SERVER REQUIREMENTSWhat the game server needs to run

Required

• A Linux distribution (Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian or similar)
• The Bash shell at /bin/bash or /usr/bin/env bash, needed for the setup and the updates

Required OS tools

• unzip: archive extraction
• mkdir, cp, mv, rm: file operations
• chmod, chown: permission management
• cat: file reading
• All of the above are used by our setup and by the periodical updates

SSH/SFTP access

• The user must have write permission on the application directory
• The ability to execute scripts
• SFTP access for file uploads
• All of the above are used by our setup and by the periodical updates

Apache web server

• Version 2.4 or higher (or LiteSpeed Web Server)
• Required modules: mod_rewrite, mod_deflate

PHP

• Version: PHP 8.3
• Server API: PHP-FPM (FastCGI) or LSAPI (recommended)

MySQL database

• Version: MySQL 8
• The MySQL user you provide must have ALL PRIVILEGES on the database

Additional server services

• The Memcached daemon running on port 11211, on the same server as the HTTP server
• An SSL certificate for HTTPS (if not using CloudFlare)

Core extensions

• mysqli: MySQL database connectivity
• GD: image processing
• XML: XML parsing
• cURL: HTTP requests
• ZIP: archive handling
• OpenSSL: encryption and SSL
• GMP: math operations
• OpCache: performance

String and encoding

• Intl: internationalisation
• BCMath: precision math
• MBString: multibyte strings
• IconV: character encoding

Caching

• Memcached extension, with the daemon on port 11211: memory caching

Code protection

• SourceGuardian Loader v16 (for PHP 8.3)
• SourceGuardian is available through cPanel/EasyApache or through a manual installation (guide)

PHP configuration

• short_open_tag = On

MySQL configuration

• Set sql_mode="" (an empty string)

.htaccess support

• AllowOverride All must be enabled for the document root
• .htaccess files must be uploadable through the web or SFTP
• ModSecurity, if enabled, must not strip .htaccess content

php.ini

• session.cookie_secure = 1
• session.cookie_httponly = 1
• session.cookie_samesite = None
• session.cookie_path = /
• session.cookie_domain = .YOUR_WEB_DOMAIN.com

Third party

• Optional: a CloudFlare paid plan for DNS management, a firewall, static file caching and SSL

SSL certificate (mandatory)

• A valid SSL certificate installed for your domain
• It can be provided through CloudFlare or installed directly
• Required for secure HTTPS connections

Database management (mandatory)

• phpMyAdmin or cPanel access
• Required for the database import and management

File access (mandatory)

• SFTP/SSH access with write permissions
• The ability to upload and modify files
• Permission to execute .sh scripts

Disk space (mandatory)

• 30 GB minimum for installations with fewer than 100 games
• 60 GB recommended for installations with 100+ games
• 100 GB recommended for installations with large traffic (more than 1 million transactions a day)

SSL/HTTPS configuration

• The SSL certificate must be properly installed
• $_SERVER['HTTPS'] must be set to 'on' or '1'
• Test with: <?php echo $_SERVER['HTTPS'] ?? 'NOT SET'; ?>

Document root configuration

• $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] must point to /path/to/public_html/
• Common mistake: a doubled path such as /public_html/public_html/
• Test with: <?php echo $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']; ?>

# Correct:
/var/www/html/public_html
/home/username/public_html

# Wrong:
/var/www/html/public_html/public_html

Host variables

• $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] must be passed by the web server
• $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] must be set
• Both are required for the www / non-www redirects; we handle the redirects themselves

# Test these variables:
<?php
echo 'HTTP_HOST: ' . ($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] ?? 'NOT SET');
echo '<br>SERVER_NAME: ' . ($_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] ?? 'NOT SET');
?>

WWW domain handling

• Both domain.com and www.domain.com must work
• The server must honour the .htaccess rewrite rules for the redirects; we handle the redirects themselves
• Requires HTTP_HOST and SERVER_NAME to be set

SourceGuardian hostname check

• The SourceGuardian licence must match your primary domain
• The domain opened in the browser must match the licensed domain

Quick diagnostic script

Create test-env.php and upload it to the server root:

<?php
echo '<h3>Server Environment Check</h3>';
echo 'DOCUMENT_ROOT: ' . ($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] ?? 'NOT SET') . '<br>';
echo 'HTTPS: ' . ($_SERVER['HTTPS'] ?? 'NOT SET') . '<br>';
echo 'HTTP_HOST: ' . ($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] ?? 'NOT SET') . '<br>';
echo 'SERVER_NAME: ' . ($_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] ?? 'NOT SET') . '<br>';
echo 'Real Path: ' . realpath(__FILE__) . '<br>';
echo 'Hostname: ' . gethostname() . '<br>';
?>

Open it in the browser: https://yourdomain.com/test-env.php

Every value must show real data, never "NOT SET". Delete the file afterwards.

Web server write access required on

• /plugins_default/encryption/: key storage
• /uploads/: file uploads
• /cache/: cache files
• /logs/: log files
• Any directory where files are created at runtime

Recommended setup

Add the web server user to the application owner's group:

sudo usermod -a -G [app_owner] [web_server_user]
# Example: sudo usermod -a -G cws apache

Then restart the web server:

sudo systemctl restart httpd
# or
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Set the directory permissions:

chmod 775 /path/to/directories

Common web server users

• apache: Apache on RHEL/CentOS
• www-data: Apache/Nginx on Debian/Ubuntu
• nginx: Nginx on some systems
• nobody: some shared hosting

Verify the permissions

Check which user PHP runs as:

<?php echo posix_getpwuid(posix_geteuid())['name']; ?>

Or from the command line:

ps aux | grep -E 'apache|nginx|httpd'