Valheim ships a free dedicated server for Linux that you can download anonymously with SteamCMD, Valve's command-line Steam client. Running it on your own server keeps the world online when the host player logs off and gives you full control over passwords, admins and backups. In this tutorial you will install the Valheim server on Ubuntu 24.04, run it as a systemd service under its own user, open the required ports and set up world backups.

Prerequisites

To follow this guide you need:

  • A server running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (x86_64), for example a CubePath VPS. Plan for 2 CPU cores and 4 GB of RAM for a small group; larger or heavily built worlds use more memory.
  • About 5 GB of free disk space for the server files and world saves.
  • A non-root user with sudo privileges.
  • A copy of Valheim on Steam on the computer you will play from.

Step 1 - Installing SteamCMD

SteamCMD is in Ubuntu's multiverse repository and needs 32-bit libraries, so enable both first:

sudo add-apt-repository multiverse
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt update

Install the package. During installation you will be asked to accept the Steam license agreement; select I AGREE to continue:

sudo apt install steamcmd

The binary is installed as /usr/games/steamcmd. Check it:

ls -l /usr/games/steamcmd

Step 2 - Creating a dedicated user

Game servers should never run as root. Create a regular user called steam with its own home directory, which will hold the server files and the world saves:

sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash steam

Switch to that user for the next step:

sudo -iu steam

Step 3 - Downloading the Valheim server

The Valheim dedicated server is Steam app 896660 and can be downloaded without a Steam account. Note that +force_install_dir must come before +login:

/usr/games/steamcmd +force_install_dir /home/steam/valheim +login anonymous +app_update 896660 validate +quit

The first run also updates SteamCMD itself, so it takes a few minutes. It ends with:

Success! App '896660' fully installed.

Confirm that the server binary is there, then return to your sudo user:

ls /home/steam/valheim/valheim_server.x86_64
exit

Step 4 - Creating the systemd service

Valheim includes a start_server.sh example, but a systemd unit is a better fit: it starts the server at boot, restarts it after a crash, logs to the journal and can update the game before every start.

Pick the values you will use:

  • Server name (-name): what players see in the server list.
  • World name (-world): the save file name. A new world with this name is created on first start.
  • Password (-password): at least 5 characters and must not be contained in the server name, otherwise the server refuses to start.

Create the unit file:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/valheim.service

[Unit]
Description=Valheim dedicated server
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=steam
Group=steam
WorkingDirectory=/home/steam/valheim
Environment=LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/steam/valheim/linux64
Environment=SteamAppId=892970
ExecStartPre=-/usr/games/steamcmd +force_install_dir /home/steam/valheim +login anonymous +app_update 896660 +quit
ExecStart=/home/steam/valheim/valheim_server.x86_64 -nographics -batchmode -name "CubePath Vikings" -port 2456 -world "Midgard" -password "your_server_password" -public 1 -savedir /home/steam/valheim-data
KillSignal=SIGINT
TimeoutStartSec=600
TimeoutStopSec=60
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

What the less obvious lines do:

  • SteamAppId=892970 is the Valheim game's app ID, which the server needs to register with Steam (the server download itself is 896660).
  • ExecStartPre checks for game updates on every start, so a restart is all you need after a Valheim patch. The leading - lets the server start anyway if Steam is unreachable, and TimeoutStartSec gives the update time to finish.
  • KillSignal=SIGINT makes systemctl stop shut the server down the same way as CTRL+C does, which saves the world before exiting.
  • -public 1 lists the server in the in-game community browser. Use -public 0 to hide it and connect only by IP.
  • -savedir keeps worlds, the admin list and the ban list in /home/steam/valheim-data instead of a hidden directory.

If players on Xbox or the Microsoft Store version need to join, append -crossplay to the ExecStart line.

Reload systemd and start the server:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now valheim

Step 5 - Verifying that the server is running

Follow the log. The world is generated or loaded, and after a minute or two you should see the server register with Steam:

sudo journalctl -u valheim -f

... Game server connected

Press CTRL+C to stop following. The service status should be active (running):

sudo systemctl status valheim --no-pager

Check that the server is listening on its UDP ports:

sudo ss -ulpn | grep valheim

UNCONN 0 0 0.0.0.0:2456 0.0.0.0:* users:(("valheim_server.",pid=4121,fd=...))
UNCONN 0 0 0.0.0.0:2457 0.0.0.0:* users:(("valheim_server.",pid=4121,fd=...))

Step 6 - Opening the firewall

Valheim uses the port you set with -port (2456) and the next one (2457), both UDP. If UFW is enabled, allow them:

sudo ufw allow 2456:2457/udp
sudo ufw status

Now connect from the game. In Valheim, choose Join Game, click Join IP and enter your_server_ip:2456, then type the password. If you used -public 1, the server also appears under the Community tab after a few minutes.

Step 7 - Adding admins

Admins can kick and ban players and use the in-game console commands. The server reads the admin list from adminlist.txt in the save directory, one SteamID64 per line. You can find a player's SteamID64 in the in-game F2 connection panel or on their Steam profile URL.

sudo -u steam nano /home/steam/valheim-data/adminlist.txt

76561198000000000

Restart the server so the change applies:

sudo systemctl restart valheim

In the same directory, bannedlist.txt and permittedlist.txt (a whitelist, when not empty) use the same format.

Step 8 - Backing up the world

A Valheim world is two files in /home/steam/valheim-data/worlds_local/: Midgard.db holds the world data and Midgard.fwl its metadata. Valheim writes its own rotating backups there, but those sit on the same disk, so also keep copies elsewhere.

Create a backup directory and add a cron job for the steam user that archives the worlds every night at 05:00 and deletes archives older than 14 days:

sudo -u steam mkdir -p /home/steam/backups
sudo -u steam crontab -e

0 5 * * * tar -czf /home/steam/backups/valheim-$(date +\%F).tar.gz -C /home/steam/valheim-data worlds_local && find /home/steam/backups -name 'valheim-*.tar.gz' -mtime +14 -delete

The % signs are escaped because cron treats a bare % as a newline. Run the same tar command once by hand to confirm it works, then copy the backups directory off the server regularly (for example with rsync to another machine or object storage).

To restore, stop the server, extract the archive back into /home/steam/valheim-data, and start it again:

sudo systemctl stop valheim
sudo -u steam tar -xzf /home/steam/backups/valheim-2026-09-25.tar.gz -C /home/steam/valheim-data
sudo systemctl start valheim

Troubleshooting

  • The service exits right after starting. Check sudo journalctl -u valheim -n 50. The most common cause is a password shorter than 5 characters or one that appears in the server name.
  • The server runs but nobody can connect. Make sure UDP 2456 and 2457 are allowed in UFW and in any external firewall, and that you are joining on port 2456, not 2457.
  • The server does not appear in the Community list. Listing can take several minutes and is sometimes unreliable. Joining by IP works regardless.
  • Players see a version mismatch. The game client was updated but the server was not. Run sudo systemctl restart valheim; the ExecStartPre line pulls the update.

Conclusion

Your Valheim dedicated server now runs on Ubuntu 24.04 as a systemd service, updates itself on restart and keeps nightly world backups. As next steps, you can move an existing single-player world to the server by copying its .db and .fwl files into worlds_local and setting -world to its name, restrict access with permittedlist.txt, or install BepInEx if your group wants server-side mods.