Guide: How to run multiple servers on one PC

[Deurklink]

I recently got multiple servers to run on one pc, and i saw some people asking how to do it, so i decided to write a guide.

This guide has the following chapters:

1. Port forwarding
2. Running the servers
3. Running the servers with different user permissions

Port forwarding

This is the most difficult step for most people, and also the step that will decide whether you can host a server or not.

First, you need to log into your router. You typically do this by connecting to your network and typing the local ip address of your router. For me this was 192.168.2.254 but for you it will probably be different. Here's an example screen of my router configuration page:

The next thing you should do is give your server PC a static IP address. This will ensure port forwarding is always done to the right PC.

To give your PC a static IP address, you need to look for a table in your router which says something like static DHCP. It will probably be described in a different way on other router software. Look up the manual of your router if you cannot find it.

You will need to fill out the MAC address of your PC. To find it, open a command prompt and type "ipconfig -all". Here you will see the physical address of your ethernet / wifi card you're using to connect to the internet, which is the MAC address:

Next, when you have given your PC a static IP address, you can open up ports on your router. Again, this will be different depending on your router. For me, the settings are under Data > NAT > Port mapping.  Usually this page will be called Port Forwarding or something similar.

The standard port for OpenRCT2 multiplayer is 11753. If you want to have more than 1 server, you will need to open more ports. In my example, i want to run 2 servers on one PC, and another server on the other PC. As you can see in the following table, Ports 11753 and 11755 are forwarded to the PC with IP address 192.168.2.10 and port 11754 is forwarded to 192.168.2.12. If you want to run more servers, simply forward more ports.

Running the servers

Open up OpenRCT2 and click the multiplayer icon:

Then when you click Start server, you get a screen where you can fill out some details:

Note that this server uses the port 11753.  This port should be used on the PC that you gave the address 192.168.2.10 to in the previous example. Now if you want to run a second server, all you have to do is open up another instance of OpenRCT2. Here you start another server:

Note that you should use a different port for this second server. You can start as many servers as your internet connection and your PC can comfortably handle. 

Running the servers with different user permissions

One limitation about the above method is that all these servers will have the same permissions for every user, since they use the same userdata files. An admin in one server will also be admin in the other server. There is a file called users.json in your OpenRCT data folder, which contains the permissions for all users.  In order for every server to have separate permissions, every server should have its own copy of this file. 

To do this, you should go to your OpenRCT2 folder in Documents, and make a new folder. I called mine server2.

In that folder, you place the following file: start.bat ( Credits go to @Broxzier for creating it). Running it will start OpenRCT2 while making new user data files like users.json and config.ini in the folder it is in. In the future, to run the second server, you will have to start it every time by running start.bat. You can make many servers by creating more folders in the OpenRCT2 directory, and running start.bat from them. 

One other advantage of this method is that OpenRCT2 will remember the last port you typed in. So every time you run server 2, which uses the port 11755, for example, you will not have to type the port number because it is remembered in the config.ini file.

I often run 2 or 3 servers using this method. I hope this explanation was clear!

If there are any questions, dont hesitate to let me know.