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Managing your server

Updated July 03, 2026
Windrose
Windrose Updates and Maintenance | GameServerKings KB

Windrose Updates and Maintenance

This guide covers keeping your Windrose server current, scheduling automatic restarts, backing up regularly, and troubleshooting common issues. It is the operational handbook for a long-running server.

Why Updates Matter

This is critical for Windrose specifically: the dedicated server version must match the client game version exactly. When Kraken Express pushes a Windrose update, players' clients update through Steam automatically, but your dedicated server does not update unless triggered.

If you do not update, players cannot connect (version mismatch).

Auto Updates on the GSK Panel

The Windrose egg checks Steam for a new dedicated server build on every server start. To pick up a new version, simply restart the server after the Windrose patch lands.

For zero-downtime patching, the simplest approach is a scheduled daily restart (see "Scheduled Restarts" below). Most patches will be live within 24 hours of their release.

If you want to force an immediate update after seeing a patch announcement, just stop and start the server.

Manual Update Procedure

If auto-update is not picking up a new build:

  1. Stop the server.
  2. In the Startup tab, find the SteamCMD update field (sometimes labeled Force Reinstall or Update on Start) and toggle it on.
  3. Start the server. SteamCMD re-pulls the latest files.
  4. Toggle the force-reinstall option back off after the update finishes.

If you used the manual install path (uploaded server files yourself rather than relying on SteamCMD), you need to re-download from Steam, replace the files, and preserve your R5/Saved/ folder to keep saves intact.

Scheduled Restarts

Windrose accumulates memory through long-running sessions, partly because the Wine wrapper does not aggressively reclaim memory. A daily restart keeps the server snappy and also picks up any pending Windrose updates.

Setting Up a Daily Restart

From the Schedules tab:

  1. Click Create Schedule.
  2. Name: "Daily Restart"
  3. Cron: 0 4 * * * (adjust to your community's quietest hour; this example is 4 AM server time)
  4. Add tasks:
    • Send Power Action: Restart (offset 0)

That is the minimum. For a more polite restart with warnings:

  1. Send Command: say "Server restarting in 5 minutes." (offset 0)
  2. Send Command: say "Server restarting in 1 minute." (offset 240s)
  3. Send Power Action: Restart (offset 300s)

Note that as of the current Windrose build, there is no native chat command system on the server side. The say style commands above depend on Windrose+ or future game updates exposing such hooks. If they do not work yet, just schedule the Restart power action by itself.

  • Daily restart: Recommended for all Windrose servers because of Wine memory behavior
  • Weekly deeper maintenance: Manual server stop, backup, then restart to also pick up any silent file system cleanup
  • After every Windrose patch: Restart manually rather than waiting for the daily, so players are not stuck on a version mismatch

Backups

Windrose worlds grow significantly as players explore, build, and accumulate ships. Save data lives under R5/Saved/.

  • Daily: Panel snapshot via the Backups tab
  • Before patches: Always snapshot manually before triggering a Windrose update
  • Before mod installs: Snapshot before adding or removing any Windrose+ mod or Pak file
  • Monthly archive: Download a backup locally for off-platform safety

Setting Up Automated Daily Backups

From the Schedules tab:

  1. Create schedule: "Daily Backup"
  2. Cron: 0 5 * * * (5 AM server time, one hour after the daily restart)
  3. Add task:
    • Type: Create Backup
    • Name pattern: auto-{date}

The scheduler creates a fresh backup every day, rotating out the oldest when your plan's backup limit is hit.

Restoring a Backup

When restoring, remember that the world IslandId must still match the WorldIslandId in ServerDescription.json. If you restore a backup taken after you changed worlds, you may need to also restore the older ServerDescription.json so the IDs line up. See Managing Worlds for the ID relationship.

Admin and Console Commands

As of this writing, Windrose does not have native admin commands or a console for server administrators. There is no /kick, /ban, /give, or /teleport built into the game.

Player management today is done through:

  • The invite code: Rotate it to lock out unwanted players (see Server Configuration)
  • Server password: Set one if your community is invite-only
  • Windrose+ mods: Some community mods add admin commands as Lua hooks (see Windrose+ and Mods)
  • The brute force option: Stop the server briefly, rotate the invite code, and share the new code only with trusted players. Anyone holding the old code is now locked out

Kraken Express has indicated admin tooling is planned. Watch the official Windrose changelog as Early Access progresses.

Performance Tips

  • Cap at 4 to 6 players if your hardware is modest. Even though 8 is supported, the developers recommend 4 for a reason.
  • Daily restarts are essential under Wine, recommended even without.
  • Keep one active world at a time; multiple loaded worlds multiply RAM use.
  • Avoid clogging the server with very large player builds in the same location, since chunk-loading lag scales with build density.
  • Watch the Console for repeated warnings; persistent warnings about save writes often mean a backup just kicked in or your disk is under pressure.

Monitoring

There is no native query protocol in Windrose to plug into external tools like BattleMetrics yet. For now, server health monitoring is done through:

  • The panel Console (live log)
  • The panel's resource graphs (CPU, RAM, network)
  • Player feedback ("the server feels laggy") as the canary in the coal mine

If you run a busy community, set up a Discord channel where players can drop server feedback. That is the best early-warning system for Windrose servers today.

Common Issues

  • Players cannot connect with the invite code, but everything looks fine server-side: They have not completed the singleplayer tutorial yet. The block is silent. Have them play through the offline intro first.
  • One specific player cannot connect while others can: Two common client-side causes. First, filtered DNS (NextDNS, some ad-blocking DNS, or strict corporate/ISP DNS) can block the endpoints Windrose uses to register and reach the relay. Have them switch to a public resolver such as Google DNS (8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4) and retry. Second, a VPN or proxy can interfere with the Epic Online Services relay; have them disconnect it for the test.
  • Server starts but the invite code is missing from the log: Wait longer. The code is printed after Steam authentication, which can take 30 to 60 seconds on first boot.
  • Server will not start after editing a config: Almost always a JSON syntax error. Open the file, scan for missing commas, extra commas after the last entry in an object, or mismatched braces.
  • World will not load: The WorldIslandId in ServerDescription.json does not match any folder under R5/Saved/SaveProfiles/Default/RocksDB/<version>/Worlds/. Or the world folder was renamed manually (do not do this). See Managing Worlds.
  • "Version mismatch" on connect: Server is on an older Windrose build than the client. Restart the server to pull the latest update.
  • Server takes 30+ minutes to boot even after the first install: Wine is slow on first launch for any Windows binary. Once warmed up, subsequent boots are faster.
  • PersistentServerId looks wrong or empty: Do not edit it manually. Restore from a backup that has the correct value.
  • High RAM use creeping over days: Schedule a daily restart. Wine does not aggressively reclaim memory.
  • Backups failing: Usually a transient node issue. If repeated, open a ticket.
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