Manual Foundry VTT Server Setup

This guide walks you through manually setting up a Foundry VTT server on a Linux VPS. This is the same process automated by the Foundry VTT Cloud Installer.

Prerequisites

Before starting, you’ll need:

• A Linux VPS (Ubuntu 24.04 recommended) with at least 1GB RAM
• A domain name pointed to your server’s IP address
• Your Foundry VTT timed download URL (from your Foundry account)
• Basic familiarity with the command line

Step 1: Connect to Your Server

SSH into your server as root:

ssh root@your-server-ip

Step 2: Update the System

Update package lists and upgrade existing packages:

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y

Step 3: Install Required Packages

Install essential utilities:

apt-get install -y curl wget unzip ufw fail2ban jq unattended-upgrades apt-listchanges

Step 4: Configure the Firewall

Set up UFW to only allow SSH and web traffic:

ufw default deny incoming
ufw default allow outgoing
ufw allow ssh
ufw allow http
ufw allow https
ufw --force enable

Step 5: Configure Fail2ban

Protect against SSH brute-force attacks:

cat > /etc/fail2ban/jail.local << 'EOF'
[DEFAULT]
bantime = 3600
findtime = 600
maxretry = 5

[sshd]
enabled = true
maxretry = 3
EOF

systemctl enable fail2ban
systemctl start fail2ban

Step 6: Disable SSH Password Authentication

sed -i 's/#PasswordAuthentication yes/PasswordAuthentication no/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sed -i 's/PasswordAuthentication yes/PasswordAuthentication no/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
systemctl restart ssh

Step 7: Configure Automatic Security Updates

cat > /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades << 'EOF'
Unattended-Upgrade::Allowed-Origins {
  "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}";
  "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-security";
  "${distro_id}ESMApps:${distro_codename}-apps-security";
  "${distro_id}ESM:${distro_codename}-infra-security";
};
Unattended-Upgrade::AutoFixInterruptedDpkg "true";
Unattended-Upgrade::Remove-Unused-Kernel-Packages "true";
Unattended-Upgrade::Remove-Unused-Dependencies "true";
Unattended-Upgrade::Automatic-Reboot "true";
Unattended-Upgrade::Automatic-Reboot-Time "04:00";
EOF

systemctl enable unattended-upgrades
systemctl start unattended-upgrades

Step 8: Create Swap Space

Prevents out-of-memory crashes with module-heavy worlds:

fallocate -l 2G /swapfile
chmod 600 /swapfile
mkswap /swapfile
echo '/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0' >> /etc/fstab
swapon -a

Step 9: Install Node.js 22

apt-get remove -y nodejs npm 2>/dev/null || true

mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource-repo.gpg.key \
  | gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg

echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg] https://deb.nodesource.com/node_22.x nodistro main" \
  | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list

apt-get update
apt-get install -y nodejs

Verify the installation:

node -v
npm -v

Step 10: Install PM2

PM2 is a process manager that keeps Foundry running and restarts it on crashes:

npm install -g pm2

Step 11: Install Caddy

Caddy is a modern web server with automatic HTTPS:

curl -1sLf "https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/gpg.key" \
  | gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/caddy-stable-archive-keyring.gpg

curl -1sLf "https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/debian.deb.txt" \
  | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/caddy-stable.list

apt-get update
DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y caddy
systemctl stop caddy

Step 12: Create Foundry User and Directories

useradd -m -s /bin/bash foundry
mkdir -p /home/foundry/foundryvtt
mkdir -p /home/foundry/foundrydata/Config
mkdir -p /home/foundry/logs

Step 13: Download Foundry VTT

cd /home/foundry
wget -q "YOUR_TIMED_DOWNLOAD_URL" -O foundry.zip
unzip -q foundry.zip -d foundryvtt
rm foundry.zip

Step 14: Configure Foundry

Create the options.json file. Replace your-domain.com with your actual domain:

cat > /home/foundry/foundrydata/Config/options.json << 'EOF'
{
  "hostname": "your-domain.com",
  "routePrefix": null,
  "sslCert": null,
  "sslKey": null,
  "port": 30000,
  "proxyPort": 443,
  "proxySSL": true
}
EOF

Step 15: Create PM2 Ecosystem File

cat > /home/foundry/ecosystem.config.js << 'EOF'
module.exports = {
  apps: [{
    name: 'foundry',
    script: 'main.js',
    cwd: '/home/foundry/foundryvtt',
    args: '--dataPath=/home/foundry/foundrydata',
    interpreter: 'node',
    env: { NODE_ENV: 'production' },
    max_memory_restart: '1G',
    error_file: '/home/foundry/logs/err.log',
    out_file: '/home/foundry/logs/out.log',
    log_date_format: 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss Z'
  }]
};
EOF

Step 16: Set Permissions

chown -R foundry:foundry /home/foundry

Step 17: Configure Caddy

Replace your-domain.com with your actual domain:

cat > /etc/caddy/Caddyfile << 'EOF'
your-domain.com {
  reverse_proxy localhost:30000
}
EOF

Step 18: Start Foundry with PM2

sudo -u foundry HOME=/home/foundry pm2 start /home/foundry/ecosystem.config.js
sudo -u foundry HOME=/home/foundry pm2 save

env PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin HOME=/home/foundry \
  pm2 startup systemd -u foundry --hp /home/foundry --service-name pm2-foundry

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable pm2-foundry

Step 19: Configure Log Rotation

Install pm2-logrotate to prevent logs from filling up the disk:

sudo -u foundry HOME=/home/foundry pm2 install pm2-logrotate
sudo -u foundry HOME=/home/foundry pm2 set pm2-logrotate:max_size 10M
sudo -u foundry HOME=/home/foundry pm2 set pm2-logrotate:retain 7
sudo -u foundry HOME=/home/foundry pm2 set pm2-logrotate:compress true
sudo -u foundry HOME=/home/foundry pm2 set pm2-logrotate:rotateInterval '0 0 * * *'

This rotates logs daily, keeps 7 compressed backups, and limits each log file to 10MB.

Step 20: Start Caddy

systemctl enable caddy
systemctl start caddy

Useful Commands

Check if Foundry is running:

sudo -u foundry pm2 status

View Foundry logs:

sudo -u foundry pm2 logs foundry

Restart Foundry:

sudo -u foundry pm2 restart foundry

File Paths Reference

Path	Purpose
/home/foundry/foundryvtt/	Foundry application files
/home/foundry/foundrydata/	User data, worlds, modules
/home/foundry/foundrydata/Config/options.json	Foundry configuration
/home/foundry/ecosystem.config.js	PM2 process config
/home/foundry/logs/	Application logs
/etc/caddy/Caddyfile	Caddy reverse proxy config

Next Steps

• Access your Foundry instance and enter your license key
• Configure your game settings
• Set up regular backups of /home/foundry/foundrydata
• Consider adding S3-compatible storage for assets (DigitalOcean Spaces, Backblaze B2, etc.)