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Full Battlefield 2 stack example

This example deploys a stack with BF2Statistics ASP 3.x.x.

Note that the bf2sclone 2.x.x does not work with BF2Statistics 3.x.x, and so it is excluded from this example. The community has tried to fix it, but so far none seem to have shared their working changes. Wilson212, the original author of BF2Statistics did mention to be working on it, see here, so we might see it soon. If you want to have a working bf2sclone, use BF2Statistics 2.x.x in the meantime.

Usage

In this example, we will use the domain name example.com. In production, you should use your own domain name for traefik (our TLS-terminating load balancer) to be able to serve HTTPS for the web endpoints: ASP, and phpmyadmin.

1. Setup hosts file

Add a couple of hostnames to the hosts file for the web endpoints:

# Since we are testing this stack locally, we need these DNS records in the hosts file
echo '127.0.0.1 asp.example.com' | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts
echo '127.0.0.1 phpmyadmin.example.com' | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts

2. Start the full stack

Run:

docker-compose up

If there is error listen udp4 0.0.0.0:53: bind: address already in use or something similar, the OS might already have a DNS server running on localhost UDP port 53, e.g. systemd-resolved or docker DNS server. To get around that, change coredns in docker-compose.yml to bind to your external interface's IP. Change this

    ports:
    - 53:53/udp

to

    ports:
    - 192.168.1.100:53:53/udp

assuming 192.168.1.100 is your machine's external IP address.

If there is a similar error for TCP port 80 or 443, you might have an existing web server running. Stop the web server first. Run docker-compose up again.

3. Wait for the containers to start

You should see something like:

$ docker-compose up
[+] Running 8/8
 ✔ Container bf2stats-coredns-1         Created                                                         0.0s
 ✔ Container bf2stats-init-container-1  Created                                                         0.0s
 ✔ Container bf2stats-db-1              Created                                                         0.0s
 ✔ Container bf2stats-phpmyadmin-1      Created                                                         0.0s
 ✔ Container bf2stats-prmasterserver-1  Created                                                         0.0s
 ✔ Container bf2stats-traefik-1         Created                                                         0.0s
 ✔ Container bf2stats-asp-1             Recreated                                                       0.0s
 ✔ Container bf2stats-bf2-1             Recreated                                                       0.0s
Attaching to bf2stats-asp-1, bf2stats-bf2-1, bf2stats-coredns-1, bf2stats-db-1, bf2stats-init-container-1, bf2stats-phpmyadmin-1, bf2stats-prmasterserver-1, bf2stats-traefik-1

The full stack is now running:

  • Battlefield 2 1.5 server with bf2stats 3.x.x support available on your external IP address on UDP ports 16567 and 29900 on your external IP address
  • Gamespy server PRMasterServer available at your external IP address on TCP ports 29900, 29901, 28910, and UDP ports 27900 and 29910 on your external IP address
  • coredns available on your external IP address on UDP port 53 on your external IP address
  • traefik (TLS-terminated reverse web proxy) available on port 80 and 443 on your external IP address
  • ASP available at https://asp.example.com on your external IP address.
  • phpmyadmin available at https://phpmyadmin.example.com on your external IP address.

If you are behind NAT, you will need to forward all of the above TCP and UDP ports to your external IP address, in order for clients to reach your gameserver and webserver over the internet.

4. Setup the stats DB

Visit https://asp.example.com/ASP and login using $admin_user and $admin_pass defined in its config file.

Since traefik hasn't got a valid TLS certificate via ACME, it will serve the TRAEFIK DEFAULT CERT. The browser will show a security issue when visiting https://asp.example.com and https://phpmyadmin.example.com. Simply click "visit site anyway" button to get past the security check.

Click on System > System Installation and install the DB using $db_host,$db_port,$db_name,$db_user,$db_pass you defined in config.php. Click System > System Tests and Run System Tests and all tests should be green, except for the BF2Statistics Processing test and the four .aspx tests, because we still don't have a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) with a public DNS record.

Then, restart the BF2 server so that it begins recording stats:

docker-compose restart bf2

5. Setup DNS server

Configure coredns to spoof all gamespy DNS in config/coredns/hosts, replacing the IP addresses with your machine's external IP address which you specified in Step 2.. Assuming your external IP is 192.168.1.100, it should look like:

192.168.1.100 battlefield2.available.gamespy.com
192.168.1.100 battlefield2.master.gamespy.com
192.168.1.100 battlefield2.ms14.gamespy.com
192.168.1.100 master.gamespy.com
192.168.1.100 motd.gamespy.com
192.168.1.100 gpsp.gamespy.com
192.168.1.100 gpcm.gamespy.com
192.168.1.100 gamespy.com
192.168.1.100 bf2web.gamespy.com
192.168.1.100 gamestats.gamespy.com
192.168.1.100 eapusher.dice.se

Save the file. coredns immediately reads the changed file and serves the updated DNS records.

6. Use the DNS server in BF2 clients

Configure your BF2 client machine (and your friends' machines) to use the DNS server (i.e. your local machine) you configured in Step 2.(E.g. 192.168.1.100).

If you are on different networks, you may use any of these methods. Option 3. is recommended.

If you are all on the same LAN network, configuring DNS via DHCP is the easiest. Configure router's DHCP server's DNS setting to your machine's IP address, which will automatically configure all client's machines to use your machine as the DNS server (i.e. coredns). Then ensure coredns forwards all unmatched DNS (all non-gamespy DNS) back to your router so that your LAN DNS remains fully intact. To do so, in config/coredns/Corefile change this line:

    forward . 192.168.0.1:53

to your router's IP address (e.g. 192.168.1.1):

    forward . 192.168.1.1:53

Restart coredns and it will be ready:

docker-compose restart coredns

6. Play

BF2 1.5 clients should be able to connect to your gameserver. Start BF2, click Create Account, and once you've logged in, click CONNECT TO IP, and in the IP ADDRESS box enter the external IP address of the machine you used in Step 2. (E.g. 192.168.1.100). Join the server.

You may see your server listed under MULTIPLAYER > JOIN INTERNET, when clicking UPDATE SERVER LIST, but with a wrong IP address, for instance,172.16.x.x instead of being your external IP address 192.168.1.100. This happens because in our example docker-compose.yml, the bf2 server and prmasterserver are linked using a gamespy-network, such that bf2 container registered itself with prmasterserver container over gamespy-network, so prmasterserver listed the bf2 server's container's IP address instead of the machine's external IP address. To solve this, run both the bf2 server and prmasterserver on host networking, so that they talk to each other over the machine's external interface instead of a docker network.

At the end of the first game, you should see your stats updated at https://bf2sclone.example.com.

Cheat sheet

  • Visit https://asp.example.com/ASP to adminstrate your stats database and gamespy server. Login using $admin_user and $admin_pass defined in its config file.
  • Visit https://phpmyadmin.example.com if you want to self-manage your DB (if you know how). Login using user root and password MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD (or MARIADB_USER and MARIADB_PASSWORD) defined on the db service in docker-compose.yml
  • This example includes all the configuration files for each stack component. Customize them to suit your needs.
  • Mount the ASP config.php with write permissions, or else ASP dashboard will throw an error. Use System > Edit Configuration as reference to customize the config file.
  • For better security, define MARIADB_USER and MARIADB_PASSWORD for the db service, so that a regular mariadb user is created on the first run, instead of using the root user. Note that this hasn't been tested, but it seems to work nicely, although it might break some modules in the ASP dashboard if they rely on root privileges (any at all?).
  • Optional: Mount your customized armyAbbreviationMap.php, backendAwards.php, and ranks.php config files if you are using a customized mod. Unlike config.php, they don't need write permissions.
  • Backup the DB using mysqldump instead of the ASP. System > Backup Stats Database will not be allowed since the DB is on remote host. This means there is no need for provisioning a backups-volume volume.
  • In a production setup, you want to make sure:
    • to use a custom domain name (FQDN)
    • to configure traefik to be issued an ACME certificate for HTTPS to work for the web endpoints
    • to run traefik on --network host or to use the PROXY protocol, so that it preserves client IP addresses
    • to run the bf2 server and prmasterserver on --network host so that they: 1) talk to each other over the machine's external interface
    • to use stronger authentication in front of the ASP and phpmyadmin, which don't have in-built strong authentication
    • to use strong passwords for the ASP admin user in config file
    • to use strong password for the db users in MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD, MARIADB_USER, and MARIADB_PASSWORD
    • to use internal networks for the db which doesn't need egress traffic

Scripts

These one-liners may be handy for adminstration of the stack.

# Start
docker-compose up

# Only if you are running the BF2 server, PRMasterServer, or traefik on host networking, you may need these iptables rules
# BF2 server
iptables -A INPUT -p udp -m udp -m conntrack --ctstate NEW --dport 16567 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p udp -m udp -m conntrack --ctstate NEW --dport 29900 -j ACCEPT
# PRMasterServer
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp -m conntrack --ctstate NEW --dport 29900 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp -m conntrack --ctstate NEW --dport 29901 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp -m conntrack --ctstate NEW --dport 28910 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p udp -m udp -m conntrack --ctstate NEW --dport 27900 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p udp -m udp -m conntrack --ctstate NEW --dport 29910 -j ACCEPT
# traefik
iptables -A INPUT -p udp -m udp -m conntrack --ctstate NEW --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p udp -m udp -m conntrack --ctstate NEW --dport 443 -j ACCEPT

# Attach to the bf2 server console
docker attach asp_bf2_1

# Copy logs from bf2 server to this folder
docker cp asp_bf2_1:/server/bf2/python/bf2/logs .

# asp - Exec into container
docker exec -it $( docker-compose ps -q asp ) sh
# asp - List backups
docker exec -it $( docker-compose ps -q asp ) ls -al /src/ASP/system/backups
# asp - List cache
docker exec -it $( docker-compose ps -q asp ) ls -al /src/ASP/system/cache
# asp - List config
docker exec -it $( docker-compose ps -q asp ) ls -al /src/ASP/system/config
# asp - List logs
docker exec -it $( docker-compose ps -q asp ) ls -al /src/ASP/system/logs
# asp - List snapshots
docker exec -it $( docker-compose ps -q asp ) ls -alR /src/ASP/system/snapshots/

# Dump the DB
docker exec $( docker-compose ps | grep db | awk '{print $1}' ) mysqldump -uroot -pascent bf2stats | gzip > bf2stats.sql.gz

# Restore the DB
zcat bf2stats.sql.gz | docker exec -i $( docker-compose ps | grep db | awk '{print $1}' ) mysql -uroot -pascent bf2stats

# Stop
docker-compose down

# Cleanup. Warning: This destroys the all data!
docker-compose down
docker volume rm asp_prmasterserver-volume
docker volume rm asp_traefik-acme-volume
docker volume rm asp_backups-volume
docker volume rm asp_cache-volume
docker volume rm asp_config-volume
docker volume rm asp_logs-volume
docker volume rm asp_snapshots-volume
docker volume rm asp_db-volume

Background: Keeping Battlefield 2 working

Problem: The Battlefield 2 client and server binaries are hardcoded with gamespy DNS records, e.g. bf2web.gamespy.com. Because gamespy has shut down, the DNS records no longer exist on public DNS servers (read more about it here). In order to keep the game's multiplayer working, we need:

  • A gamespy replacement - solved by PRMasterServer
  • DNS resolution for gamespy DNS records - solved by either by: 1. hex patching the game binaries; 2. spoofing DNS server responses; 3. spoofing DNS records via hosts file

This example opted for 2. which is DNS spoofing via coredns, because it can be done on a single machine and multiple machine setups.

Option 1: Hex patching game binaries

This is what bf2hub.com and many BF2 mods do.

Pros:

  • Simple. Patch every client with the new binaries

Cons:

  • Difficult to change to another gamespy server
  • Difficult to distribute because it requires installation on each client
  • Binaries may be patched with malicious code

Option 2: Spoof DNS at the DNS server

Pros:

  • Most scalable. You configure the DNS server via DHCP, so that every client that connects to a DHCP server (e.g. router) is configured to use the DNS server. No client configuration needed
  • Easy to change to another gamespy server

Cons:

  • Dangerous. The DNS server may be used as an attack vector against clients to steal cookies and direct clients to malicious websites.

Option 3: Use DNS records via hosts file

Pros:

  • Safest. DNS records only apply to the local machine

Cons:

  • Difficult to change to another gamespy server
  • Tedious to hand edit. See an example of a hosts file here
  • Requires administrative privileges to update the machine's hosts file

For clients:

Which is the best?

For servers:

  • Servers environments should be stable, so 1. or 2. is preferred.

For clients:

  • The best solution depends on one's setup. If one often needs to switch between gamespy servers, 3. is best. If one doesn't want clients to have to install anything but wants things to "just work", use 2.. If one prefers a single gamespy server run by a trustworthy community, use 1..