7 Days to Die blends survival, base-building and tower-defence against the weekly blood-moon horde. A dedicated server with full config and overhaul mods (Darkness Falls, Undead Legacy) keeps your apocalypse running 24/7. This step-by-step guide shows you how to set up a 7 Days to Die server in minutes — no manual install, no command line.
Pick a plan sized for your 7 Days to Die community. We recommend about 6–12 GB of RAM; start smaller and upgrade in one click as you add players or mods. 7 Days to Die plans start at $17.99/mo.
Check out and your 7 Days to Die server provisions automatically in under 60 seconds, with console access right away — no manual install, no command line.
Once your 7 Days to Die server is online, share its address (IP and port) with your friends so they can join. Start, stop and restart it anytime from the control panel.
Your 7 Days to Die server supports Mods, Darkness Falls, ServerConfig, Backups, FTP/SFTP. Install serverconfig.xml and overhaul mods straight from the one-click installer, or upload your own from the control panel — then tweak settings in the visual config editor.
Enable scheduled automatic backups, set restart timers, and monitor CPU, RAM and player counts from the dashboard. Always-on DDoS protection and 24/7 support keep your 7 Days to Die server stable.
Ready to start? Deploy your 7 Days to Die server in under 60 seconds — 7-day money-back guarantee.
A 7 Days to Die dedicated server listens on ServerPort, which defaults to 26900. The comment shipped with this setting in serverconfig.xml advises keeping the value between 26900 and 26905, or between 27015 and 27020, if you want PCs on the same LAN to find the server as a LAN server. Telnet and the web dashboard each have their own enable flag and their own port, so remote administration is toggled separately from the game port.
| Port | Protocol | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 26900 | TCP | Game details query port |
| 26900 | UDP | Steam master server list interface |
| 26901 | UDP | Steam communication |
| 26902 | UDP | LiteNetLib networking |
| 8081 | TCP | Telnet control interface (TelnetPort; TelnetEnabled defaults to true) |
| 8080 | TCP | Web dashboard (WebDashboardPort; WebDashboardEnabled defaults to false) |
| 27000–27050 | UDP | Outbound; registering with the server list |
The per-protocol breakdown and the outbound 27000–27050 range are community-documented on the 7dtd.illy.bz Linux server wiki rather than stated in the configuration file itself. Older revisions of serverconfig.xml expose the web panel as ControlPanelEnabled and ControlPanelPort, also on port 8080. The telnet and dashboard ports apply only when they are enabled in the configuration.
These are the settings that govern how much work the server does. All of them live in serverconfig.xml:
| Setting | What the documentation states |
|---|---|
ServerMaxPlayerCount | Default 8; described simply as “Maximum Concurrent Players” |
MaxSpawnedZombies | “This setting covers the entire map. There can only be this many zombies on the entire map at one time. Changing this setting has a huge impact on performance.” |
MaxSpawnedAnimals | Default 50; animals do not consume as much CPU as zombies, and the limit can be raised when players are spread out across the map |
GameWorld | Either RWG for random generation or the name of an existing world, such as Navezgane or PREGEN01 |
WorldGenSize | For RWG, controls the width and height of the created world. “Officially supported sizes are between 6144 and 10240 and must be a multiple of 2048, e.g. 6144, 8192, 10240.” |
WorldGenSize applies only when GameWorld is set to RWG.
ServerMaxPlayerCount set to a maximum of 8ServerAllowCrossplay set to TrueEACEnabled set to TrueIgnoreEOSSanctions set to FalseThe same post lists valid crossplay ranges for other settings: XPMultiplier 25–300, DayNightLength 10 or higher, BloodMoonEnemyCount 4–64, AirDropFrequency 24 or higher, BlockDamagePlayer 25–300, BlockDamageAI and BlockDamageAIBM 25 or higher, LootAbundance 200 or lower, and LootRespawnDays 5 or higher. The announcement is dated 06/29/2025 and is credited to Sascha Elzner.
The dedicated server ships under its own Steam app ID, 294420, distinct from the game client (251570). It is installed and updated through SteamCMD with an anonymous login:
steamcmd +login anonymous +app_update 294420 validate +quit
Two update problems are documented:
+app_info_update 1 before app_update to force a fresh product-info refresh; the same guide suggests stopping the server before updating to avoid file locks, checking free disk space, and removing appmanifest_294420.acf if updates repeatedly fail.If the server runs but never appears in the server browser, community troubleshooting guidance is to confirm that ServerVisibility is set to 2 (public), to open ports 26900–26903 UDP/TCP (26900–26905 for crossplay), and to check the server log for an “Eos Registration Failed” line.