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Quick Start

This guide gets you from zero to running CS2 servers in a few minutes.

Prerequisites

  • OS: Ubuntu 22.04+ (or similar modern Linux distro).
  • Root / sudo access on the machine that will host the servers.
  • Docker installed and running (for MySQL and supporting services).
  • Enough resources for multiple CS2 servers (CPU, RAM, and disk).

1. Install CSM globally and run the installer wizard

From your target server, you can install and launch the latest prebuilt csm binary globally from the GitHub Releases page with a single command. The installer is a guided Bubble Tea TUI, so you can navigate with arrows and confirm with Enter:

arch=$(uname -m); \
case "$arch" in \
  x86_64)  asset="csm-linux-amd64" ;; \
  aarch64|arm64) asset="csm-linux-arm64" ;; \
  *) echo "Unsupported architecture: $arch" && exit 1 ;; \
esac; \
tmp=$(mktemp); \
curl -L "https://github.com/sivert-io/cs2-server-manager/releases/latest/download/$asset" -o "$tmp" && \
sudo install -m 0755 "$tmp" /usr/local/bin/csm && \
rm "$tmp" && \
sudo csm            # launches the interactive TUI installer

The installer wizard will:

  • Install required system dependencies.
  • Download CS2 server files.
  • Set up Dockerized MySQL.
  • Install Metamod, CounterStrikeSharp, and MatchZy (enhanced).
  • Configure multiple CS2 instances with sane defaults.

2. Use the CSM TUI

Once installation completes, you can re-open the TUI at any time with:

sudo csm            # run all TUI actions (install, updates, status, cleanup)

CLI helpers such as csm help can be run without sudo, but for simplicity you can prefix most operational commands with sudo as well.

From the TUI you can:

  • Install or repair servers (wizard).
  • Start/stop/restart all servers.
  • Check status and logs.
  • Run game/plugin updates.

3. Common CLI one-liners

These commands are shortcuts around the TUI:

csm install-deps           # Install core system dependencies (run with sudo)
csm status                 # Check tmux status
csm update-game            # Update CS2
csm update-plugins         # Update plugins
csm monitor                # Run one monitor iteration
csm install-monitor-cron   # Install cron-based auto-update monitor

If you keep your overrides/ and game_files/ in a specific directory (for example /opt/cs2-server-manager), you can point CSM at it explicitly:

export CSM_ROOT=/opt/cs2-server-manager
cd /opt/cs2-server-manager && csm

4. Next steps

  • See Guides → Managing Servers for day-to-day operations.
  • See Guides → Configuration & Overrides to customize configs before or after installation.
  • See Guides → Auto Updates to understand how updates are handled.