Steam Cache Server

[ENTERPRISE]

Hey guys,

 

So I think it is time for me to get one of these up and running since I lost my STEAM install folder (boo). I did a little searching and found this helpful article :Ars Technica

 

I would look to use the VM capability on my QNAP NAS to do the hosting of the OS/Steam caching. I just wondered, for those who have Steam Cache servers running, what was the easiest method for you to get it up and running ? The article mentions several ways, but it would be good to get some opinions from those who have actually deployed this. I am more familiar with Windows but I have used Linux before (Ubuntu) when setting up folding clients, so Linux is not out of the question if it seems an easier way to go over Windows.

 

Thanks in advance !

E

[axipher]

I had one set up through my UnRaid box with Dockers that worked great. I haven't used it in a while as I'm the only person in my house that uses Steam now so it didn't make sense to have it running anymore.

[tictoc]

Not sure if you are still looking to do this, but lancache is probably the easiest way to set this up.

 

Downloading games in a few seconds is fun. ​

 

Edited July 13, 2020 by tictoc

[ENTERPRISE]

Not sure if you are still looking to do this, but lancache is probably the easiest way to set this up.

 

Downloading games in a few seconds is fun.

 

Nice thanks ! It was put on the back burner but will be looking into this again soon. Will check out Lan Cache

[Steven]

I'm actually going to set this up on my E5 2670, 32GB DDR3 server, which hosts nothing but a minecraft server atm!

[ENTERPRISE]

Going to have to look for a Windows version as I would like to set this up on the same machine that I run plex from...which is a windows machine lol.

[tictoc]

Going to have to look for a Windows version as I would like to set this up on the same machine that I run plex from...which is a windows machine lol.

 

All of the ready made solutions that I am aware of are Linux based. Docker on Windows from what I know, is still a pretty painful experience. You might be able to set up a WSL2 Ubuntu install, but it will be a more complicated (maybe impossible??) to do the DNS redirects from a container inside of WSL.

 

The easiest road would probably be to set up an Ubuntu Server VM with VirtualBox or Hyper-V.

Once you have your VM up and running, you just need to get Docker installed and running. https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/

After that you can just follow the guide at lancache to get your containers installed and running. It might seem a bit involved, but it should be fairly painless to get it up and running.

 

Not sure on any ready made and performant Windows solutions, but maybe someone else that runs Windows will chime in.

[ENTERPRISE]

 

All of the ready made solutions that I am aware of are Linux based. Docker on Windows from what I know, is still a pretty painful experience. You might be able to set up a WSL2 Ubuntu install, but it will be a more complicated (maybe impossible??) to do the DNS redirects from a container inside of WSL.

 

The easiest road would probably be to set up an Ubuntu Server VM with VirtualBox or Hyper-V.

Once you have your VM up and running, you just need to get Docker installed and running. https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/

After that you can just follow the guide at lancache to get your containers installed and running. It might seem a bit involved, but it should be fairly painless to get it up and running.

 

Not sure on any ready made and performant Windows solutions, but maybe someone else that runs Windows will chime in.

 

As it happens, I did a little searching and found a Windows solution...well it is not Windows but Linux in a VM such as you described. I found a fairly decent tutorial of the process in the below video, may give that a watch and see how far I get with it, but first thinking of getting a 4TB HDD to host the steam content as only have a 1TB and could get filled easily.

 

[ENTERPRISE]

Hey Chums,

 

So I am finally getting round to this.

 

So I have been following these instructions along with a YT Video which has worked great

 

nstructions that go along with this video are here:

1) Download Ubuntu 18.04

https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop

 

2) Download Latest VirtualBox

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downl...

 

3) Install VirtualBox

 

4) Create an Virtualbox machine Instance

- Type: Linux

- Version: Ubuntu 64 Bit

- Allocate 2 Gigs of Ram (this is enough)

- Create a Dynamic Disk of appropriate size (the dynamic disk will only use what is required for the virtual machine up to this limit)

 

5) Configure Virtualbox as follows (right click on new machine instance and select settings):

- Under General - Advanced : Enable shared clipboard and drag n'drop

- Under System - Processor : Allocate a couple of cores

- Under Display - Screen : Enable 3G Accelleration

- Under Network - Adaptor 1 : Set "Attached to" to Bridged Adapter

Click "OK" to save changes

 

6) Allocate a fixed IP Address

- Right click on new machine instance and select settings

- Under Network - Adaptor 1 - Advanced : Copy the allocated Mac Address

- Configure the fixed IP Address using your router's DHCP server

(this will depend on your router)

 

7) Optional: Backup Virtual Box instance (you can restore to here if something goes wrong)

- Select the virtualbox

- Click the "Take Snapshot" button (looks like a camera with a green plus)

- Create a snapshot with an appropriate name

 

8) Start Virtual Machine and install UBUNTU with Minimal Install

- right click on the new instance and click "start"

- attach the downloaded ubuntu iso when requested

- Step through the install process (select minimal install at the installation prompt)

Note: Some people have had trouble with the virtualbox virtual session menus disappearing. If this happens, press "right-control c" until it comes back (the session will cycle between the menu being shown or not).

 

9) Pre-installation tasks, Note: You will need to type these commands in to the virtualbox session manually

- Once installation is completed, log in to the virtualbox instance and start a terminal session in the ubuntu session

- Install Get GCC make perl packages by running the folling command:

sudo apt-get install build-essential gcc make perl dkms

- Install Network Tools with the following command:

sudo apt-get install net-tools

- Check fixed ip address is working with the following command:

ifconfig

- The IP Address should be the same as you allocated earlier

- Install VirtualBox Extensions: Go to "Devices - Insert Guest CD Image" and follow the prompts

- Optional: Shut down instance and create a virtualbox restore snapshot

 

10) Install Curl (required to install Docker) and set up some directories to store the steam cached files

- Note: You can now cut and paste from these instructions in to the virtualbox session

- Install Curl with the following command:

sudo apt-get install curl

- Set up cache directory by running the following commands:

sudo mkdir /srv/steamcache

sudo mkdir /srv/steamcache/data

sudo chmod -R 777 /srv/steamcache

 

11) Install Docker

- Install Docker by running the following command:

sudo curl -ssl https://get.docker.com/ | sh

 

12) Install Steam Cache Server Docker Image

Install Steamcache Docker Instance using the following command:

sudo docker run --name steamcache --restart=always -d -v /srv/steamcache/data:/data/cache -p 80:80 steamcache/steamcache:latest

 

13) Set up the SNI Proxy Server

- Set up the SNI Proxy Server with the following command:

sudo docker run --restart unless-stopped -d --name sniproxy -p 443:443 steamcache/sniproxy:latest

 

14) Install the DNS Server

- Set up the docker DNS service: We need to replace the existing DNS service with a new one controlled by the docker instance

- Run the following command to download the DNS docker image (this will give you an error when it tries to set up the new DNS, just ignore this and continue):

sudo docker run --name steamcache-dns --restart=always -d -p 53:53/udp -e STEAMCACHE_IP=[iNSERT YOUR CACHE SERVER IP] steamcache/steamcache-dns:latest

- Disable the existing systemd local dns service by running the following commands

sudo systemctl stop systemd-resolved

sudo systemctl disable systemd-resolved

- To complete the DNS install we need to undo the failed install we ran above first

sudo docker rm steamcache-dns

- Run the following command to complete the DNS installation (don't forget to change [iNSERT YOUR CACHE SERVER IP] to your IP Address, e.g. 192.168.0.52):

sudo docker run --name steamcache-dns --restart=always -d -p 53:53/udp -e STEAMCACHE_IP=[iNSERT YOUR CACHE SERVER IP] steamcache/steamcache-dns:latest

 

15) Check all the docker images are running:

sudo docker ps

 

16) Restart Server

 

17) Now update the DNS on your gaming box to the fixed IP address you allocated to the virtual box and download away!

 

The only issue is that in the future I may very well need to change the fixed IP I have given the Steam Cache Docker. Running the same commands from Step 14, but with a new IP does not work as it gives you an error that the docker already exists.

 

14) Install the DNS Server

- Set up the docker DNS service: We need to replace the existing DNS service with a new one controlled by the docker instance

- Run the following command to download the DNS docker image (this will give you an error when it tries to set up the new DNS, just ignore this and continue):

sudo docker run --name steamcache-dns --restart=always -d -p 53:53/udp -e STEAMCACHE_IP=[iNSERT YOUR CACHE SERVER IP] steamcache/steamcache-dns:latest

- Disable the existing systemd local dns service by running the following commands

sudo systemctl stop systemd-resolved

sudo systemctl disable systemd-resolved

- To complete the DNS install we need to undo the failed install we ran above first

sudo docker rm steamcache-dns

- Run the following command to complete the DNS installation (don't forget to change [iNSERT YOUR CACHE SERVER IP] to your IP Address, e.g. 192.168.0.52):

sudo docker run --name steamcache-dns --restart=always -d -p 53:53/udp -e STEAMCACHE_IP=[iNSERT YOUR CACHE SERVER IP] steamcache/steamcache-dns:latest

 

How would I update the existing docker with a new IP ?

 

 

[Steven]

that will def help, I'll be using a 16 core 32 core rig with like 16gb of RAM, 256GB NVME for the OS/VM and 1TB NVME for the cache drive!

[tictoc]

Hey Chums,

 

So I am finally getting round to this.

 

So I have been following these instructions along with a YT Video which has worked great

 

 

 

The only issue is that in the future I may very well need to change the fixed IP I have given the Steam Cache Docker. Running the same commands from Step 14, but with a new IP does not work as it gives you an error that the docker already exists.

 

 

 

How would I update the existing docker with a new IP ?

 

 

I know you just got this up and running, but I would nuke the steamcache containers and start over with lancache.

 

​​

 

The quick start guide at lancache will get you up and running in just a few minutes, since you already have your VM and storage pool set up. The only additional setup step will be installing Docker compose. http://lancache.net/docs/

 

*Edit*

Additionally I would install all of the docker components using the Ubuntu repos. On Ubuntu 20.04 I think everything is in the official repos, so you don't need to add the Docker repos. This should result in a setup that is easier to maintain over the long term, without having to manually update packages and repos.

 

Remove existing Docker versions that were previously installed

$ sudo apt remove docker docker-engine docker.io containerd runc docker-compose

 

Install docker engine

$ sudo apt install docker-compose

 

Verify that docker is working

$ docker run hello-world

 

Verify docker-compose is working

$ docker-compose version

 

Check if your user is in the docker group. I'm not sure if Ubuntu's package automatically adds your user to the docker group.

$ groups

Add user to docker group if you aren't already added. This allows you to run docker commands without using sudo. You will need to log out and log back in after adding your user to the group.

$ sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

 

 

 

This step might not be necessary, but I don't know how Ubuntu's docker service is set up.

Set docker service to start at boot

$ sudo systemctl enable --now docker

 

Now just follow the steps on lancache, and you should be good to go with a nice stable set up. :thumbs_thumbsupup:

 

*Edit 2* Since this is just a minimal VM to run docker containers, I wouldn't bother with a full Ubuntu Desktop install. I would just install Ubuntu Server https://ubuntu.com/download/server

Everything will be done from the terminal, so there really isn't any need to run a full graphical environment, unless that is easier for you.

Edited July 12, 2020 by tictoc

[ENTERPRISE]

 

I know you just got this up and running, but I would nuke the steamcache containers and start over with lancache.

 

​​

 

The quick start guide at lancache will get you up and running in just a few minutes, since you already have your VM and storage pool set up. The only additional setup step will be installing Docker compose. http://lancache.net/docs/

 

It is funny you say that, I am actually in the process of setting up LanCache after having some issues with SteamCache. LanCache looks to be a lot better, plus not limited just to STEAM.