How to Set Up Automatic Restarts and Updates on Your Garry's Mod Server

A server that restarts on a schedule stays fast, and a server that updates itself never locks out players on a newer game version. This guide sets up a daily restart and the automatic restart on game updates.

1Open the Schedules Page

• Log in to your game panel and click your Garry's Mod server.
• Open Schedules in the left menu, under MANAGEMENT. At the top you see the Add daily restart button and a card called Restart on updates.

2Add a Daily Restart

• Click Add daily restart.
• Pick the Restart time. Choose a quiet hour for your players. The time is in the server timezone, which you can change on the Settings page.

• Pick the Days, from Mon to Sun. Leave all days selected for a restart every day.
• Under Warn players before the restart, pick when players get a message in the chat, for example 15, 5 and 1 minutes before. Nobody is surprised when the map ends.
• Press Add restart. The restart appears on the page as a normal schedule, which you can change or remove later. It only runs while the server is online.

3Turn On Restart on Updates

• Find the Restart on updates card on the same page.
• Switch it to On.
• The server now checks Steam for a Garry's Mod update every 10 minutes. When one is out, the server restarts by itself and installs it.
• Only a running server is restarted. A server you stopped yourself stays stopped.

4Why Updates Matter

• Garry's Mod only installs updates when the server starts.
• Players on a newer version cannot join until your server has the same version.
• There is no switch for installing updates. Every start installs the newest update, so every restart is also an update.
• You can also restart by hand: press Restart on the Console page.

Good to Know

• A restart ends the current map. Pick a time when few people are online.
• Other schedules. New schedule makes custom tasks, such as a console command or a backup, on a time you choose.

Finished

Your server restarts on schedule and keeps itself up to date. Next, connect a MySQL database if your gamemode or addons need one.