This guide will go over how to create servers on Pterodactyl.

Eggs

An egg is a Pterodactyl-specific configuration file which tells Pterodactyl how to install, launch, and manage a particular application autonomously. It also sets what configuration options are available to operators in the panel itself.[1]

While the adding of a new egg to the panel is always the same, because by their nature all game servers[2] are different, the configuration and effort required to get a server to launch for the first time is case-by-case.

Step 0: Checking if we have the egg

Before we scour the internet for an egg let's first check we don't already have it and save ourselves the trouble.

  1. Log into the panel at https://edcgaming.org.
  2. Click the cog icon to the left of the colored smiley face to access the administrative section of Pterodactyl.
     
    The Pterodactyl panel button to get to the administrative section.
  3. Click the Nests button on the following page.
     
    The Pterodactyl panel nests button in the administrative section.

You will then be greeted with the following list (or similar looking list).

 
List of Pterodactyl egg nests.

The term nest is fairly self-explanatory. Click into the nests and see if an egg for the software you want to spin up is present.

Review the table below for what you should do now.

Desired egg IS present Desired egg is NOT present
Skip to Step 2: Spin up server Continue to Step 1: Finding and installing an egg

Step 1: Finding and installing an egg

a. Finding the egg

The following locations are commonly used to find eggs:

For the sake of this guide, let's pretend we want to spin up a Mordhau server. On the Option 1 list, we find Mordhau's entry leads to a page with raw text. This page is the egg in it's raw form: a JSON file. The entirety of this page's contents should be saved to your computer as a .json file. The advised way is to right click on the page and select Save as.

b. Installing the egg

  1. Log into the panel at https://edcgaming.org.
  2. Click the cog icon to the left of the colored smiley face to access the administrative section of Pterodactyl.
     
    The Pterodactyl panel button to get to the administrative section.
  3. Click the Nests button on the following page.
     
    The Pterodactyl panel nests button in the administrative section.
  4. You will be greeted with the following list (or similar looking list). Click Import Egg.
     
    List of Pterodactyl egg nests.
  5. You will be shown a confirmation prompt. In this prompt, select the JSON file, and ensure to set the nest to Non-Default Games.
     
    Pterodactyl egg importing prompt.
  6. Click Import.
  7. You should see a new page with a lot of information on it and a green prompt saying the import was successful.
     
    Pterodactyl successful egg import notification.

Step 2: Spin up server

So, we either just installed our desired egg, or we found that the egg already exists. Let's try to launch the application.

  1. Click the Servers button while in the administrative section of the panel.
     
    The Pterodactyl panel "Servers" button in the administrative section.
  2. Near the top right of the server list, click the green Create New button.

From here, you are going to see a form requesting a lot from you. Review the table below for assistance.

Field Instructions
Server Name   Set as the name of the software/game.
Server Owner   Set as your Pterodactyl account.
Server Description   Discretionary. Not relevant to anything.
Node   Advised it be left alone.
Default Allocation   Advised it be left alone.
Additional Allocation(s)   Advised it be left alone.
Database Limit   Advised it be left alone.
Allocation Limit   Advised it be left alone.
Backup Limit   Discretionary; advise equal to or less than 3.
CPU Limit   Advised it be left alone.
CPU Pinning   Advised it be left alone.
Memory   This is the server's available memory. Set to the minimum amount necessary to function. This may not be set to 0.
Swap   Advised it be left alone.
Disk Space   This is the server's actual available disk space. Set to the minimum amount necessary to function. This may not be set to 0.
Block IO Weight   Advised it be left alone.
Enable OOM Killer   Terminates server if memory is exceeded. Discretionary.
Nest   Select nest that has the egg you wish to use.
Egg   Select egg you wish to use.
Skip Egg Install Script   Advised it be left alone.
Docker Image   Egg dependent.

Remaining options on this form are determined by the egg. This inherently makes it impossible to provide further assistance here. Seek help from other experienced operators and search online.

When all options have been set, click Create Server.

Footnotes

  1. For example, for the Arma server, it's egg is configured to give operators an option in the panel to change the server's active modlist. The egg maps this created option to the appropriate line on Arma's server.cfg file.
  2. Pterodactyl can be used for non-game servers too, like FoundryVTT or TeamSpeak, but the point stands.