Generate a DayZ serverDZ.cfg

DayZ's serverDZ.cfg uses the Arma config syntax, where every line ends in a semicolon and the map is chosen inside a nested class block rather than by a normal setting.

Visual Settings

arma cfg Format

Identity

hostname

Server name in the browser.

description

Description in the browser. One line only.

Gameplay

disableVoN

Turns in-game voice chat off.

vonCodecQuality

Voice quality, 0 to 30. Higher sounds better and uses more bandwidth.

disable3rdPerson

First-person only.

disableCrosshair

Removes the crosshair.

disablePersonalLight

Removes the faint light around each player at night.

lightingConfig

0 for brighter nights, 1 for darker nights.

World

template

The map: chernarusplus is Chernarus, enoch is Livonia, sakhal is Sakhal. Livonia and Sakhal need the DLC on the players' side.

serverTime

Starting in-game time. SystemTime uses the machine's clock; otherwise a date in YYYY/MM/DD/HH/MM form.

serverTimeAcceleration

How much faster than real time the day passes. At 12, a full day takes two hours.

serverNightTimeAcceleration

Extra speed-up at night, multiplied by the value above. 4 with an acceleration of 12 makes nights pass 48 times faster than real time.

serverTimePersistent

Saves the in-game time, so a restart carries on where it left off.

Players & Access

password

Join password. Empty means public.

maxPlayers

Slot limit.

enableWhitelist

Only players listed in whitelist.txt can connect.

Performance

loginQueueConcurrentPlayers

Players processed at once while logging in. Keeps a crowd joining after a restart from stalling the server.

loginQueueMaxPlayers

The longest the login queue can get before new connections are turned away.

Network

guaranteedUpdates

Network protocol setting. 1 is the only valid value.

RCON & Query

passwordAdmin

Used with #login in the in-game chat to become admin.

verifySignatures

Checks client files against their signatures. 2 is the only supported value.

forceSameBuild

Only lets in clients on exactly the server's version.

instanceId

Identifies this server instance and its storage folder. Give each server on one machine its own.

storageAutoFix

Replaces corrupted persistence files with empty ones instead of refusing to start.

serverDZ.cfg

hostname = "My DayZ Server";
password = "";
passwordAdmin = "";
description = "";
maxPlayers = 60;
enableWhitelist = 0;
verifySignatures = 2;
forceSameBuild = 1;
disableVoN = 0;
vonCodecQuality = 20;
disable3rdPerson = 0;
disableCrosshair = 0;
disablePersonalLight = 1;
lightingConfig = 0;
serverTime = "SystemTime";
serverTimeAcceleration = 12;
serverNightTimeAcceleration = 1;
serverTimePersistent = 0;
guaranteedUpdates = 1;
loginQueueConcurrentPlayers = 5;
loginQueueMaxPlayers = 500;
instanceId = 1;
storageAutoFix = 1;

class Missions
{
    class DayZ
    {
        template = "dayzOffline.chernarusplus";
    };
};

The serverDZ.cfg format

Each setting is key = value; with text in double quotes and numbers bare. Switches are 0 and 1, not true and false. The map is not a key at the top of the file: it is template = "dayzOffline.chernarusplus"; inside class Missions { class DayZ { ... }; }; — chernarusplus for Chernarus, enoch for Livonia, sakhal for Sakhal.

The mistake that wastes an evening

A single missing semicolon can stop the server from starting, or leave it running on default values with no clear error. The other is time: serverTimeAcceleration is a multiplier on real time, and serverNightTimeAcceleration multiplies that again, so modest-looking numbers can make nights flash by in minutes.

The map is a folder

template does not just name the map; it points at a mission folder, mpmissions/dayzOffline.chernarusplus for Chernarus. That folder holds everything about the world: the central economy files in db, with types.xml the one most people edit, and the persistence data in storage_1. Switching template starts the server on a different mission folder entirely, with its own economy and its own save.

Admins and mods

passwordAdmin is the password typed in game with #login to get admin rights; BattlEye's remote console uses a separate password in BEServer_x64.cfg, and the two should differ. Mods are not set in this file at all. They are loaded from the launch line with -mod= for mods players also need and -serverMod= for server-only ones, and installing the server itself through SteamCMD needs a Steam account that owns DayZ.

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