Setup on VPS

This page will go through how to set up the bot on a Linux server so that it will run 24/7.

Getting a VPS

You can get a VPS from many different providers, but I recommend getting one from DigitalOcean or Hetzner Cloud.

• DigitalOcean - Get $100 (expires after 2 months)
• Hetzner Cloud - Get 20€ (never expires)

Once you have created an account or signed in using an existing one, go to https://cloud.digitalocean.com/droplets/new and create a droplet.

• Choose the higest Ubuntu LTS version (19.04 as of writing this)
• It is recommended to select a plan with atleast 1GB memory, but 512MB should work too
• Choose a region in which the VPS will be located.
• Choose authentication method, one-time password is easy but vulnerable (you can always set up an SSH keys later)
• No volume or backups is needed
• Click on "Create" to create the VPS

If you chose the one-time password authentication, you will then receive an email with the IP, username and password.

Connecting to your VPS

You need an SSH client to connect to the VPS. Go to https://www.putty.org/ and download the installation file. Once it is downloaded, run the file and go through the installation process.

When putty has been installed, run it and do the following:

• In the hostname box, paste in the IP of your VPS, then name the VPS in the box below - this will save your session so you can easily connect to your VPS later on
• If it is your first time connecting to the server, it will ask you to enter the password from the email you got. Copy the password and right-click on the terminal to paste it in, then hit enter (you will not see the password because it is hidden)
• If the password was correct, you will then be asked to enter a new password. This password will be used to connect to the VPS from now on. Enter a password and hit enter.

You're now connect and signed in to the VPS.

Downloading NodeJS

Connect to the VPS and sign in.

Paste in the following commands:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_13.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

This will install NodeJS v13.x together with NPM.

Once done, you can check if NodeJS and NPM is installed by checking their versions.

node -v

and

npm -v

Downloading the bot

Same process as on your desktop, see installation guide

git clone https://github.com/Nicklason/tf2-automatic.git

Once the repository has been cloned, navigate to it

cd tf2-automatic

Install dependencies

npm install

PM2

To run the bot 24/7, you need to run the process in the background. If you run the bot with node app.js or npm start, the bot will stop when you close the terminal.

Use PM2 to run the bot in the background, see the guide.