Deprecated, use https://github.com/adainrivers/dune-dedicated-server-manager

Dune Server Management Service

Server-local automation for a self-hosted Dune: Awakening dedicated server.

The service runs as the dune user on the Linux host. It schedules existing operational scripts, stores historical task runs in SQLite, and exposes a localhost-only dashboard for run history and logs.

What It Runs

• Database backup every 2 hours.
• Steam update check every 15 minutes.
• Pending update apply check every minute.
• Daily restart warning at 04:30 in the configured service timezone.
• Daily restart at 05:00 in the configured service timezone.
• SQLite run history and task logs.
• Web dashboard on 127.0.0.1:8787 by default.

The service does not expose the dashboard publicly. Use an SSH tunnel for access.

Repository Layout

src/        TypeScript service source
scripts/    Server-side script dependencies installed to /home/dune/.dune/bin
systemd/    systemd unit file
dist/       Generated build output, ignored by Git

Script dependencies included in this repo:

scripts/cron-battlegroup-backup
scripts/cron-battlegroup-update-check
scripts/apply-pending-battlegroup-update
scripts/daily-battlegroup-restart-notice
scripts/daily-battlegroup-restart
scripts/send-dune-broadcast
scripts/send-dune-shutdown-broadcast
scripts/lib/dune-service-common.sh
scripts/install-script-deps.sh

The broadcast scripts are safe templates. They do not contain the Dune command-auth token. At install time, provide that token through a private server-local file or environment variable.

Requirements

On the server:

• Ubuntu host with the Dune BattleGroup already installed.
• dune user with working kubectl.
• /home/dune/.dune/bin/battlegroup.
• SteamCMD at /home/dune/.local/bin/steamcmd.
• bash, flock, python3, curl, sudo, kubectl.
• Node.js 24 or newer recommended.

Node must support node:sqlite. The tested runtime was:

node --version
npm --version

Expected shape:

v24.x
11.x

Configuration

Optional environment variables:

DUNE_BIN_DIR=/home/dune/.dune/bin
DUNE_SERVICE_DB_PATH=/home/dune/.dune/state/server-management-service.sqlite
DUNE_SERVICE_TIME_ZONE=Europe/Amsterdam
DUNE_RESTART_TIME_ZONE=Europe/Amsterdam
DUNE_DASHBOARD_HOST=127.0.0.1
DUNE_DASHBOARD_PORT=8787
DUNE_COMMAND_AUTH_TOKEN_FILE=/home/dune/.dune/state/command-auth-token

DUNE_COMMAND_AUTH_TOKEN can also be set directly, but a private token file is preferred.

DUNE_SERVICE_TIME_ZONE controls the scheduler's wall-clock time. The packaged default is Europe/Amsterdam because that is the operator's current server timezone choice. Other operators should set it to their own IANA timezone, for example Europe/Berlin, America/New_York, or Australia/Sydney.

DUNE_RESTART_TIME_ZONE is optional. If unset, restart warning payloads use DUNE_SERVICE_TIME_ZONE. Set it only if the restart broadcast timestamp should be computed in a different timezone than the service scheduler.

Do not commit .env, command-auth tokens, private keys, host-specific IPs, or BattleGroup identifiers.

Local Development

From this repo on the operator machine:

npm install
npm run check
npm run build
node dist/index.js --list
node dist/index.js --once backup

Live mode intentionally refuses to run on Windows.

node dist/index.js --once backup --run

That should fail on Windows with:

Live mode must run on the Linux Dune server, not from Windows.

Full Server Installation

Run these steps on the Dune server as a user with sudo access. The service itself should run as dune.

1. Install Node.js

Install Node 24 from NodeSource:

sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource-repo.gpg.key \
  | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg.tmp
sudo mv /etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg.tmp /etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg
sudo chmod 0644 /etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg
echo 'deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg] https://deb.nodesource.com/node_24.x nodistro main' \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list >/dev/null
sudo apt-get update
sudo DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y nodejs

Verify:

node --version
npm --version
node --input-type=module -e "import { DatabaseSync } from 'node:sqlite'; const db = new DatabaseSync('/tmp/sms-sqlite-test.sqlite'); db.exec('create table if not exists t (id integer)'); db.close(); console.log('sqlite ok')"

2. Build The Service

On the machine where the repo is checked out:

npm install
npm run check
npm run build

Copy these paths to the server:

package.json
package-lock.json
README.md
dist/
scripts/
systemd/

Example destination:

/tmp/server-management-service-deploy

3. Install Under /opt

On the server:

stamp=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)
if [ -d /opt/server-management-service ]; then
  sudo mv /opt/server-management-service "/opt/server-management-service.$stamp.bak"
fi

sudo mkdir -p /opt/server-management-service
sudo cp -a /tmp/server-management-service-deploy/. /opt/server-management-service/
sudo chown -R dune:dune /opt/server-management-service

4. Install Script Dependencies

The service expects its helper scripts in /home/dune/.dune/bin.

cd /opt/server-management-service
sudo -u dune bash scripts/install-script-deps.sh /home/dune/.dune/bin

Verify dry-runs:

/home/dune/.dune/bin/cron-battlegroup-backup --help 2>/dev/null || true
/home/dune/.dune/bin/daily-battlegroup-restart --dry-run
target=$(TZ="${DUNE_RESTART_TIME_ZONE:-${DUNE_SERVICE_TIME_ZONE:-Europe/Amsterdam}}" date -d 'tomorrow 05:00' +%s)
/home/dune/.dune/bin/send-dune-shutdown-broadcast --timestamp "$target" --dry-run

5. Install The Private Command Token

The generic and shutdown broadcast scripts need the private Dune server command-auth token. Store it on the server, outside the repo:

install -d -m 0700 /home/dune/.dune/state
sudo -u dune install -m 0600 /dev/null /home/dune/.dune/state/command-auth-token
sudo -u dune editor /home/dune/.dune/state/command-auth-token

The file should contain only the token value, with no quotes and no extra text.

Verify that the file exists without printing it:

sudo -u dune test -s /home/dune/.dune/state/command-auth-token
sudo -u dune stat -c '%a %U %G %n' /home/dune/.dune/state/command-auth-token

Expected permissions:

600 dune dune /home/dune/.dune/state/command-auth-token

6. Dry-Run The Service On The Server

cd /opt/server-management-service
sudo -u dune node dist/index.js --list
sudo -u dune node dist/index.js --once backup

The dry-run backup should print:

[dry-run] /home/dune/.dune/bin/cron-battlegroup-backup

7. Install systemd

sudo cp /opt/server-management-service/systemd/server-management-service.service \
  /etc/systemd/system/server-management-service.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable server-management-service.service
sudo systemctl start server-management-service.service

Verify:

sudo systemctl --no-pager --full status server-management-service.service
sudo journalctl -u server-management-service.service -n 80 --no-pager

Expected log lines include:

Starting Dune server management service (live mode).
Database: /home/dune/.dune/state/server-management-service.sqlite
Dashboard listening on http://127.0.0.1:8787
Scheduled backup every 7200s.
Scheduled update-check every 900s.
Scheduled update-apply every 60s.
Scheduled restart-notice for ...
Scheduled restart for ...

If the server should use another timezone, create /etc/server-management-service.env before starting the service:

sudo tee /etc/server-management-service.env >/dev/null <<'EOF'
DUNE_SERVICE_TIME_ZONE=Europe/London
DUNE_RESTART_TIME_ZONE=Europe/London
EOF
sudo chown root:root /etc/server-management-service.env
sudo chmod 0644 /etc/server-management-service.env

8. Disable Replaced Cron Entries

Only do this after systemd is active.

mkdir -p /home/dune/.dune/state
stamp=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)
crontab -l > "/home/dune/.dune/state/crontab-before-server-management-service-$stamp.txt" 2>/dev/null || true
crontab -l 2>/dev/null \
  | grep -Ev 'cron-battlegroup-backup|cron-battlegroup-update-check|apply-pending-battlegroup-update|daily-battlegroup-restart-notice|daily-battlegroup-restart' \
  | grep -Ev '^# Dune daily restart\.|^# Warning is sent for the next Europe/Amsterdam 05:00 restart target\.|^# Dune update automation:' \
  | crontab - 2>/dev/null || crontab -r 2>/dev/null || true

Verify:

crontab -l 2>/dev/null || echo '<empty>'

Dashboard Access

The dashboard binds to localhost by default.

From the operator machine, use an SSH tunnel:

$ssh = 'C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH\ssh.exe'
& $ssh -N -L 8787:127.0.0.1:8787 dune@<server-host>

Then open:

http://127.0.0.1:8787

Useful API checks on the server:

curl -fsS http://127.0.0.1:8787/api/health
curl -fsS 'http://127.0.0.1:8787/api/runs?limit=5'
curl -fsS 'http://127.0.0.1:8787/api/logs?limit=20'

Operational Commands

Run one task manually, dry-run:

cd /opt/server-management-service
sudo -u dune node dist/index.js --once backup

Run one task manually, live:

cd /opt/server-management-service
sudo -u dune node dist/index.js --once backup --run

Restart the daemon:

sudo systemctl restart server-management-service.service

Watch logs:

sudo journalctl -u server-management-service.service -f

Inspect SQLite history:

ls -lh /home/dune/.dune/state/server-management-service.sqlite
curl -fsS 'http://127.0.0.1:8787/api/runs?limit=10'

Update Or Roll Back Deployment

Before replacing /opt/server-management-service, stop the daemon and keep a rollback copy:

sudo systemctl stop server-management-service.service
stamp=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)
sudo mv /opt/server-management-service "/opt/server-management-service.$stamp.bak"
sudo mkdir -p /opt/server-management-service
sudo cp -a /tmp/server-management-service-deploy/. /opt/server-management-service/
sudo chown -R dune:dune /opt/server-management-service
sudo systemctl start server-management-service.service

Rollback:

sudo systemctl stop server-management-service.service
sudo rm -rf /opt/server-management-service
sudo mv /opt/server-management-service.<timestamp>.bak /opt/server-management-service
sudo systemctl start server-management-service.service