Guide

Keep administration and recovery private

• RCON: use a strong, unique Server.RconPassword and restrict remote administration to a private network, VPN, SSH tunnel, or trusted-source firewall rules. RconTool is a Windows administration client; running that client does not require the server itself to run on Windows. Players do not need access to this port.
• Logs: on Windows, the watcher writes startup/restart records to logs\dedicated_server.log; on Docker, use docker compose logs for container startup and Wine output. Game.LogName sets the game log path, normally logs\dorito.log, available on the Linux host as /opt/eldewrito/logs/dorito.log. Chat, player-list, and RCON logs have separate enable/path settings. Read the errors around the failed start or map transition, and redact passwords, addresses, player identifiers, and tokens before sharing logs.
• Backups: preserve the working startup/configuration files, data\server including moderation data, custom map and gametype folders, and the exact mod versions/author links needed to rebuild. Keep the last known-good set before an update or playlist change.
• Restart: warn players, stop the container or stop the Windows watcher and server, make the change, then restart deliberately. Check the map and perform a remote rejoin before declaring the server restored. If a change fails, restore the last known-good configuration/content set rather than deleting all preferences.
• Multiple instances: each needs its own process supervision, configuration identity, logs, content policy, and non-overlapping game, information, and optional-service port mappings. Incrementing every port by one can collide with another service; keep an explicit per-instance port/protocol table.

Multiple dedicated instances

For Docker, start with a separate game directory and Compose project per instance so preferences, startup commands, voting files, moderation data, and logs cannot overwrite one another. Use matching internal and published ports, such as UDP 11784 for the second instance's Server.GamePort and TCP 11785 for its Server.Port. If used, set Game.RconPort to 11786 and Server.SignalServerPort to 11787, keeping RCON private. The upstream multi-instance example shows this port spacing and a more advanced shared-game layout, but its second instance still requires you to change the game preferences manually; the Compose mappings alone do not change the listeners.

For Windows, the repository's New dedicated server #.ps1 helper creates separately named executables and watcher scripts. Save it beside eldorado.exe, rename # to a unique simple instance name without spaces, and run it from PowerShell with that installation as the working directory. For example, & '.\New dedicated server Arena.ps1' creates eldorado_Arena.exe, data\dewrito_prefs_Arena.cfg, and dedicated_server_Arena.bat. It requires the original dedicated_server.bat and an existing data\dewrito_prefs.cfg.

Before starting the generated batch file, edit the instance preferences for its name, ports, passwords, and log paths. The helper copies the original preferences, substitutes the executable name in the watcher, and appends -instance Arena; it does not assign unique ports, copy an independent content directory, or create separate voting and startup files. Give instances separate Voting.JsonPath values when they need different playlists, and do not put conflicting per-instance settings in a shared autoexec.cfg. Refresh the copied executables deliberately after a game update. Do not use the unmodified single-instance watcher alongside these servers.