What Happens When Your DayZ Server Is Attacked

When somebody floods your DayZ server with junk traffic, VibeSHIELD filters it out before it reaches the server. VibeSHIELD is the anycast DDoS protection network that comes with every VibeGAMES server, and it works without any setup on your side. This article walks through what happens during an attack on a DayZ server, what you will see and what you should do.

1What VibeSHIELD Does for Your DayZ Server

• A DayZ filter protects the game port UDP 2302. It knows what real DayZ client traffic looks like and drops packets that do not match.
• An A2S query cache sits on the Steam query port 27016. Server-list queries are answered at the edge, so query floods never reach your server.
• A UDP filter covers the BattlEye RCON port 2305.
• Filtering takes place at the VibeSHIELD point of presence nearest to the source of the traffic, across 46 locations worldwide. Only clean traffic continues to your server.
• Everything is automatic. You do not have to turn anything on.

2What Players Notice

• In most attacks nothing at all. Survivors stay logged in.
• Very large attacks can cause a few seconds of higher ping or packet loss while the filtering ramps up.
• If the server becomes unreachable, do not assume the attack is to blame. A crash, running out of memory, a broken mod or a wrong port are more likely. Open the console in the game panel first.

3Where to See the Attack

• Go to the website dashboard and open your DayZ server.
• Click the DDoS protection tab. This is in the website dashboard at vibegames.com, not in the game panel at game.vibegames.com.
• Status shows Active. Attack status shows Not under attack or Under attack.
• The Attack history table lists every attack of the last 30 days with its ID, peak size in Mbps or Gbps, start time and stop time.
• Expand a row to see a traffic chart over time, the source countries, source networks (ASN), source and destination ports, protocol, TTL and packet sizes.

4The Email You Receive

• Your account email gets a message with the subject DDoS attack detected on your server <ip> when an attack hits your server's port.
• It explains that VibeSHIELD is filtering the traffic and that no action is needed.
• The IP address is shared with other servers on the same node. Each server has its own port, and the attack is matched to your server by that port.

5What to Do

• Nothing is required for the attack itself.
• Do not share your server IP with anyone who threatens you, and never pay anyone who claims they can stop an attack.
• Changing the game port does not help and is not needed.
• Moving the server to another location is not needed. Every location is behind VibeSHIELD.
• If players report problems during an attack, open a ticket and include the attack ID from the history table.

Good to Know

• BattlEye RCON stays usable. The RCON port has its own filter, so your admin tools keep working during an attack.
• Thirty days of history. Older attacks disappear from the table, so write down an ID you want to keep.
• Read more. The article on how VibeSHIELD protects your game server explains the network in more detail.