The installation steps for the .dmg file should be relatively easy.

Linux

There is a binary for each Linux distribution on the MongoDB Community homepage. For example, the package for Debian/Ubuntu should be .deb, and Fedora should be .rpm. For other Linux distributions, you can compile it for yourself, or you can research if your distribution is based on any of the popular ones. If it does, then it should support that distribution's binary package. Also, install the MongoDB Compass GUI for Linux.

Note: If the MongoDB service (mongod.exe) doesn't immediately run after installing it, restart the computer.

Java

We'll use Java 17 in this tutorial and the development build. You should uninstall other Java versions for the easiness if you don't know much about environment variables and PATH. Having multiple versions installed can cause another version's binary to overlap with Java 17 when using the command line or running a script.

Download page: https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase/jdk17-archive-downloads.html

Download .msi for Windows, .dmg for macOS, .rpm for Fedora, .deb for Debian or Ubuntu.

Git

Git makes installation fast and easy. It can also help you update to a newer repository commit.

For Windows: https://git-scm.com/
For Mac, execute: brew install git
For Linux: https://git-scm.com/download/linux

Setting up Grasscutter

Step 1: Open any terminal, change the directory to where you want to put the server root directory, and clone the dev branch:

git clone https://github.com/Grasscutters/Grasscutter -b development

The resulting folder will be generated.

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How would this work?

For example, you are at E:\ in Windows Explorer, and you right-click while holding Shift and choose Open Powershell window here. A Powershell window will pop up with that same working directory. After you run the clone command, a folder named Grasscutter will be created and its directory path is E:\Grasscutter. So, E:\Grasscutter is the server root directory, because it's the top-level directory of the hierarchy of the server repo.

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Step 2: Download Grasscutter resources as .zip. Extract and copy it to the resources folder of the server root directory. It should look like this:

Step 3: In the terminal, cd to your server root directory, then execute gradlew jar to build the server jar. This process will take a while. On Powershell, macOS, or Linux, you'll have to add an extra ./ before the command to execute the command from the current directory.

Step 4: Create a start script for your server (for Windows, .bat file, for Linux, .sh file) in the server root directory. Whatever your OS is, this should work if you've set up everything correctly:

java -jar grasscutter-<your grasscutter version>.jar

Step 5: Launch the start script. When the server console shows up, use account create <New username here> <New UID here> to create an account and help for a list of commands. For more insights, you can refer to the README.md.

FAQ

• How to update the server?
  • Open the terminal and cd to your server root directory, then execute git pull. Next, build the server jar again. You might need to edit your start script if the jar version changes.
• What is my server port?
  • Your port is 443 if you leave everything unchanged by default.
• How to solve wrong keystore password?
  • Change the keystone password in config.json to 123456.

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