Self-Hosted Server Guide
In the April 2026 Developer Update, it was announced that a self-hostable server package is to be entering the public testing phase soon, and provided some details about system requirements, architecture and potential difficulties one might face with hosting their own Dune: Awakening world.
Who is this guide for?
Dune: Awakening worlds are designed to run across multiple machines, with multiple server packages running concurrently. It's very computationally expensive and players should not expect hosting their on servers to be straightforward like other similar survival games such as Minecraft, Rust or Conan Exiles (where the server software is a single self-contained executable).
This guide will take you though the process of choosing a machine to run a server on your own (bought or rented) hardware. It expects a reasonably high familiarty with how online multiplayer games work, as well as general web concepts of servers, clients, networking.
Hosting a whole world is an involved and potentially expensive process. If you are looking to just get playing the game with your friends, it's recommended to Rent an instance from a game host rather than attempting it.
If you are prepared to continue - this guide will offer tips and advice from the author, FlamingMojo who has many years of experience hosting game and web servers, as well as developing serverside mods/plugins for games (and hosts this Wiki).
Key Terminology
As several terms used in this area of computing can refer to different devices and concepts, this guide will use the following terms consistently:
- A Client refers to a player's copy of the game, that they have bought on Steam and run on their PC, which connects to the servers.
- A Machine refers to the physical hardware that the server(s) run on. Simply put, a server machine is just a computer you don't turn off.
- A Server refers to any individual piece of software which is running on a machine. There are several types of server:
- A Gameserver or Mapserver is what the game client connects to. It runs an UnrealEngine package and hosts map(s) for the player character to load into.
- A Database Server/"DB" is what stores important game data. For Dune: Awakening, PostgreSQL is the primary database used.
- A Virtual Machine/"VM" is a piece of software which emulates (pretends to be) a real machine, including it's own Operating System.
- An Instance refers to a copy of a server. e.g. each Sietch is an 'instance' of a gameserver running the HaggaBasin map
- A BattleGroup is the official term for a 'World', including at least one Hagga instance, Overland, Harko Village, Arrakeen and Deep Desert map server.
There will be more specific terminology used during this guide, and those will be explained as they become relevant.
Acquiring Hardware
In order to make a viable self-hostable battlegroup, the developers have compressed down this architecture into a single package which will spawn multiple Linux VM's to host the various Servers and the networking between them. As each VM requires a minimum amount of RAM and CPU bandwidth to boot, the system requirements are much higher than an ordinary multiplayer gameserver.
The minimum working specifications are:
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit Pro with Hyper-V
- MEMORY: 20 GB RAM
- PROCESSOR: Intel Core i5-8400 / AMD Ryzen 5 1600
- STORAGE: 100GB SSD required
Due to the requirement of Hyper-V (Windows' Hypervisor engine), the machine must be a dedicated "baremetal" computer, and not a VPS. You can either use your own hardware or rent a dedicated server from a provider such as Hetzner.
The machine used to produce this guide is an older model 'Auction Server' from Hetzner, as they usually offer steep discounts on discontinued hardware and have no traffic limitations. If you are using your own hardware at home, be advised that your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may have terms and conditions restricting traffic volume or types which might make connecting to your servers difficult.
It is important to get a minimum 20GB of RAM (which can support ~4 players on the same Hagga server with normal buildings). RAM is the bottleneck, so 64GB+ is recommended - however currently the market rate is extremely high.
Buying and Installing Windows Pro
Once you have acquired your machine, you need to install Windows 10/11 Pro 64-bit. It is recommended to choose 10, as it's cheaper and contains much less bloatware than Windows 11 - and without more stringent TPM chip requirements which many machines may not have.
The Pro version is not free, however some key merchants such as MrKeyShop provide far below MSRP keys at ~€40. The author can personally confirm the legitimacy of this key merchant, however there are scam storefronts - always be wary. Microsoft itself pushes consumers towards their cloud services and Windows 11 so does not provide the option to purchase from them directly.
Follow your machine provider's guide for booting and installing Windows - For Hetzner This Guide proved useful. During setup, provde your Windows key and continue to install a local account. It is inadvisable to use a Microsoft online account for your machine. Ensure that you set up RD (Remote Desktop) so you can log into your machine remotely.
Setting up Windows
Once you have your OS installed (and up-to-date), it is recommended to optimise your server so it can provide as much computing resource as possible to your servers rather than the bloatware which Windows notoriously ships with. Fortunately there are several tools available to make this quick and painless - this guide recommends Winhance. Install this tool and run it
Apps and Features
On the 'Software & Apps' tab, Winhance shows the many pre-installed pieces of software not strictly necessary to run your OS. Many of these are designed for individual PC users rather than for servers and as such can be uninstalled. See the screenshot for the recommended apps to keep installed, but none of the Windows Apps or Capabilities are required for your machine to host the game servers.
Note: Under 'Windows Optional Capabilities' be sure to enable * Hyper-V * Hyper-V Management Tools * Subsystem for Linux * Windows Hypervisor Platform
These are required features for the game servers.
Optimisations
On the 'Optimisations' tab feel free to tinker to improve performance by disabling unnecessary features. Winhanced has good recommendations it can auto-apply for you if you are unsure. The two sections which are most pertinent to server running are Power and Updates
- Power - You want to select the 'Power Plan' - 'Ultimate Performance'. This keeps your machine running at high clock speeds, preventing it from sleeping or turning off PCI/USB devices. If you are using your own hardware at home, keep in mind electricity costs will increase as well as fan noise. While this does carry the risk of degrading the machine over time, server machines are quite literally built for this purpose.
- Updates - You want to select the 'Windows Update Policy' of 'Security Updates Only (Recommended)'. Windows is notorious for constant interruptions and lacking user consent before hard rebooting your computer to apply 'important updates'. For a server this is not acceptable and this setting will prompt for important security updates only.
(Optional) Only allow your IP to Remote access
For securing your server, ideally you want to be the only person capable of accessing it. If you have a Static home IP address (usually offered by your ISP for an additional cost) you can set the Windows Defender Firewall to only allow access from your IP. See this guide for more detailed information and steps.