- 189
- 2017
- 13
- Location
- PA, USA
Free Legal Windows Server for running Emucoach Repacks
There is a free windows server that you can download directly from Microsoft but very few know about it unless you work in the tech industry. It’s called Hyper-V Standalone Server.
Q: What is Hyper-V
A: This is Microsoft’s Hypervisor (Virtual Server) which is to compete with VMWare’s ESX Server
Q: Why did you write this tutorial?
A: Will just to see if I could do it and the fact that unless you are running Linux for you server OS it is not free. Microsoft’s Hyper-V Server is free and can be downloaded right from Microsoft. Hyper-V Server is a stripped down Windows Server installation. (Uses very little system resources compared to a full Windows installation.)
There is no GUI (Desktop) so you need to be comfortable with using the command line but it really is not that bad considering you will be running an Emucoach repack server that is command line based.
The OS itself takes approximately 500MB of RAM when running, much less than a full Windows Server or Desktop OS. This is due to not have a GUI interface and all the extra stuff that is not needed for running repacks.
Hyper-V can be run on minimal hardware and the small RAM footprint means you do not need 3GB-4GB of RAM just for the OS leaving more for the repack server.
I went with Hyper-V 2012 R2 but the other versions will work all the same.
Download the Hyper-V Standalone ISO. This is in the evaluation section of Microsoft but it is an unlimited evaluation. Unlike other server versions that are 180 days.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-hyper-v-server-2012-r2
Once you have the ISO downloaded there are two ways to install.
1) Burn the ISO to a DVD. Then boot the PC with the DVD in the drive.
2) Create a bootable USB with the ISO and install from the USB stick.
For option two you will need a USB stick at least 4GB in size.
(NOTE: This is erase everything on the USB stick)
1) Plug in you USB stick
2) Open a command prompt as Administrator.
3) Do the following.
a) diskpart
b) list disk
You will see a list of all drives in the system. Note the disk number for your USB stick.
c) select disk <ENTER USB DISK NUMBER>
d) clean
e) create partition primary
f) active
g) format fs=fat32 quick
h) assign
i) exit
4) Mount the ISO using your favorite utility. There are dozens to choose from.
5) Copy the entire contents of the ISO to the USB stick.
6) Safely remove the USB stick and plug it into you soon to be Emucoach Server.
6) Make sure your PC is set to boot from USB (this is a BIOS setting but most PC's do this by default).
7) Boot the PC and it should boot from the USB stick.
Now that you have a bootable, installable Hyper-V installation, you can do the install.
(Note: You could dual boot Hyper-V and another system but that can get a little tricky. For this tutorial, I am going with a single boot and using the entire hard drive.)
The install of Hyper-V will look like most Microsoft Installs from Window Vista to current version.
1) Select you language, Time and Currency Format and Keyboard Method.
2) Click NEXT
3) Click "Install Now" button
4) Check accept for the terms and conditions.
5) Select the "Custom: Install the newer version of Hyper-V Server Only)
6) Select the drive to install the OS to. Typically the main partition.
7) Click "Next"
8) The system will install the files and reboot. DO NOT press a key to boot from the install disk. Let the system boot from the hard drive to finish the install.
9) Set an Administrator password. (You are forces to do this)
10) You will now be looking at the server configuration screen and a command prompt windows.
The Server Configuration menu is for doing Windows Updates, Changing Network Settings, etc...
Now that we have the OS installed, you need to get the repack files. I recommend downloading and unarchiving the server, maps, dbc, ettc... on a normal desktop PC. While you could, do all of this on the Hyper-V server it would be a lot of command line work. Is just easier to do on a system with a GUI.
Once you have the repack and all the files download and placed in their proper locations/folder structure, copy the entire folder to your USB stick so it can be transferred to your Hyper-V server.
Note: Also, unarchive the "Required Software.rar" in the server download, as these will need to be installed later. It is easier to have them ready beforehand.)
(At the time of writing this, the version of the C++ redistributable in the Required Software is version 2008 and you need version 2013 for repack version 9.1. So download it and copy it to the USB stick as well.)
You can download it here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40784
With the USB stick plugged into the Hyper-V server run the following command to copy the entire folder, including files and subdirectories to the Hyper-V hard drive.
In this example, my USB stick is driver letter G: and of course the driver letter C: is the hard drive on the Hyper-V server.
Additionally on the USB stick the folder “_Server” contains the entire repack.
In the black command prompt window type:
XCOPY G:\_Server C:\_Server /s /i
This will copy the entire _Server folder form the USB stick to a _Server folder on the Hyper-V server.
When prompted with the question asking if _Server is a File or Directory select D for directory.
You will see the files and directories listed as they are copied. It may take a minute, as there are a lot of files and directories.
Once the copy is completed change to C:\_Server using this command CD "C:\_Server\Required Software"
(Note: Include the quotes as the filename has a space.)
Now install the required software by running the following commands and selecting the install defaults as normal:
1) vcredist_x86.exe
2) Win32OpenSSL-1_0_1h.exe
(Note: If the C++ redistributable state 2008 thin install the 2013 version you downloaded earlier. It is ok to have both installed)
Lastly you need to open some ports in the Hyper-V firewall so the clients can connect.
Run the following commands in a black command prompt window
RUNAS /user:administrator "netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=Auth_Server dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=8085
RUNAS /user:administrator "netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=World_Server dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=3443
If you want to connect to the MySQL server using any utilities you will also need port 3306 open
RUNAS /user:administrator "netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=MySQL_Port dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=3306
To save some typing you can save the above commands to a batch file, copy it to a USB stick to get them to the Hyper-V server and run the batch file from there.
LAUNCHING THE SERVER
Now you need to get a few command windows open. To do this type taskmgr in the command prompt window. This will launch the Task Manager.
From the Task Manager click the File menu and "Run New Task". Now you can enter CMD to launch a new command prompt window. Do this two more times for a total of three windows.
In the first command prompt window change directory to the _Server folder and run the MySQL.bat file to start the MySQL server.
In the second command prompt window change directory to the _Server folder and run the authserver.exe to start the Authentication Server.
In the third command prompt window change directory to the _Server folder and run the worldserver.exe to start the World Server
If you accidentally close all the command prompt windows and the Server Configure window (I have done this many times), simple press CTRL-ALT-DELETE and log off then sign back on and they will reappear.
That is all there is to it. You have a Windows server, free and legal, that uses very little overhead.
Good Luck and Have Fun.
There is a free windows server that you can download directly from Microsoft but very few know about it unless you work in the tech industry. It’s called Hyper-V Standalone Server.
Q: What is Hyper-V
A: This is Microsoft’s Hypervisor (Virtual Server) which is to compete with VMWare’s ESX Server
Q: Why did you write this tutorial?
A: Will just to see if I could do it and the fact that unless you are running Linux for you server OS it is not free. Microsoft’s Hyper-V Server is free and can be downloaded right from Microsoft. Hyper-V Server is a stripped down Windows Server installation. (Uses very little system resources compared to a full Windows installation.)
There is no GUI (Desktop) so you need to be comfortable with using the command line but it really is not that bad considering you will be running an Emucoach repack server that is command line based.
The OS itself takes approximately 500MB of RAM when running, much less than a full Windows Server or Desktop OS. This is due to not have a GUI interface and all the extra stuff that is not needed for running repacks.
Hyper-V can be run on minimal hardware and the small RAM footprint means you do not need 3GB-4GB of RAM just for the OS leaving more for the repack server.
I went with Hyper-V 2012 R2 but the other versions will work all the same.
Download the Hyper-V Standalone ISO. This is in the evaluation section of Microsoft but it is an unlimited evaluation. Unlike other server versions that are 180 days.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-hyper-v-server-2012-r2
Once you have the ISO downloaded there are two ways to install.
1) Burn the ISO to a DVD. Then boot the PC with the DVD in the drive.
2) Create a bootable USB with the ISO and install from the USB stick.
For option two you will need a USB stick at least 4GB in size.
(NOTE: This is erase everything on the USB stick)
1) Plug in you USB stick
2) Open a command prompt as Administrator.
3) Do the following.
a) diskpart
b) list disk
You will see a list of all drives in the system. Note the disk number for your USB stick.
c) select disk <ENTER USB DISK NUMBER>
d) clean
e) create partition primary
f) active
g) format fs=fat32 quick
h) assign
i) exit
4) Mount the ISO using your favorite utility. There are dozens to choose from.
5) Copy the entire contents of the ISO to the USB stick.
6) Safely remove the USB stick and plug it into you soon to be Emucoach Server.
6) Make sure your PC is set to boot from USB (this is a BIOS setting but most PC's do this by default).
7) Boot the PC and it should boot from the USB stick.
Now that you have a bootable, installable Hyper-V installation, you can do the install.
(Note: You could dual boot Hyper-V and another system but that can get a little tricky. For this tutorial, I am going with a single boot and using the entire hard drive.)
The install of Hyper-V will look like most Microsoft Installs from Window Vista to current version.
1) Select you language, Time and Currency Format and Keyboard Method.
2) Click NEXT
3) Click "Install Now" button
4) Check accept for the terms and conditions.
5) Select the "Custom: Install the newer version of Hyper-V Server Only)
6) Select the drive to install the OS to. Typically the main partition.
7) Click "Next"
8) The system will install the files and reboot. DO NOT press a key to boot from the install disk. Let the system boot from the hard drive to finish the install.
9) Set an Administrator password. (You are forces to do this)
10) You will now be looking at the server configuration screen and a command prompt windows.
The Server Configuration menu is for doing Windows Updates, Changing Network Settings, etc...
Now that we have the OS installed, you need to get the repack files. I recommend downloading and unarchiving the server, maps, dbc, ettc... on a normal desktop PC. While you could, do all of this on the Hyper-V server it would be a lot of command line work. Is just easier to do on a system with a GUI.
Once you have the repack and all the files download and placed in their proper locations/folder structure, copy the entire folder to your USB stick so it can be transferred to your Hyper-V server.
Note: Also, unarchive the "Required Software.rar" in the server download, as these will need to be installed later. It is easier to have them ready beforehand.)
(At the time of writing this, the version of the C++ redistributable in the Required Software is version 2008 and you need version 2013 for repack version 9.1. So download it and copy it to the USB stick as well.)
You can download it here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40784
With the USB stick plugged into the Hyper-V server run the following command to copy the entire folder, including files and subdirectories to the Hyper-V hard drive.
In this example, my USB stick is driver letter G: and of course the driver letter C: is the hard drive on the Hyper-V server.
Additionally on the USB stick the folder “_Server” contains the entire repack.
In the black command prompt window type:
XCOPY G:\_Server C:\_Server /s /i
This will copy the entire _Server folder form the USB stick to a _Server folder on the Hyper-V server.
When prompted with the question asking if _Server is a File or Directory select D for directory.
You will see the files and directories listed as they are copied. It may take a minute, as there are a lot of files and directories.
Once the copy is completed change to C:\_Server using this command CD "C:\_Server\Required Software"
(Note: Include the quotes as the filename has a space.)
Now install the required software by running the following commands and selecting the install defaults as normal:
1) vcredist_x86.exe
2) Win32OpenSSL-1_0_1h.exe
(Note: If the C++ redistributable state 2008 thin install the 2013 version you downloaded earlier. It is ok to have both installed)
Lastly you need to open some ports in the Hyper-V firewall so the clients can connect.
Run the following commands in a black command prompt window
RUNAS /user:administrator "netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=Auth_Server dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=8085
RUNAS /user:administrator "netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=World_Server dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=3443
If you want to connect to the MySQL server using any utilities you will also need port 3306 open
RUNAS /user:administrator "netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=MySQL_Port dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=3306
To save some typing you can save the above commands to a batch file, copy it to a USB stick to get them to the Hyper-V server and run the batch file from there.
LAUNCHING THE SERVER
Now you need to get a few command windows open. To do this type taskmgr in the command prompt window. This will launch the Task Manager.
From the Task Manager click the File menu and "Run New Task". Now you can enter CMD to launch a new command prompt window. Do this two more times for a total of three windows.
In the first command prompt window change directory to the _Server folder and run the MySQL.bat file to start the MySQL server.
In the second command prompt window change directory to the _Server folder and run the authserver.exe to start the Authentication Server.
In the third command prompt window change directory to the _Server folder and run the worldserver.exe to start the World Server
If you accidentally close all the command prompt windows and the Server Configure window (I have done this many times), simple press CTRL-ALT-DELETE and log off then sign back on and they will reappear.
That is all there is to it. You have a Windows server, free and legal, that uses very little overhead.
Good Luck and Have Fun.
Last edited:
