Rev. 02.02.2008
Prerequisets:
-
Webserver (tested on Apache2 and lighttpd)
- PHP with DBA support
(Like Berkely DB and GNU DBM)
- PHP with xml-rpc
- DBA refers to
flatfile databases, not RDBMS, like MySQL or Postgres SQL.
- No
Database server is required
If your PHP doesn't have DBA
support (the setup utility in Step 4 will tell you) you need to fix
that.
On Gentoo add berkdb or gdbm to your use flags and re-emerge
php.
For package based distros, look for php-dba in your package
manager
Based on my testing
OpenSuSE 10.3 will need: php5-xmlrpc, php5-dbm, php5-posix, and perl-XML-Parser
CentOS5 will need: php-xmlrpc, php-dba, and perl-XML-Parser
Fedora6 will need php-xmlrpc, php-dba, and perl-XML-Parser
Gentoo – add berkdb and xmlrpc to USE, and re-emerge php. Also emerge dev-perl/frontier-rpc
Ubuntu 7.10 Server – libxml-parser-perl, php5-xmlrpc
Ubuntu 7.10 known issue: There is a bug with either the Berkeley DB libraries, or the php-dba api. Anytime I accessed an hldStart page that would try to read a db file, the page would be blank, and a Segfault error would show up in the Apache error log.
Ubuntu 7.10 works fine with the hldStart agent
If anyone could
shed some light on this issue, that would be awesome.
New Architechure – Read this first -
hldStart 2 v-2.2008 had a major change. I have mentioned that this
release would have a remote agent, that will allow you to control
multiple game servers from a single hldStart web page.
The remote agent is now available in this version, but it is also required.
It was taking a lot of extra coding to handle activities local to the
webserver, as well as remote agent. So now, everything is done with
the remote agent, even if your are running your games on the same
server as the web server.
Don't worry, it's not a pain to setup. Plus, you no longer have to
fiddle with permissions in order to get the web server's user to
start games.
Game files can now be owned by their user (local Unix ID). Who ever is the owner of
the game server executable is who it will run as. The agent handles
this automatically.
Also, the use of an agent introduces many possibilities, like the
ability to automatically restart game servers when the box is
rebooted, OS monitoring/reporting, and automatic updates.
With that said, continue with your setup!
Download and unpack the files
tar -C /path/to/webdir -xzvf hldstart2-vXY.tar.gz
Included with the hldStart2 web package, is the remote agent and it's install script.
Look inside the
root of your hldstart2 directory, and look for an hldstart_agent
directory.
In there you'll see install.sh, and hldstart_agent.tar.gz.
(To install the agent on other servers, simply copy install.sh and hldstart_agent.tar.gz to the desired server(s))
Simply run install.sh as root - ./install.sh
The install script will do the following:
Create /opt/hldstart directory
Copy the agent's files there
Copy an init script to /etc/init.d/hldstart_agent
Install the Tea-Crypt perl module
It will ask you 3 questions, only 1 of which you are required to answer:
Set encryption key:abc12345 <-- You must set this, and it has to match the key you put in the setup webpage
Set the listen port
Nobody should need to change this...but here is the option if you need to
Set listen port:[Default 12679]
Set the listen IP
Default is bind on all interfaces...changing is also optional
Set listen IP:[Default 0.0.0.0 (all interfaces)]
It will then write out your config file.
To make sure everything is ok, cd to /opt/hldstart and run “./hldstart_agent.pl”
It should startup
and take control of the terminal. You should see no output.
If everything looks good – hit <Ctrl – C> to exit out.
Now start it normallly - /etc/init.d/hldstart_agent start
If you want the agent to start when the machine boots up, add it to your startup using your distro's native init control
Redhat, Fedora, CentOS and SuSE: chkconfig hldstart_agent on
Gentoo: rc-update add hldstart_agent default
Ubuntu: ??? -
Anyone know? Is it manual symlinks?
Do I really need to install this agent?
Short answer: Yes
Long answer: You need to install the agent anywhere you run a game server, including the webserver hosting your hldStart2 pages.
If your webserver that hosts your hldStart2 pages doesn't run any game servers, you don't have to install it there. However, future versions of the agent will probably have features that will be useful on non-game server boxes, like an hldStart updater, or a game server monitor to gather machine stats.
1. Create your data directory (hldstart stores it's data/db files here)
mkdir
/path/to/datadir
(Data dir should be outside your web
directory. Your home directory is a good place. Some web server
configurations don't allow scripts to go outside the public html
dirs. If this is your case, you can put the data dir in with your
hldstart pages)
Change ownership of the datadir to the webserver's user
chown <webserver user>
/path/to/datadir (The webserver needs to write here)
2. Create empty config.php in hldstart directory
touch config.php && chmod 777 config.php
3. Run setup utility
http://yourserver/hldstart2/setup/setup.php
The utility will check a few things. If it finds a problem it
will tell you what to correct.
Fix the problem, refresh the page
and try again
Things you need to fill in:
Data
Directory: Enter the path to the directory you created in Step 2
Logging: Enable or disable logging in hldstart. Log is
written in your data directory. (Enabled is recommended)
Remote
Agent Key: Communication between hldStart and the agent uses a
simple encryption scheme.
Enter any alpha-numeric (like abc12345)
encrytption key you want. It must match in both your web config, and
the agent's config
Remote
Agent Port: You don't need to change this, but you can if you
need to
DB
types: The DB handlers available on your system
hldstart2 was
tested with Berkely DB4. That's what I recommend
If none are in
the list, see the requirement list on how to fix this
4. Write your config file
When you
are happy with your values, hit "Write Config"
Your
config.php will be built, and the admin user will be added
5. Remove write access from the config.php file
chmod a-w config.php
6. Login to hldstart2
http://yourserver/hldstart2
Default
user:admin Default Password: admin
Log in and go to “Servers & Ips” first
If you are going to run games on the web server that serves
your hldstart2 pages, add localhost to the Remote Host list.
Next, you have to add at least 1 IP address for games to
bind on. For localhost, don't use 127.0.0.1, use the real IP address.
You can add as many as 4 IPs, but most people will only need 1.
Next add additional remote hosts if you have them:
Next we want to add a new user
Go to the “User
List” link
Enter a username and password and hit “Add
User”
In this example I added “greg”
Next, Click “[Edit]” next to your user's name
An admin has to set if the user is an admin or not, steam settings, when the account expires.
If the account never expires, set month's to “X”
Next we'll add and configure the user's games
Pick a game type from the drop down box and enter the path to
the game's directory.
New in this version, you must enter the
server where the game resides, followed by the path. It's like an NFS
mount format. Servername:/path/to/gamedir
Click “Add Game”
Set the ports this user will be allowed to use for the given game type (HL1 in this example)
Click “Add Game”
Once the game
is added, you can set the max number of players.
Follow this procedure for adding other games.