In which cases can you host your own planet server?
In this case, install the planet server on your PC.
You can build there alone, even without an internet connection.
You can bring your constructions later on the public planets via your inventory.
Connect with planet://127.0.0.1/#my_planet and browse the group with http://127.0.0.1
You should know that planets have public access, i.e. you can't control who comes to build on your particular server. Having your own planet won't protect you from having undesirable neighbors next to your land.
This choice was made so that Planet would offer players a large, neutral and uniform universe in which to build, rather than a list of planets each with their own rules dictated by their administrators.
We don't want players to have to worry too much about which server they're on. All public terrains from all servers appear mixed together in the search list without indicating which server they are on.
We would like to caution you that it is very possible that your server will not have any visitors, even if you build a beautiful scenery yourself.
If you are alone, please do not start your own planet. The servers are designed to host up to 1000 people, so if you're alone it's far too big for you.
Don't expect to attract people to your land by having your own planet, it will be the other way around: you will have even less people than if you stay on one of the other planets which already has its regular residents.
What you have to do is first to create a group of friends who have been building for several weeks on the other planet servers and who agree to follow you for a common project.
We want public planets to remain online 24 hours a day, for a long time (several months), to offer players land where they can build without fear of losing their work if the server closes.
Therefore, to open a public planet, you need to rent a dedicated server from an Internet provider. Each server has reliability statistics that players can consult.
The management of the server brings a chore, that of regularly (every day or at least every week) taking a backup of the database, so that in case of failure of your machine you can start again from a new installation and your last backup, to avoid the losses of creations and angry users.
It's a good idea to install an automatic job that takes daily backups of the database to another server in another building. If you don't have the computer knowledge to guarantee reliability at this level, please don't start your own public planet.
Your server is totally independent and contains everything you need to run your planet. If the Planet Samuro site should ever close your server will continue to function.
To bring visitors to your planet we advise you to create your own website with lots of beautiful pictures.
You need to rent a dedicated server from an internet provider.
Here are the minimum requirements: i3 processor, 8 GB RAM, 240 GB SSD hard disk, 100 Mb/s internet access.
Choosing an SSD hard disk (and not an HDD hard disk !) is recommended otherwise you will have delays, for example a 0.25 second wait or more when clicking on a chair before sitting down. If you could get only an HDD, we advise you to defragment it at least once a week, it helps a little.
To run the Planet server (which is a Windows software) you have 3 choices (from the most simple and expensive, to the most complicated and cheap):
The Planet server software runs on Windows. It supports a maximum of 1000 connected users and needs about 50 GB of hard disk space to store the users' 3D creations.
At the first startup, the software creates a large planet with 90% of oceans and 10% of empty building lands composed of islands of random position and size. While it is daytime on one side of the planet it is night on the other side. It takes 20 minutes to fly around it.
The users connect to the server on the one hand via the port UDP 13000 with the planet software,
and on the other hand via the port TCP 80 with a navigator to reach the group, the help manual,
the message forum, and the mini-chat.
To get the server software, take a copy of planet.exe (which is normally on your hard disk if you have installed the planet software), and simply rename planet.exe into planet_server.exe
Create a folder on the hard disk of your server, put planet_server.exe in it and start it.
Open the ports UDP 13000 and TCP 80 so that your server is accessible publicly on the Internet. To test, give the IP of your server to a friend so that he can connect with the planet software via a link planet://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx or via an internet browser by giving a link http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Database
The server will create a database "planet_server_database.db" which contains the whole 3D world and the groups. The database file is always locked since it is actively updated. It is not possible to take a copy, this is normal.
Every night at 5am, the server creates a file "planet_server_database.db.BACKUP" which is a copy of the database. The previous copy is renamed in "planet_server_database.db.OLD-BACKUP". So you have at any time 3 files:
planet_server_database.db : the active (blocked) database planet_server_database.db.BACKUP : the copy of the previous day planet_server_database.db.OLD-BACKUP : the copy from 2 days ago
It is your responsibility to regularly take a copy of the backup files. After a reinstallation, simply rename the most recent backup file to "planet_server_database.db" so that it becomes the active database again.
It is possible, via a planet_server.ini file, to specify a folder where the server stores the backup files:
# planet_server.ini [settings] backup_folder = e:/backup/
Defragmentation
It is possible that at the start of the server you cannot connect to it immediately. If you see a file "planet_server_database.db.DFRG" it means that the server is defragmenting the database. You have then to wait between 5 and 15 minutes.
Double Start
If you start planet_server.exe while it is already running, the second planet_server.exe will not start.
What to do in case of error
If the server stops with an error window, you can try to restart it. The error is recorded in a CRASH-REPORT.TXT file that you should send to marcsamu@hotmail.com for server correction.
Administration
The server manager can enter his avatar name in the planet_server.ini file, as follows:
# planet_server.ini [settings] admin = Samuro
This gives access to a button for selecting Planet's standard colors, as well as another button for banning a domain (in the very rare event that the domain or its group contains illegal content).
Windows Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 (64bits)
If you are a computer expert able to configure a machine with DOS commands, we give you the tip to rent a Windows Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 (64bits). Beware that this server has no graphical interface, so there is no Windows Explorer to copy files comfortably with the mouse, everything is done with DOS commands typed on the keyboard. This is a minimal version of Windows that Microsoft offers for free (without a license).
You can connect to your server using the Windows Remote Desktop.
To share a folder on your PC, use the MS-DOS command :
net use z: \\TSCLIENT\C
To start task manager, type :
taskmgr.exe
To open UDP port 13000 and TCP port 80, open a DOS box with administrator privilege and type :
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="UDP Port 13000" dir=in action=allow protocol=UDP localport=13000 netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="TCP Port 80" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=80
linux distribution
Here is some information for specialists who want to risk installing Planet on Linux.
We have tested with Ubuntu Server 18.04 distribution
It should be noted that running Windows programs with Wine always involves risks of compatibility problems. We have tested with Wine 7.0 and everything seems to work fine.
To connect from your Windows PC:
ssh -o ServerAliveInterval=30 root@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Create a planet directory
mkdir planet
Go to the planet directory
cd /planet
Copy planet_server.exe from your PC to the server
scp planet_server.exe root@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:/root/planet/planet_server.exe
To install Wine 7.0,
see the instructions on the site https://wiki.winehq.org/Download
Start the planet server in background
for info, the nohup is used so that linux doesn't stop planet when you close your session, the & is used to start in background.
You need to run planet as root, otherwise it won't have access to TCP port 80 and the website won't work.
nohup wine planet_server.exe &
See the running processes
ps -e
Stop the planet process
kill 4566 (replace 4566 by the PID of the planet process)