How to Use RCON on Your Arma Reforger Server

With RCON (Remote Console) you can manage your server remotely without being in the game yourself – e.g. list, kick or ban players and restart the scenario. Arma Reforger uses the BattlEye RCon protocol for this, which communicates over UDP.

Enable RCON

RCON only starts when an RCON password is set.

1. Open dashboard
   Open the dashboard of your server.

2. Open settings
   Navigate to the Settings.

3. Enter RCON password
   Enter a password in the RCON Password field.

   Warning

   The RCON password must be at least 3 characters long and must not contain spaces. Without a valid password, RCON does not start.

4. Restart the server
   Save the setting and restart your server.

Important

Treat the RCON password like an admin password and only share it with trusted people. Also choose a different password than your Admin Password.

RCON credentials

You need three pieces of information to connect:

• Address
  The IP address of your server (without port), e.g. 203.0.113.10.

• RCON port
  You can find the RCON port in the dashboard in the port overview. The port is assigned by us and cannot be changed.

• Password
  The password from the RCON Password field in the Settings.

Note

The RCON address, port and password are written from the dashboard into config.json on every server start. If you change address, port or password in the "rcon" section directly in the file, these values are overwritten on the next start. Therefore, always change the password in the dashboard.

Set RCON permissions

On your server, RCON is set to the monitor permission by default. This only lets you run commands that do not change the server's state, e.g. #players. If you also want to kick or ban players over RCON, change the permission to admin.

Permission	Description
admin	Can run any command
monitor	Can only run commands that do not change the server's state

1. Stop the server
   Stop your server via the dashboard.

2. Connect via SFTP
   Connect to your server via SFTP.

3. Open config.json
   Open the file config.json in the root directory of your server and find the "rcon" section.

4. Change permission
   Change the value of "permission" from "monitor" to "admin":

   "rcon": {
     "permission": "admin",
     "blacklist": [],
     "whitelist": []
   }

   The snippet only shows the relevant entries. Leave the other entries in the "rcon" section unchanged.

   Tip

   Check the file with a JSON formatter like JSONLint after editing – a single missing or extra comma is enough to prevent the server from starting.

5. Start the server
   Save the file and start your server.

Restrict commands with blacklist and whitelist

In the "rcon" section you can also define which commands are allowed over RCON. Both entries are lists of commands and are empty by default. You also edit these entries in config.json via SFTP while your server is stopped.

Entry	Description
blacklist	Commands in this list cannot be run over RCON
whitelist	If the list contains commands, only these can be run over RCON

Tip

Here too, check config.json with JSONLint after editing – a single missing or extra comma is enough to prevent the server from starting.

Number of simultaneous RCON connections

With the optional "maxClients" entry in the "rcon" section you define how many RCON clients may be connected at the same time. Allowed values are 1 to 16, the default is 16. You edit config.json for this the same way as when changing the permission: stop the server, edit the file via SFTP, start the server.

"rcon": {
  ...
  "maxClients": 4
}

Note

... stands for the existing entries in the "rcon" section. Add "maxClients" inside this section and do not delete the other entries there. Mind the comma before the new line and then check the file with JSONLint.

Connect with RCON

1. Open RCON tool
   Open an RCON tool that supports the BattlEye RCon protocol.

2. Enter connection details
   Enter the RCON credentials: address, RCON port and password.

3. Run commands
   Once connected, you can run the commands from the following table.

RCON commands

Command	Description	admin	monitor
#players	Lists all players with their player ID	Yes	Yes
#kick <playerId>	Kicks a player, who can rejoin afterwards	Yes	No
#ban create <playerId/identityId> <duration> [reason]	Bans a player, the duration is given in seconds (0 = permanent)	Yes	No
#ban remove <identityId>	Removes a ban	Yes	No
#ban list [page]	Shows the bans with BanID, Player UID and duration, 25 per page over RCON (10 in game)	Yes	No
#restart	Restarts the running scenario, players stay connected	Yes	No
#shutdown	Shuts down the server and disconnects all players	Yes	No
@logout	Logs out the RCON client and frees its slot immediately	Yes	Yes

The player ID (5 in the examples) is shown by #players. It only works while the player is connected to the server. If the player is no longer online, ban them by their identityId instead.

Examples:

#ban create 5 3600 Teamkilling
#ban create 5 0
#ban list 2

Note

The commands #login, #logout, #roles and #id are only meant for players in the game and do not work over RCON. To learn how to log in as admin in the game, see Become Admin. To kick and ban players directly in the game, see Kick and Ban Players.

Tip

Always end your RCON session with @logout. If you simply close your RCON tool, the server keeps the connection for a while until it is removed by a timeout. During that time it still occupies one of the "maxClients" slots.