How to Install Garry's Mod on Windows Server

Introduction

This article will explain how to download and install a Garry’s Mod server on Windows Server 2012. This guide is made to be in depth and some parts may be difficult to understand if you are inexperienced in source dedicated server hosting.

Prerequisites

SteamCMD.
Ability to port forward.
A steam account to create collections (optional).

Installing SteamCMD

To make sure you have the latest build of Garry’s Mod Dedicated Server, we will install it through SteamCMD .

Download SteamCMD by using this direct link.

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/installer/steamcmd.zip

Create a folder in a desired location.

Extract the contents of the zip to the folder you’ve created.

Downloading Garry’s Mod Dedicated Server tool

Execute the SteamCMD executable in the folder to which you’ve extracted the zip.

login anonymous

Create a folder to store your Garry’s Mod server files.

Select your folder by typing in the following directory path.

force_install_dir C:\my_example_directory\

Install Garry’s Mod Dedicated Server.

app_update 4020

After waiting for progress to reach 100 percent, verify the downloaded content.

app_update 4020 validate

Once the files have finished downloading, use the following command.

quit

Configuration

All settings of your server will be found inside of the configuration file shown below, here you can change parameters to suit what your server needs, such as a hostname , password , tickrate and many others.

It is recommended that you find an automatic configuration maker, as Garry’s Mod offers a very wide range of customization.

Make sure to research the parameters you are setting, as some parameters are dangerous and may not allow your server to run effectively and possibly not run at all.

Customize your Garry’s Mod server

Navigate to your server directory and select the cfg folder.

Locate server.cfg and use Notepad to open it.

Create your required settings, for example:

Select your hostname and turn on content downloading by typing in the following.

hostname “Garry’s Mod Server” sv_allowdownload 1

Create a start-up batch file.

Navigate to your folder in which you stored all of your server files.

Create a new notepad text file and paste the text below into it.

@echo off
cls
:srcds
echo (%time%) srcds started.
start /wait srcds.exe -console -game garrysmod +map gm_flatgrass +maxplayers 32
echo (%time%) WARNING: Srcds closed. Restarting server.
goto srcds

Save the file as a batch file, make sure it is in the primary directory of the server folder.