Prerequisites

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Preparing your account

Before you can run a VU dedicated server you must first make sure that you have registered an account on the VU website and linked your Origin account through the VU client.

Generating server keys

For each server you wish to run, you will need to generate a unique server key. To generate a key and manage your existing keys, simply login to the VU website with your account and visit the key management portal. Download your server key, you will need it when you're setting up your server. If you have reached the server key limit and require more you can request a quota increase from this page.

Getting Battlefield 3

The VU dedicated server requires a full and up-to-date installation of Battlefield 3 in order to work. You can either download Battlefield 3 directly from Origin, or if you want to deploy this to a machine which for some reason can't run Origin, just download it on another computer and transfer over all the files.

System Requirements

The hardware and network requirements vary greatly based on the amount of connected players, vehicles, and mods being used. However, the bare minimum requirements should be close to what is listed below.

  • Operating System: Windows 7 or newer, Wine 5.0 or newer
  • CPU: Dual Core x86 @ 3GHz or better
  • RAM: 1GB or more
  • HDD: 50GB or more
  • Network: 5Mbit Down / 5Mbit Up or more

Next up, see how to set up your server on Windows or Linux.

Last modified December 20, 2020: Add server rental information (79dfa621)