Valheim

Public manual-acceptance release

Valheim is available in the public launch catalog. A historical Steam client join passed; the product owner is manually retesting current client and access-list behavior after this restoration.

Valheim uses a multi-port UDP layout. Swarm Hosts reserves the base game port and the next port together for normal play, and also reserves base+2 so crossplay can be enabled without changing the Swarm Server shape later.

Basics you should know

  • Default protocol: UDP
  • Typical ports: base port, base+1, and optional crossplay base+2
  • Persistent data: /config
  • World saves: /config/worlds_local
  • Recommended resources: 4 CPU and 8 GB RAM (2 CPU and 4 GB are the enforced minimum)
  • Ready signal: a successful local A2S query on base+1

Tip

Set a unique password with at least 5 characters or the dedicated server will refuse to start. Swarm Hosts does not supply a shared default password.

Launch

1) Open Launch. 2) Choose Valheim. 3) Set Server name, World name, and Server password. 4) Leave Crossplay disabled unless you need non-Steam clients. 5) Click Launch.

Ports

  • Game port: auto-assigned UDP base port
  • Companion server port: auto-assigned UDP base+1
  • Crossplay backend port: reserved as UDP base+2

Note

Swarm Hosts assigns all three ports together. Share the base UDP port with players for direct join.

Data you may want to manage

  • Worlds: /config/worlds_local
  • Admin list: /config/adminlist.txt
  • Ban list: /config/bannedlist.txt
  • Permitted list: /config/permittedlist.txt

Valheim access-list entries use one case-sensitive platform user ID per line, in the form [Platform]_[User ID] (for example, Steam_76561198000000000). You can obtain the value from the server log or Valheim's F2 player list.

Permitted list becomes an allowlist

As soon as the permitted list contains an entry, every player not on that list is excluded. Adding or removing administrators, bans, or permitted players through Server Actions updates the durable files atomically, but the change remains pending until you restart the Valheim server. The adapter never restarts the server automatically.

Server Actions

This integration exposes a closed, image-local action adapter. It does not accept raw commands or arbitrary paths.

  • Server status reads the local A2S endpoint and reports the player count, capacity, password flag, query port, and detected Steam build when available.
  • Access lists shows the managed administrator, banned, and permitted IDs to administrators.
  • Add/remove administrator, ban/unban, and permit/remove permitted player update only the three fixed files above. Administrator and permitted-list changes require owner approval; ban changes require administrator confirmation.
  • Back up now signals the pinned image's backup service and succeeds only after a new ZIP archive is correlated, stable, and passes integrity verification.

Not exposed: RCON, F5 or raw console automation, supervisor controls, server shutdown, live access-list reload, and plugin loading or updating. Use the normal Swarm Server restart control after an access-list action.

Backups

World data and all three access lists are included in the platform backup contract. The image also keeps verified on-demand ZIP archives under /config/backups; the wrapper retains at most 20 archives and removes archives older than 14 days. The scheduled backup cron is disabled so an on-demand request can be correlated to one new archive, and the action interface exposes no hook or shell input.

Mods and plugins

Valheim's common server extension model is the BepInEx plugin ecosystem. Plugins are untrusted executable code, and game/loader compatibility varies, so Swarm Hosts currently classifies this as plugin_ecosystem with a manual_files workflow—not as a managed artifact provider.

  • Compatible plugin files are installed manually under /opt/valheim/bepinex/BepInEx/plugins after enabling the matching BepInEx runtime in a controlled image.
  • A server restart is required after plugin changes.
  • Provider discovery, dependency resolution, ordering, automatic updates, exact-version rollback, and drift repair are not currently promised.
  • Back up the world and plugin configuration before changing executable content. Client-side matching mods may also be required.

Because /opt/valheim is runtime-managed rather than part of the /config persistence contract, production plugin enablement still requires a separately validated managed image/content workflow. Uploading a plugin alone is not considered a supported installation.

Runtime and version behavior

The Swarm Hosts wrapper is pinned to an exact upstream container digest and disables unattended update/restart cron schedules. The dedicated server is installed from Steam at container startup; the exact running Steam build is detected from app 896660's manifest. This is runtime-resolved game content, not an exact historical-version selection or rollback promise.

Connect

Players can join through Valheim's Join IP flow using:

<HOST_PUBLIC_IP>:<BASE_PORT>

Source and provenance

Swarm Hosts installs the Valheim dedicated server from Steam. The server binaries come from Valve's Steam distribution path for Valheim dedicated servers, while Swarm Hosts handles the setup, launch settings, port assignment, and persistent storage for you.

Valheim's official dedicated-server guide documents the three access-list files, case-sensitive platform IDs, the permitted-list allowlist behavior, and the base-port layout. The pinned container's backup helper and local A2S implementation are separately exercised by image-focused tests; the product owner is manually retesting effective access-list activation after restart as part of this public restoration.