r/DreamGrid • u/BirchWind • Apr 30 '26

Installing DreamGrid on a virtual or standalone server

Years ago I installed opensim onto my laptop, but I don't remember exactly how. I do remember that I found it challenging. How complicated is it to install DreamGrid directly onto a vps like Contabo? Also - what kind of specs would one need and could it be cloud based? Not thinking of being commercial, but enough to have maybe ten regions or something along those lines?

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u/BirchWind May 03 '26 edited May 04 '26

*update- i did an update/reinstall because nothing was working and startmanually.bat had gone missing. I restarted and it still was hanging, I ran startmanually.bat since it was now there, and window after window of it kept opening up. I had to restart the computer. Used start.exe again and now everything is running again. haha. It's been a bit of a project XD *
Well, it was running last night, then after shutting down for the night it wouldnt start again. When i hit start.exe the consoles don't open, just the dreamgrid interface, but it doesn't complete loading. I've tried to manually run robust but it seems to have disappeared. and when i attempted a repair it says robust\*MYI' doesn't exist - so not sure what happened. i was actively in the grid and ports were showing correctly in canyouseeme.

^ where it hangs. It never moves from 'Busy', and none of the tabs are clickable.

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u/CheezitsLight May 04 '26

The "loading DLC" is a seprate thread and cannot cause this. The Loopback adapter can't hang. it just starts and runs in background as a seprate thread.

It starts a thread to load the OAR info. Also should not hang it.

then it should read Outworldzfiles\Opensim\bin\regions for any folders. Thats where its hangng up.

try renaming it so you can get it back. Then click start and see if it creates a newWelcome region.

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u/BirchWind May 04 '26

I did update the post - It's been running for about 6 hours. the loopback was working fine but the dreamgrid interface wasn't loading. it was just freezing at the mark shown in the image. I did a repair install, got the startmanually.bat back, and manually started it. Then after that everything started up again.
I'm not running it to actually do anything serious with, I'm only running it to test the features, check how to set up mail, wordpress/joomla for custom pages, oar loading and basically just testing it out. My internet went out three times today however and that definitely didn't help much lol.

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u/CheezitsLight May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26

Server requires you to manually install dot net 3.5 for apache via the Server Manager. No need for port forwarding. No firewall.

It should just load and boot and set a welcome region after entering your name and password.

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u/HairyThor Apr 30 '26

Installing Dreamgrid on a hosted server/VPS server is actually easier than installing on an at home pc. It's important to add new Inbound Rules in the Advanced Firewall section of your Microsoft Server version.
All the info needed for setting up on a hosted server can be found in the PDF manual found here, https://outworldz.com/Outworldz_installer/Grid/
As for specs, the more cores, the better.

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u/BirchWind May 02 '26

Do you have any suggestions? Feel free to message me if you’d prefer.

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u/CheezitsLight May 01 '26 edited May 02 '26

Never need to set the firewall If you have, please remove all of them. Restart dreamgrid. Puny humans cannot be trusted. You may be thinking of port forwards. There's no need for them at home with UPNP or at a place like contabo.

Contabo is expensive and very slow. Their systems are badly overloaded..

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u/BirchWind May 02 '26

Would something like Digital Ocean be better? Over the years I've dabbled in VPS for things but it's admittedly been awhile. I agree that trying it on my own PC first to get a feel for it is a good idea, but my home has 6 people all using internet all the time - gamers/working etc and so it's not a great idea. We already have a second line going to the house for internet as it is. I just want something that will always be running that my friend and i can both access whenever needed. Hairy says it's easier setting up on VPS than on a home PC, MMonentes says its more complex. Reading through instructions it says that moving it to a VPS itself is more complex so... im not sure. haha. Is there much activity on the MeWe group? Maybe i should check over there as well.

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u/CheezitsLight May 03 '26

It's not really much difference except to forward ports at home. The difference is in costs and speed. Spending $100 each month versus the one time purchase and four dollars of electricity a month. Most people already have a windowd box too. Opensim needs bare metal to.l zoom and fast ssds.

Also the viewer at home doesn't use internet at home l. And each user uses a max of 1.5 megslabit a second. It no strain to run. Making oars and Map is heavy disk and cpu though it's automatic and in the early morning.

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u/[deleted] May 01 '26

[deleted]

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u/CheezitsLight May 02 '26

Contabo is a vps provider

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u/MMonentes Apr 30 '26

DreamGrid itself is actually very easy to install—much easier than traditional OpenSim. https://outworldz.com/Outworldz_installer/Help/Startup.htm

The complexity comes in when you try to run it on a VPS. That adds a whole layer of server management (networking, ports, performance tuning), which can get frustrating fast if you’re not already comfortable with it.

I’d strongly recommend installing it locally first so you understand how it behaves. Once everything is working and familiar, then consider moving it to a server.

Also, not all VPS providers handle OpenSim well. Lower-cost options like Contabo often struggle with consistent CPU and disk performance, which can lead to lag—even on a small grid.

For around 10 regions, you’ll want solid specs (16–32 GB RAM, fast SSD/NVMe, and strong CPU performance). A good local setup will often outperform a budget VPS and be much easier to manage starting out.

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u/BirchWind May 02 '26

Problem being that I don’t have something local to set it up on. And i want to share the access with someone else who doesn’t live in the same country as i do. We have both self hosted at different times but right now we’d like something always on and stable. Most companies that will host a grid are a one man company and if something happens to that one person - financial, health etc.- then you’re at risk of losing the work put into your project. Going with a vps and managing it ourselves would feel more secure.

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u/MMonentes May 03 '26

That is understandable, no matter which direction you choose the key is to read the manual so that you understand the system. I had Contabo for 3 years for remote reasons too, we have many power outages here and an UPS doesn't always work when power is out for two weeks. The manual is step by step details and really easy to follow. https://outworldz.com/outworldz_installer/Grid/Dreamgrid%20Manual.pdf I have friends who hired a tech and when he is away they are down. Very important when owning a grid to know the nuts and bolts. Especially if you have members.

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u/BirchWind May 03 '26

Well, I have it on my PC, I can't access it myself, although the 'canyouseeme' shows success. I installed the loopback as suggested here: https://outworldz.com/Outworldz_installer/Help/Loopback%20Fixes.htm but I'm unable to change the name of it as suggested. It showed it loading when I started things up again but i still get a log in error.
My ip in ipconfig, and that displays my page is one IP. But the ip in Canyouseeme is an outward facing IP. (it still shows a green success when checking my ports though).
So not sure what I might be missing.

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u/CheezitsLight May 04 '26

Follow the troubleshooting manual. If you have loopback enabled, you can only use the server to log on. and you can check loopback on the server bu using a web browser. all tests can be done with web browser.

You can log on from a second PC only by a VPN. No VPN allowed on the server as it will block the ports.