Palworld - Dedicated Server Docker Container

A fully featured Docker container image for running a Palworld dedicated server. Has a robust backup system, 100% configurable via environment variables, and more.

Important

There is a known bug with the in-game community server browser. It initially only loads 200 servers. There is a button to load another 200 servers, but I had the game crash after loading over a thousand of them. So it really is the luck of the draw if your server appears in the in-game server browser. I recommend connecting via ip:port, after connecting that way your server will be listed in the recent servers list. See the Q&A section at the official game docs for reference to this issue. The only downside to joining via ip:port is that you cannot directly provide a password. Thankfully someone found a workaround, here are the steps:

1. Open the 'Community Servers' list
2. Click on any password protected server
3. Enter the password of the server you want to connect to (not the one that was clicked on)
4. Click 'OK', then click 'No'.
5. Enter the IP:PORT of the server you want to connect to in the bottom box.
6. Click Connect

Note

Palworld does not currently support crossplay with console, and there is no cross play between Steam and Xbox Game Pass versions of the game. See details here.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Quick Start
  • Linux Host
  • Windows Host
• Game/Server Configs
  • Environment Variables
  • Config Files
  • Exposed Ports
  • Volumes
  • Backups
• Deployment
• Tags
• Build Image
• Contributing

Features

• Simple automated installation of Palworld dedicated server
• Configuration via environment variables and config files
• Scheduled server restarts and updates via Cron
  • Can be frozen to a specific version that is already downloaded
• Automated backups

Quickstart

Linux Host

The Palwolrd server data in this example will be stored in your home directory (/home/USERNAME/palworld).

# written for bash, but should work in other shells
# may require Sudo depending on your docker setup
$ docker run -d \
  --name palworld-server \
  -p 8211:8211/udp \
  -p 25575:25575/tcp \
  -p 27015:27015/udp \
  -e SERVER_NAME="\"My Palworld Server\"" \
  -e ADMIN_PASSWORD=secretpassword \
  -v $HOME/palworld/server:/palworld/server \
  -v $HOME/palworld/logs:/palworld/logs \
  -v $HOME/palworld/backups:/palworld/backups \
  johnnyknighten/palworld-server:latest

To view the container logs:

$ docker logs palworld-server -f

Press CTRL+C to exit the logs output.

To stop the container:

$ docker stop palworld-server

Windows Host

This code is written for PowerShell, but assumes you are running Docker via WSL. If you installed Docker via Docker Desktop recently then you should be good to go. The volume mount path is written in context of a Linux shell in WSL, so you will need to adjust it to match your system.

For instance if you want to use C:\Users\johnny\palworld then the WSL path should be /mnt/c/Users/johnny/palworld. In general /mnt/c is the root of your C drive in WSL, and /mnt/d is the root of your D drive in WSL and so on.

# written for powershell, but should work in other shells
docker run -d `
  --name palworld-server `
  -p 8211:8211/udp `
  -p 25575:25575/tcp `
  -p 27015:27015/udp `
  -e SERVER_NAME="My Palworld Server" `
  -e ADMIN_PASSWORD=secretpassword `
  -v /mnt/c/Users/USER/palworld/server:/palworld/server`
  -v /mnt/c/Users/USER/palworld/logs:/palworld/logs `
  -v /mnt/c/Users/USER/palworld/backups:/palworld/backups `
  johnnyknighten/palworld-server:latest

To view the container logs:

docker logs palworld-server -f

Press CTRL+C to exit the logs output.

To stop the container:

docker stop palworld-server

Server/Game Configs

Environment Variables

Environment variables are the primary way to configure the server.

The table below shows all available environment variables exposed for easy configuration. Variables used to directly modify PalWorldSettings.ini can be found in the section below.

Variable	Description	Default
SKIP_FILE_VALIDATION	Skips SteamCMD validation of the server files. Can speed up server start time, but could risk not detecting corrupted files.	False
TZ	Sets the timezone of the container. See the table here and look in the TZ identifier column. Highly recommend to set this if you will be using any of the CRON variables.	America/New_York
MANUAL_CONFIG	If set to True then the container will not auto generate PalWorldSettings.ini using environment variables. This is useful if you want to manage PalWorldSettings.ini yourself.	False
SCHEDULED_RESTART	Enable scheduled restarts of the server.	False
BACKUP_ON_SCHEDULED_RESTART	Determines if the server should backup itself before restarting.	False
RESTART_CRON	Cron expression for scheduled restarts. Default is everyday at 4am.	0 4 * * *
SCHEDULED_UPDATE	Enable scheduled updates of the server.	False
UPDATE_CRON	Cron expression for scheduled updates. Default is every Sunday at 5am.	0 5 * * 0
BACKUP_BEFORE_UPDATE	Determines if the server should backup itself before updating.	False
SCHEDULED_BACKUP	Enable scheduled backups of the server.	False
BACKUP_CRON	Cron expression for scheduled backups. Default is every day at 6am.	0 6 * * *
UPDATE_ON_BOOT	Determines if the server should update itself when it starts.	True
BACKUP_ON_STOP	Determines if the server should backup itself when the container stops.	True
ZIP_BACKUPS	If this is set to True then it will zip your backups instead of the default tar and gzip.	False
RETAIN_BACKUPS	Number of backups to keep. If not set, then an unlimited number of backs will be kept.	EMPTY
MULTITHREADING	Enables multithreading for the server. The -useperfthreads -NoAsyncLoadingThread -UseMultithreadForDS launch flags will be included on server launch.	True
SERVER_NAME	Name of the server that appears in the server list. If the name contains a space wrap the name in quotes, depending on your system you may need to add escaped quotes \".	"Containerized Palworld Server"
SERVER_DESCRIPTION	Description of the server that appears in the server list.	"A Containerized Palworld Server"
SERVER_PASSWORD	Password to login to the server. Defaults to no password aka a public server. Do not put spaces in your password.	EMPTY
ADMIN_PASSWORD	Password used for RCON access. Do not put spaces in your password.	adminpassword
PUBLIC_SERVER	Determines if the server should be listed on the in game server browser.	True
PUBLIC_IP	Public IP of the server. This is used to set the -publicip=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx launch flag. This should be your networks external IP address and not you containers IP address	EMPTY
GAME_PORT	Primary game port. Also used to set the -publicport=xxxx launch flag.	8211
RCON_ENABLED	Enable RCON on the server.	True
RCON_PORT	RCON port for the server.	25575
PLAYER_COUNT	Maximum number of players allowed on the server.	32
EXTRA_LAUNCH_OPTIONS	Extra launch options for the server. Allows additional flags that do not have an environment variable provided yet.	EMPTY

Configuring PalWorldSettings.ini

The PalWorldSettings.ini file is the primary config file used to configure server and game play settings. It is located in the /palworld/server/Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer directory inside the container. This file is generated automatically by the container using environment variables. If you wish to manage this file yourself, you must set MANUAL_CONFIG=True to prevent the container from generating/overwriting the file.

This container has two primary ways to manage PalWorldSettings.ini:

• Via PALWORD_ Environment Variables
• Manually Edit The File

Caution

You should not mix and match these methods.

Manual Config

To manually edit the config file, you must set MANUAL_CONFIG=True in your environment variables. This will prevent the container from generating the file. You can then edit the file directly in the /palworld/server/Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer directory inside the container.

If you want to configure PalWorldSettings.ini from inside the container, you can use the following command:

$ docker exec -it <CONTAINER-ID-OR-CONTAINER_NAME> nano /palworld/server/Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.ini

This will open PalWorldSettings.ini inside nano. Make your edits then exit nano by pressing CTRL+X then Y then ENTER. Then restart your container for the changes to take effect.

Environment Variables

The container will automatically generate PalWorldSettings.ini using environment variables. Any environment variable prefixed with PALWROLD_ will automatically be placed inside the /Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings section of PalWorldSettings.ini and saves them under the OptionSettings variable as comma separated values.

All text after the PALWORLD_ prefix will be used as the variable name. For example PALWORLD_ServerName will be converted to ServerName.

Example: PALWORLD_ServerName="Palworld Server"

Results in:

#PalWorldSettings.ini
[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]
OptionSettings=(ServerName="Palworld Server")

Here is an example of a docker run command that uses environment variables to configure the server:

$ docker run -d \
  --name palworld-server \
  -p 8211:8211/udp \
  -p 25575:25575/tcp \
  -p 27015:27015/udp \
  -e PALWORLD_ExpRate=5.0 \
  -e PALWORLD_PalSpawnNumRate=2.0 \
  -e PALWORLD_PalDamageRateAttack=3.0 \
  -v $HOME/palworld/server:/palworld/server \
  -v $HOME/palworld/logs:/palworld/logs \
  -v $HOME/palworld/backups:/palworld/backups \
  johnnyknighten/palworld-server:latest

Another special feature of using environment variables is that backup copies of PalWorldSettings.ini are made when configuration changes are detected. That is, if you make a configuration change a PalWorldSettings.ini.backup# file is made containing the old config. The # is incremented for each backup made. The highest number reflects the newest backup. This is useful if you make a mistake and want to revert to a previous config.

There are some overlap between some of the provided environment variables and the special PALWORLD_ variables. For instance, SERVER_NAME is provided but PALWORLD_ServerName is also available. This container is setup to give non PALWORLD_ priority over their PALWORLD_ counterparts. For these specific variables do not use their PALWORLD_ counterparts. Below shows the variables that have priority:

• SERVER_NAME
  • Do not use PALWORLD_ServerName
• SERVER_DESCRIPTION
  • Do not use PALWORLD_ServerDescription
• SERVER_PASSWORD
  • Do not use PALWORLD_ServerPassword
• ADMIN_PASSWORD
  • Do not use PALWORLD_AdminPassword
• PLAYER_COUNT
  • Do not use PALWORLD_ServerPlayerMaxNum
• GAME_PORT
  • Do not use PALWORLD_PublicPort
• PUBLIC_IP
  • Do not use PALWORLD_PublicIP
• RCON_ENABLED
  • Do not use PALWORLD_RCONEnabled
• RCON_PORT
  • Do not use PALWORLD_RCONPort

If PalWorldSettings.ini is Missing

Despite setting MANUAL_CONFIG=True, if the PalWorldSettings.ini file is missing a minimal config will be generated using the high priority variables mentioned in the section above.

Exposed Ports

The table below shows the default ports that are exposed by the container. These can be changed by setting the environment variables GAME_PORT and RCON_PORT.

Port	Protocol	Description
8211	UDP	Game port
25575	TCP	RCON Port
27015	UDP	Steam Query Port

Currently the Steam Query Port cannot be configured for the server. This can cause complications if you are hosting other servers that need that same port forwarded (you have multiple servers needing port 27015 but you can only forward traffic to one of them). For now, if you other server can have its steam query port changed, then change it to something other than 27015. If you cannot change the steam query port of your other server, then you will not be able to host both servers on the same network.

Tip

Make sure you have Port Forwarding configured otherwise the server will not be accessible from the internet.

Tip

Note - Always ensure that your -p port mappings (if using docker run) and the ports section (if using docker compose) match up to the ports specified via the environment variables. If they do not match up, the server will not be accessible.

Volumes

There are the volumes used by the container:

Volume	Description
/palworld/server	Contains server files.
/palworld/logs	Contains all log files generated by the container.
/palworld/backups	Contains all backups generated by the container.

Backups

Backups can be performed automatically if configured. Backups are performed by making a copy of the /palworld/server/Pal/Saved directory to the /palworld/backups volume. The backups file names use the following format: server-backup-{datetime}. They are compressed as tar.gz files by default (but can be set to zip via ZIP_BACKUPS=True). You can configure the number of backups to keep using RETAIN_BACKUPS, otherwise you will need to manually delete old backups.

Backup Automation Options

• BACKUP_ON_STOP - Backup the server when the container stops
• BACKUP_ON_SCHEDULED_RESTART - Backup the server during a scheduled restart
• BACKUP_BEFORE_UPDATE - Backup the server before an update
• SCHEDULED_BACKUP - Backup the server on a schedule

Important

If you are planning on using BACKUP_ON_STOP=True, it is highly recommended you adjust the timeout settings of your docker stop/compose down command to allow the backup process enough time to complete its backup. Without doing this, it is possible that your backup will be unfinished and corrupted. The longer your server has been running the bigger your backup will become which increases the time needed to backup the server. See the Backup On Container Stop - Docker Timeout Considerations section of the wiki for more details.

Deployment

See the deployment-examples directory for examples of how to deploy this container using docker-compose.

Container Tags

Tag	Description	Examples
latest	latest build from main branch.	latest
major.minor.fix	semantic versioned releases.	1.0.0

There are also pre-release tags that are built from the next branch. These are used for testing and are not recommended for production use.

Build Image

For development purposes, you can build the image locally.

$ docker build -t johnnyknighten/palworld-server:dev .

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for details on how to contribute to this project.