ReforgerOPS

How to enable RCON on an Arma Reforger server

· 2 min read

RCON is how you administer an Arma Reforger dedicated server from outside the game: see who is connected, kick, ban and restart without joining as a player. It ships disabled. You enable it with a block in the server's config.json and an open UDP port.

1. The rcon block in config.json

Open the config.json you pass to the server with -config and add (or fill in) this block at the same level as game:

"rcon": {
    "address": "0.0.0.0",
    "port": 19999,
    "password": "ALongPasswordWithoutSpaces",
    "permission": "admin",
    "blacklist": [],
    "whitelist": []
}
  • address: the IP to listen on. 0.0.0.0 accepts connections on any interface; on shared hosting it is usually the server's public IP.
  • port: a UDP port. Any free one; 19999 is the convention. It cannot be the game port or the Steam Query port.
  • password: no spaces. It is different from passwordAdmin, which is the in-game #login password.
  • permission: "admin" to kick, ban and restart. With "monitor" you can only look (#players).
  • whitelist / blacklist: commands allowed or forbidden over RCON. Empty = everything the permission allows.

2. Open the port

The server cannot open the port by itself. Depending on where it runs:

  • Own machine / VPS: an inbound UDP rule in the firewall (ufw, firewalld, Windows Defender) and, behind a router, a port forward.
  • Pterodactyl: the port must be an allocation assigned to the server, in addition to the game one. If the egg does not expose it, the node administrator adds it.
  • Rented hosting (Nitrado, GPortal and similar): there is usually an "RCON" option in the provider's panel that writes this block and opens the port for you; look there for the port and password.

3. Restart and test

config.json is read at startup: restart the server. To check that RCON answers, connect with any BattlEye client (the protocol is the same as DayZ and Arma 3) and send #players. The reply starts with:

Players on server: [Player#] ; [Player UID] ; [Player Name]

If nothing comes back, check in this order: UDP port closed, wrong address, password with spaces, or the server still booting (RCON comes up a few seconds after the game does).

Common mistakes

  • Using the same password for passwordAdmin and rcon.password. They are separate systems; leak one and you leak both.
  • Opening the port on TCP. BattlEye RCON is UDP.
  • Leaving permission: "monitor" and then wondering why #kick does nothing.
  • Posting the RCON IP and port in an open Discord. Anyone with the password can send commands.

What RCON can do (and what it cannot)

With RCON enabled you can list players, kick, ban with a duration, view and remove bans, and restart or shut down the server. You cannot write in chat, change the scenario, move players or see kills: Reforger's RCON has no such commands. That takes a server-side mod; the commands guide has the full list.

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