Your First Game Server
Step-by-step guide to launching your first game server in COSY.
This guide walks you through creating and starting your first game server after installing COSY.
Step 1: Log In
Open your COSY instance in the browser and log in with the admin credentials that were displayed during installation.
Step 2: Create a New Server
From the main server yard view, click the construction site tile (or the create button) to start the server creation wizard.
Standard (non-admin) users need the create game servers permission to see the create option — an Admin or the Owner can enable it per user. See User Management.
The wizard has three steps:
Choose a Game and Template
Pick a game from the sidebar — COSY provides pre-configured templates for popular games like Minecraft, ARK: Survival Evolved, Terraria and more. The templates for the selected game are shown in the browser on the right, and you can narrow them down with tag filters (e.g. fabric, modpack).
Selecting a template auto-fills all configurations. If your game isn't listed, choose the generic server entry and configure the server manually by providing a Docker image. See Configuration for details.
Name the Server and Fill In Template Variables
Give your server a recognizable name. This is displayed in the server yard and used to identify the server throughout the UI.
If the selected template defines variables (e.g. game version, memory allocation), fill them in here — each input shows a description and an example value.
Review the Configuration
The final step shows the resulting configuration — Docker image, port mappings, environment variables, volume mounts, and hardware limits — pre-filled from the template. Adjust anything you like; the memory and CPU limits constrain how much of the host's resources this server can use (see Resource Limits).
Under Advanced Settings you can additionally set a custom execution command, container annotations (Docker labels), and — for administrators — host mounts.
Step 3: Start the Server
After creating the server, it appears as a house in the server yard. Click on it to open the server detail view, then click the Start button.
On the first start, COSY will pull the Docker image (you can track the progress in real time). Once the image is downloaded and the container starts, the server status changes to Running.
Step 4: Monitor Your Server
Once running, you can:
- Dashboard — View CPU and memory usage in real time
- Console — See server logs and send commands
- Metrics — Track performance over time with charts
- Files — Browse and edit server files