Automatic restarts for a Counter-Strike 2 server
Counter-Strike 2 keeps no persistent world, so scheduled restarts exist only to clear built-up state and load config changes. Daily is more than enough; every few days usually does the job.
When should it restart?
Put {{minutes}} wherever the number of minutes left should appear.
What happens, in order
- Job startsWarn
say Server restarting in 15 min - 10 min beforeWarn
say Server restarting in 10 min - 5 min beforeWarn
say Server restarting in 5 min - 1 min beforeWarn
say Server restarting in 1 min - Restart timeStop
quit
Nothing to save. Restart between matches rather than mid-round — a scheduled restart that lands in the middle of a competitive game is worse than no restart at all.
The crontab line
Moved 15 minutes ahead of the time you picked, so the restart happens at that time instead of 15 minutes later.
45 3 * * * /opt/restart-cs2.sh
The script it runs
Save it as /opt/restart-cs2.sh and mark it executable. It expects rcon-cli on the path and takes the password from an environment variable instead of storing it in the file.
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
# Scheduled restart for Counter-Strike 2.
# Generated by spawnbench.com/restart-scheduler
# The password stays out of this file. Put it in the environment, or in a
# file only root can read, and export it before this script runs.
RCON_HOST="${RCON_HOST:-127.0.0.1}"
RCON_PORT="${RCON_PORT:-27015}"
: "${RCON_PASSWORD:?set RCON_PASSWORD before running}"
send() {
rcon-cli --host "$RCON_HOST" --port "$RCON_PORT" --password "$RCON_PASSWORD" "$1"
}
# 15 minute warning
send 'say Server restarting in 15 min'
sleep 300
# 10 minute warning
send 'say Server restarting in 10 min'
sleep 300
# 5 minute warning
send 'say Server restarting in 5 min'
sleep 240
# 1 minute warning
send 'say Server restarting in 1 min'
sleep 70
# Shut down cleanly
send 'quit'
# Give the process time to finish writing before anything restarts it.
sleep 30
systemctl start cs2 2>/dev/null || trueHeads up: cron follows the server clock, not your local time. Check with timedatectl first. A container set to UTC and an admin living in Europe differ by two hours in summer and by one in winter, so 04:00 may not be the 04:00 you had in mind.
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What is different about Counter-Strike 2
It all comes down to timing. On a competitive server, a restart that lands mid-round does more harm than skipping it, and cron has no concept of a round. Aim for an hour that is really empty — and if your server never has one, trigger the restart from a plugin that waits for a map change rather than from a timer.
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