TrueNAS Scale: Python Discord Bot, Modded Minecraft Server, Ark Server

[Dr. Will0hlep]

So at the min I have a computer dedicated to 4 tasks: Light AI workloads (with my PhD done this is now mostly making bots for games), a Discord bot written in Python, a lightly Modded Minecraft Server, and an Ark Server. However, I've realised that I could get rid of that machine (and redistribute some of its parts) if I could move the AI workloads to my Folding@Home machine, and move all the other workloads onto my NAS (running TrueNAS Scale). Now the former is easy enough, I just need to install cuda, python, and some package on my Folding@Home machine. But the latter is more complicated.

 

Here is what I know so far:

• The Discord Bot written in python: The only requirement here is that the script is run whenever the NAS boots up. My best idea so far is I could dockerise it and then run it in TrueNAS as an App.
• The Modded Minecraft Server: Here there are two requirements: it must start up on boot, and I need a way to keep it automatically and frequently backed up somehow. I know I can achieve the former using Apps like mineOS, but I would like advice on which app to use. However, keeping it backed up is harder. Atm I backup my minecraft server to my NAS, but if it is on the NAS I'll need to back it up somewhere else, casue otherwise the live copy and backup copies would be both on the same machine. Also, I don't want to back it up to my main rig cause I don't leave that on all the time. That leaves my raspberry pi 4 (which is a little annoying to attach storage to), or the Folding@Home machine (which will always be busy folding, potentially slowing down the backup) or cloud storage (which I don't really want to pay for).
• The Ark Server: This is kinda optional as it dosn't get much use these days and I could just spin it up as needed on my main rig. But Ideally I would be able to have this run on the NAS, and in a perfect world it could be made to run from boot. Only issue is, I have no idea if a solution even exists to run an Ark Server on TrueNAS. Of course it also needs backing up, but the solution to that would be the same as for the Minecraft server.

So TLDR:

1. Is dockerising my Discord bot the best way to run it on TrueNAS?
2. What is the best App for running a lightly modded minecraft server on TrueNAS Scale?
3. Is there any way to run an Ark server on TrueNAS Scale?
4. Anyone think of any good options for backing up the Minecraft and Ark servers?

[Dr. Will0hlep]

In the end I did settle on dockerising my Discord bot:

I used the attached guide, as well as docker, visual studio code, and portainer.

 

(You need docker open when you build the image)

In visual studio code console:

"docker build -t <image name> ."

"docker save -o '<filepath>' <image name>"

 

remove the < and >

the filepath needs to end with ".tar"

[Bersella AI]

I might suggest virtualization, as it does not seem that these 3 services have to be bound to TrueNAS, or bother with features or datasets on TrueNAS; they may be hosted by any generic Linux instance, and thus may be easier to manage (since a bunch of artificial limits exist on TrueNAS inhibiting changes on its root file system).

The Discord bot does not seem to be intensive for resources, and may be held by the Folding@Home rig instead. Minecraft, Ark and TrueNAS may be hosted by separate VMs on Proxmox; that is, set up ZFS pools on Proxmox itself, pass it through to all VMs, and then let TrueNAS manage, take snapshots on, and replicate game files.

[Dr. Will0hlep]

19 minutes ago, Bersella AI said:

Minecraft, Ark and TrueNAS may be hosted by separate VMs on Proxmox; that is, set up ZFS pools on Proxmox itself, pass it through to all VMs, and then let TrueNAS manage, take snapshots on, and replicate game files. The Discord bot does not seem to be intensive for resources, and may be held by the Folding@Home rig instead.

With hindsight this might have been a better idea than my current setup (although if I'd done it this way I'd probably still have put the discord bot on the Proxmox machine).

 

However, at this point I have already implemented my solution for the Discord Bot (which is working great), and I believe I have a good solution for the Minecraft server. Therefore, at the moment, I'm somewhat reluctant to put in the extra work required to transition from TrueNAS Scale to Proxmox. Although, I thank you for the suggestion, and take it on board for the next time I want to reinstall TrueNAS.

 

7 minutes ago, Bersella AI said:

I might suggest virtualization, as it does not seem that these 3 services have to be bound to TrueNAS, or bother with features or datasets on TrueNAS; they may be hosted by any generic Linux instance, and thus may be easier to manage (since a bunch of artificial limits exist on TrueNAS inhibiting changes on its root file system).

As an aside, I did consider using virtualization inside TrueNAS. However, as I understand it, I would need to isolate a graphic processor for the VM's GUI, and the PC only has one which it is using for Jellyfin. I did previously try adding a second GPU, but that had to be put in an x1 slot (cause a HBA card and 10Gb card take up the other slots) and I found that meant that the GPU coule not be isolated without also having to isolate alot of other stuff, as (even with BIOS tweaks) the motherboard did not split devices into many IOMMU groups.

[Dr. Will0hlep]

Got Minecraft running... and I think it is stable...

 

I used this TrueNAS Scale App

https://github.com/itzg/docker-minecraft-server

 

If anyone else was gonna try this:

You need to set an additional enviromental variables "MEMORY" to increase the max RAM usage of the server.

You can also usin further additional enviromental variables to set the values of the server.properties file.

 

See here for the mappings of those settings

https://docker-minecraft-server.readthedocs.io/en/latest/configuration/server-properties/#other-server-property-mappings

 

For example to set Simulation Distance, make an enviromental variables with name "SIMULATION_DISTANCE" and then set the value to any number between 3 and 32.

[Dr. Will0hlep]

I'm presently working on dockerising my Ark Server, so that I can use portainer to host it. If anyone has any ideas on where to start looking here, they would be greatly appreciated

[Dr. Will0hlep]

Got the Ark server running as a custom app using the following YAML

services:
  server:
    container_name: ark_server
    environment:
      - SESSION_NAME=NotMyRealServerName
      - SERVER_MAP=TheIsland
      - SERVER_PASSWORD=NotMyRealPassword
      - ADMIN_PASSWORD=NotMyRealPassword
      - MAX_PLAYERS=5
      - UPDATE_ON_START=true
      - BACKUP_ON_STOP=true
      - PRE_UPDATE_BACKUP=true
      - WARN_ON_STOP=true
      - ENABLE_CROSSPLAY=true
      - DISABLE_BATTLEYE=true
    image: hermsi/ark-server:latest
    networks:
      - default
    ports:
      - 7777:7777/udp
      - 7778:7778/udp
      - 27020:27020/tcp
      - 27015:27015/udp
    restart: on-failure
    volumes:
      - /mnt/Pool/Storage/Ark/ark-server:/app
      - /mnt/Pool/Storage/Ark/ark-server-backups:/home/steam/ARK-Backups
    deploy:
      resources:
        limits:
          cpus: "4"
          memory: "12884901888"

After that I just needed to

• Move ShooterGame\Saved to ark-server\server\ShooterGame\Saved
• Update settings in ark-server\server\ShooterGame\Saved\Config
• Then for "ark-server" and "ark-server-backup", right click and go to Properties>Security>Edit and then give Full control to user "1000 (Unix User\1000)"

[Dr. Will0hlep]

So glad I wrote all this down as I was doing it. Just installed GeyserMC on my minecraft server to open it up to bedrock players, so now I need to rebuild and update my discord bot. But since I wrote down everything, I now don't have to try and remember exactly what I did.