Garry’s Mod has been a sandbox for over fifteen years, and its servers are as varied as its community: DarkRP towns, Trouble in Terrorist Town, Prop Hunt, build servers and gamemodes nobody else has thought of yet. What they share is that a Garry’s Mod server is only as heavy as what you load into it. Getting it right comes down to sizing for your addon list, getting Workshop content to players properly, and keeping Lua under control. This guide covers each one, then explains how we set a server up for you on GGHOST Cloud.
How a Garry’s Mod server works
Garry’s Mod runs on Valve’s Source dedicated server, srcds. The server loads a gamemode (Sandbox, DarkRP, TTT and so on), a map, and every addon you have installed, then runs the Lua code that makes them work.
Most of that Lua runs on the server’s main thread, which is why one badly behaved addon can make a whole server stutter even when the CPU has spare cores. A fast core matters more than many cores.
The basics are set in two places:
- Startup settings: the gamemode (
+gamemode), the starting map (+map), player count (+maxplayers), your Workshop collection and your login token. On our panel these are startup values you change and then restart. garrysmod/cfg/server.cfg: the server name (hostname), passwords, RCON and other console variables, run every time the server starts.
The Steam login token
Public Garry’s Mod servers need a Game Server Login Token (GSLT). Create one on Steam’s game server account management page using App ID 4000 (Garry’s Mod itself, not the dedicated server tool), then add it with +sv_setsteamaccount. Each server needs its own token, and changing your Steam password invalidates existing ones.
How much RAM does a Garry’s Mod server need?
On Garry’s Mod, memory follows the addon list, not the player count. These are the figures we size real servers at:
- Up to 32 players: 4 GB. A light addon list.
- 32 to 64 players: 8 GB. A large Workshop collection.
A DarkRP server with hundreds of models, vehicles and custom jobs can need the larger size at lower player counts, while a lightly modded TTT server stays comfortable on the smaller one. If your memory graph sits above about 80% at peak, size up.
On GGHOST Cloud you pay for memory, not player slots.
maxplayersis a startup setting you choose, not a line on your invoice.
Gamemodes and addons
Workshop collections
The easiest way to run a modded server is a Steam Workshop collection: make a collection of the addons you want and set its ID with +host_workshop_collection in the startup settings. The server downloads the items itself, and you update the server’s content by editing the collection.
Content in the collection also needs to reach players. For addons with models, materials or sounds, add resource.AddWorkshop("<id>") lines in a server-side Lua file so players download them on join. Without that, players see missing textures and error models.
DarkRP
DarkRP is the most widely played roleplay gamemode. Put your custom jobs, shipments, entities and settings in the darkrpmodification addon rather than editing DarkRP itself, so updates do not overwrite your work. Most DarkRP servers also run an admin mod and a database for persistent money and player data.
TTT, Prop Hunt and others
Trouble in Terrorist Town ships with Garry’s Mod; other gamemodes come from the Workshop or as addon folders. Install the gamemode, set +gamemode, and make sure your map rotation only includes maps that gamemode supports.
Databases
Many servers store player data in SQLite, which Garry’s Mod includes. For larger servers, or when a website or several servers share data, a MySQL module such as mysqloo connects to MySQL or MariaDB. On our Pterodactyl panel you have database access next to the server.
Performance tips for Garry’s Mod
- Trim the addon list. Every addon adds Lua, memory and download size. Remove ones nobody uses before adding resources.
- Find the expensive hooks. Addons that run heavy code in
ThinkorTickhooks are the most common cause of lag. Profiling tools from the community can show which hooks cost the most. - Limit props and entities. On Sandbox and DarkRP, prop limits per player and an anti-prop-spam addon stop one player bringing the server down.
- Watch the console for Lua errors. An addon throwing errors every tick wastes time and can break other addons. Fix or remove it.
- Keep downloads lean. Large collections mean long join times. Players far from the server feel this most.
- Restart on a schedule. A daily restart with an in-game warning clears out leaks from long-running addons. Set it as a scheduled task in our panel.
Adding addons safely
Besides the Workshop, you can upload addons as folders into garrysmod/addons through the panel’s file manager or over SFTP, then restart.
- Use trusted sources. Leaked copies of paid addons are a well-known way for backdoors to reach Garry’s Mod servers, giving strangers console access to your server.
- Change one thing at a time. Add a few addons, restart, check the console. When something breaks, you know which one did it.
- Back up before big changes. Take a backup from the panel before a gamemode update, a large collection change or a new admin mod.
Backups and migrations
On GGHOST Cloud, backups run on a schedule you set and restore from the panel without opening a ticket. The parts worth protecting are your garrysmod/addons folder, your configs, the garrysmod/data folder where many addons save their settings, sv.db (Garry’s Mod’s built-in SQLite database) and any MySQL database.
Moving from another host? Bring those folders, your collection ID and a database dump, and we can bring the server back with the same data.
Getting your Garry’s Mod server on GGHOST Cloud
Garry’s Mod is set up on request at the moment, rather than ordered through checkout.
- Ask us on Discord (or open a ticket) with your gamemode, addon list or collection, and expected player count.
- We size it and quote a monthly price, starting from the sizing above.
- We set it up on our Pterodactyl panel, usually within a few days. Singapore and Europe (France–Germany border) are live today; the United States (East, Central and West), the United Kingdom, India, Japan and Australia are available on demand.
- Add your token and connect. Your server address and port are shown in the panel; players join through the server browser or the console’s
connectcommand.
You get the full panel: live console, file manager, SFTP, scheduled tasks, sub-users for your staff and database access. Every node is behind DDoS protection from our network providers, on every plan, and you can change the server build or startup flags from the panel and restart. No setup fee, no contract; billing is at app.gghost.cloud, and support comes from the people who run the servers, on Discord and at hello@gghost.cloud.
The short version
Size for your addon list, not your player count: 4 GB for a light server and 8 GB for a large Workshop collection. Add a GSLT, run content from a Workshop collection with resource.AddWorkshop for client downloads, keep DarkRP changes in darkrpmodification, and back up addons, data and database before every big change.
