Everything you do with your game server happens in one place: the control panel. This tour walks through it from the top, so you know where each thing lives before you need it. The panel is the same for every game. What changes is mainly the set of tabs under your game's own heading.
Finding your server
Sign in and open the control panel. The left menu takes you to the Dashboard and to Game Servers, which lists every server on your account as a card with its game, its status and its resources. Type in the search box to filter by name, and switch on Show cancelled if you are looking for a server that has ended.
Click a card to open the server. Once you are inside, Switch server at the top of the server menu jumps between servers without going back to the list, and Back to Servers takes you back to it.
Servers other people have shared with you appear in the same list.
The top of the server page
The header is visible on every tab.
- Status. Next to the server name you see whether it is Running, Offline, Starting... or Stopping..., plus the game, how long it has been up, and, for many games, the player count and the running version.
- Join. Opens a small popup with the connection address and a copy button. It is the fastest way to grab the address from any tab.
- Power buttons. Only the buttons that make sense right now are shown. An offline server shows Start. A running server shows Restart and Stop. If a server hangs while stopping, the Stop button turns into Force kill, which ends the process at once. Use that only when a normal stop does not work, because the game gets no chance to save.
- More actions (the three dots). Holds Upgrade Server, for more RAM, storage or other extras. Only the server owner sees this menu.
The server menu
On a wide screen the tabs sit in a column on the left. On a phone or small window they collapse into a single dropdown at the top. The menu is grouped: first Overview, then Manage, then a group named after your game, then Advanced, and Settings at the bottom.
Overview
The home tab. It holds:
- Connection address, the address and port players use, with a copy button. Some games add extra details here, such as passwords, a join code or a link to our join guide for that game
- Server Details: your plan's RAM, storage and backup slots, the billing cycle and the next due date. The owner also sees Renew early here, which creates the next invoice now instead of waiting
- Active players for games that report them
- A compact console
- Usage: live CPU, RAM and storage graphs, so you can see whether the server is short on resources
Console
The live output from the server, and a box at the bottom where you type commands (Type a command...) and press Send. The console sends exactly what you type. Most games expect commands without the slash you use in the in-game chat, and on Minecraft the panel removes a leading slash for you.
The filter box above the output hides every line that does not match what you type, and Download log saves what the console holds as a file. When a server will not start, the last lines here almost always say why.
Files
A file manager for everything on the server. You can open and edit text files in the browser, and create a New file or New folder. Upload lets you pick single files or a whole folder, zip archives can be unpacked with Extract here, and Compress packs a selection into an archive. For big uploads such as large worlds, the SFTP button shows the details for a desktop client. Our SFTP guide walks through the setup.
Most games only read their files at startup, so restart after you edit a config file.
Config
Only for games where we have built a settings form, such as Minecraft, Palworld, Rust or Project Zomboid. Instead of editing a config file by hand, you change the common options in a form. Changes apply after a restart.
Startup
The server's variables and its startup command. Depending on the game, this is where you find settings such as the server name, passwords or the world name. Restart to apply a change.
Backups
Create backup takes a copy of the whole server. Each backup in the list can be downloaded, restored or locked. Restore replaces the current files with the backup, with an option to wipe the current files first (recommended). Lock protects a backup from being deleted or replaced.
The number of backups you can keep is your plan's backup slots. When every slot is used, a scheduled backup replaces the oldest unlocked one, so lock the ones you want to keep for good.
Your game's own tabs
This group is headed by your game's name and changes from game to game. Some examples of what you may find:
- Worlds to upload, download and switch worlds
- Version to change the game version (Minecraft, Project Zomboid, FiveM)
- Mods and Plugins to browse and install add-ons with one click
- Modpack, Datapacks and Resource packs on Minecraft Java
- Player Manager for admins, bans and the whitelist or allowlist
- Maps on ARK, Wipe on Rust, Modifiers on Valheim
If a tab you have read about is not there, it does not apply to your game.
Advanced
- Network: the ports on your server. The primary one is what players connect to. You can add an extra port (Add allocation) for a plugin or a second service, as far as your plan allows
- Databases: MySQL databases for plugins and mods that need one
- Schedules: automatic tasks such as a nightly restart, a daily backup or a console command at a set time. New schedule creates one, and Run now tests it straight away
- Activity: a log of recent actions on the server, showing whether you or someone on your team did them
- Access: two things. SFTP file access with the host, port, username and a button to Set SFTP password. And Team access, where you invite another user to help run the server. They can manage it, but never see your billing, plan or account
Settings
Change the Server name you see in the panel (the name players see in-game is set elsewhere, usually in Startup or Config). The Danger zone holds Reinstall server, which reinstalls the game from scratch, and Cancel Server, which ends the service at the end of the paid period. Read our cancellation guide before you press that one.
A few habits that save trouble
- Take a backup before big changes. A version change, a new modpack or an uploaded world is much easier to undo with a fresh backup
- Stop the server before you replace world files. A running game can overwrite your upload with the copy it holds in memory
- Read the console first. When something goes wrong, the answer is usually in the last twenty lines
Something missing or not working as described? Open a ticket from the support page with your server name and what you see.