How To Create a Private RUST Server

Creating a private RUST server

This guide will cover the steps for creating a private RUST server. By the end of this guide, the server owner will have installed a uMod plugin that rejects player connections that have not been granted permission to the server and allows those players that have.

Server owners may wish to create a private RUST server for a variety of reasons, such as:

• A private clan or team practice server
• A private access server for paid or subscribing members
• Designing special events or roleplay server
• Planning, custom map or plugin testing server

Whatever the reason, it’s certainly helpful to have a staging ground set up before allowing players to connect to a  server that’s currently being configured.

In order to begin, there are two pre-requisites:

1. Must have set up a RUST dedicated server or purchased a RUST server
2. Must have uMod installed on the server

Steps for creating a private RUST server

• Locate and download the whitelist plugin
• Install the whitelist plugin
• Configuring the whitelist plugin
• Granting whitelist permissions
• Verify proper permission functionality

Step 1: Locate and download the whitelist plugin

Navigate to the uMod page for Wulf’s Whitelist plugin, then click on the download button. This will download the latest version of the plugin, automatically saving the file Whitelist.csto your computer.

Note that this guide uses a specific plugin, but other whitelist plugins will work as well, as long as they are compatible with RUST. 

Step 2: Install the whitelist plugin

Once the whitelist plugin is downloaded, make sure to save the RUST server and stop the server process.

For this step you must have access to one of the following:

1. Direct access to the server’s files
2. FTP access to the server’s files
3. Control panel/File Manager access to the server’s files

Then in the RUST server’s root directory, locate the oxide folder. Inside of the oxide folder look for another folder labeled “plugins”. The folder’s path will look similar to this:

/*server_identity*/oxide/plugins/

Then copy or upload the Whitelist.cs file into this folder.

Step 3: Configuring the whitelist plugin

This plugin makes use of the Oxide permissions system, meaning that whitelist permissions are performed through granting or revoking access to permission groups or individuals. This guide does not walk through the uMod (Oxide) permission system, only through what is necessary to get the Whitelist plugin working.

There are two default groups with uMod (Oxide):

• Admin
• Default

The plugin automatically grants access to the admin group and denies access to the default group. These settings can be modified in the plugin’s configuration file located below:

/*server_identity*/oxide/config/Whitelist.json

Step 4: Granting whitelist permissions

After the Whitelist plugin is installed, start up the RUST server. Once the server has finished initializing, perform a quick test of the permissions set to the admin group.

Copy the line below into the server console and press enter:

oxide.show group admin

The server console will return the following:

Group ‘admin’ players:
64_bit_steam_id (Steam_User_Name)
Group ‘admin’ permissions:
No permissions currently granted

Now grant the admin group the whitelist.allow permission.  Copy the line below into the server console and press enter:

oxide.grant group admin whitelist.allow

The server console will return the following:

Group ‘admin’ granted permission ‘whitelist.allow’

Test that the admin group has the newly added whitelist.allow permission. Copy the line below into your server console and press enter:

oxide.show group admin

The server console will return the following:

Group ‘admin’ players:
64_bit_steam_id (Steam_User_Name)
Group ‘admin’ permissions:
Whitelist.allow

Alternatively, to manually whitelist a player copy the line below into your server console and press enter:

oxide.grant user 64_bit_steam_id whitelist.allow

The server console will return the following:

Player ‘64_bit_steam_id (64_bit_steam_id)’ granted permission ‘whitelist.allow’

To revoke the whitelist access, copy the line below into your server console and press enter:

oxide.revoke user 64_bit_steam_id whitelist.allow

The server console will return the following:

Player ‘64_bit_steam_id (64_bit_steam_id)’ revoked permission ‘whitelist.allow’

Step 5: Verify proper permission functionality

Below is the message that the non-whitelisted player will receive:

This is the default text provided for the rejection message and can be changed in the plugin’s language configuration file, located below:

/*server_identity*/oxide/lang/en/Whitelist.json

Below is what the server-side sees when a non-whitelisted player attempts to join:

The next step is to verify that whitelisting works by granting whitelist permission to a player. Copy the line below into your server console and press enter:

oxide.grant user 64_bit_steam_id whitelist.allow

The server console will return the following:

Player ‘64_bit_steam_id (64_bit_steam_id)’ granted permission ‘whitelist.allow’

Next, have the player attempt to connect now that they are granted the whitelist permission:

Summary

Now that the whitelist plugin has been successfully installed and configured on the RUST server, players and oxide groups can now be whitelisted as desired. This plugin is often used in tandem with 3rd party subscription services that grant and revoke permissions for subscribing players.