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How to Add an Admin to an Arma 3 Server

Set passwordAdmin in server.cfg, restart your Arma 3 server, and use #login in chat. This guide also explains admins[], BattlEye RCON, ports, commands, and troubleshooting.

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To add an admin to an Arma 3 dedicated server, set passwordAdmin in the server’s server.cfg, restart the server, then join and enter #login ADMINPASSWORD in chat. The leading # is mandatory. You can optionally authorize player IDs through admins[], or configure BattlEye RCON separately for remote administration.

What Arma 3 admin access actually includes

Arma 3 has two separate administration paths:

  • In-game server administration: a shared password defined by passwordAdmin. An authenticated player can issue server commands from the in-game chat.
  • BattlEye RCON: a separate remote-control service for administration tools. RCON has its own password and port and does not use the in-game #login password.

The normal setup is the first path. RCON is optional and is useful when you need to administer a server without being connected as a player. BattlEye must be enabled before RCON can work.

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Two hosting guides describe a limitation in which only one admin can be logged in at a time when RCON is not being used. That is a hosting-guide claim rather than a confirmed rule in the official wiki, so treat simultaneous in-game administrator access as something to test on your own server.

Before editing the server

  • Make sure you can access the dedicated server’s configuration files.
  • Identify the active server.cfg. A server may have more than one configuration file, and editing an unused copy will have no effect.
  • Have console or host-panel access so you can stop and restart the server cleanly.
  • Choose a strong administrator password and keep it out of public chat, screenshots, and shared configuration examples.
  • If you plan to use RCON, confirm that BattlEye is installed and that you can edit its configuration directory.

Back up the existing configuration before changing it. Preserve the file’s existing syntax, spacing conventions, and other settings; the only required in-game change is the passwordAdmin value.

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Set the in-game administrator password

1. Open the active server.cfg

Stop the server if your host requires it before editing. Open the server.cfg used by the Arma 3 server process. Do not confuse this with a mission file or a client-side profile.

2. Add or change passwordAdmin

Set the passwordAdmin entry to the password you want administrators to use. A typical configuration line is:

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passwordAdmin = "use-a-long-unique-password";

If the file already contains passwordAdmin, change that existing entry instead of creating a second one. Keep the value in the format used by the rest of the configuration, including the terminating semicolon where the file uses one.

Use a password that is not used for the game account, hosting panel, RCON, or any other service. Everyone who knows this value can attempt the in-game admin login, so distribute it only to people who need server access.

3. Save the file and restart the server

Save server.cfg, then fully restart the Arma 3 server. A running process normally continues using the settings it loaded at startup; changing the file alone is not a reliable way to apply a new administrator password.

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After the restart, join the server as a normal player. If the server does not start, restore the backup and check for a malformed line, duplicate key, or an edit made to the wrong configuration file.

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Log in as admin from inside Arma 3

Open chat and run the login command

  1. Join the server.
  2. Press / to open the in-game chat input.
  3. Type #login ADMINPASSWORD, replacing ADMINPASSWORD with the exact value of passwordAdmin.
  4. Press Enter.

The command must begin with #. Bohemia Interactive’s dedicated-server guidance specifically warns: “Make sure to never forget the ‘#’ in front of any server command!” The hash is part of the command syntax, not a comment marker.

Do not type the word ADMINPASSWORD literally unless that is actually your configured password. Avoid adding quotation marks around the password unless your server’s command interface requires them. If the password contains characters that are difficult to enter or transmit, change it to a strong value made from characters your administrators can reliably type.

Confirm that the login worked

Use an administrative command only after the login has been accepted. If the server treats the entry as ordinary chat, check that you opened the chat input with / and that the command starts with #. If the server rejects the login, compare the typed value with the current passwordAdmin line and confirm that the server was restarted after the edit.

Authorizing individual players with admins[]

Arma 3 can also use the admins[] setting to identify authorized player IDs. This is separate from the shared-password flow: instead of giving every administrator the same password, you can list the IDs that should be allowed to administer the server.

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The exact admins[] syntax and the configuration mode required for it should be checked against the current Bohemia Interactive server-configuration documentation before deployment. The available setup material confirms the setting and its purpose but does not establish a current, universal line format. Do not copy an example from an old post without confirming that its brackets, quotation marks, separators, and required mode match your server version.

When you use this method:

  • Collect each administrator’s correct player ID from a trusted source.
  • Add the IDs to the active server configuration using the current documented admins[] format.
  • Keep passwordAdmin available as a recovery path until the ID-based access has been tested.
  • Restart the server after saving the configuration.
  • Test with an authorized account and with an account that is not on the list.

Do not assume that an ID listed in admins[] changes the RCON password or grants access to an external RCON tool. The two systems remain independent.

Configure BattlEye RCON for remote administration

RCON is optional. Use it when administrators need to manage the server from a remote administration program rather than joining the game first. It is not a replacement for setting passwordAdmin if you also want normal in-game admin commands.

1. Enable BattlEye

RCON requires BattlEye to be enabled. Guides recommend the following server setting:

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BattlEye = 1;

Apply this in the active server configuration, then restart the server if you changed it.

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2. Open the BattlEye RCON configuration

RCON settings are stored in battleye/beserver_x64.cfg. This is not the same file as server.cfg. Edit the BattlEye file associated with the server instance you are running.

The two relevant keys are:

  • RConPassword — the password used by the RCON client.
  • RConPort — the network port on which the RCON service listens.

Choose an RCON password that is different from passwordAdmin. A person who knows the in-game password should not automatically have remote-control credentials.

3. Restart and connect with the RCON tool

Save beserver_x64.cfg and restart the server so BattlEye loads the change. Configure the RCON client with the server address, the exact RConPort, and the matching RConPassword. RCON commands and connection errors should be diagnosed separately from in-game #login failures.

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RCON ports: why examples differ

Port numbers depend on the server’s network layout. The Bohemia Interactive wiki lists UDP port 2306 among the BattlEye-related ports to open. A hosting guide describes the RCON port as the game port plus four; with the common game port 2302, that also produces 2306.

Those sources agree on 2306 for the default 2302 game-port example but do not establish a universal rule for every custom setup. Check the actual game port, the value of RConPort, and the firewall or host-panel rules for your instance. Open the port and protocol required by your own configuration rather than blindly forwarding a default value.

Useful in-game command names

A community-maintained Bohemia forum thread from 2013 lists the following server-command names:

Command Use
#logout End the current admin session.
#lock Lock the server.
#unlock Unlock the server.
#missions Open the mission-management command.
#reassign Run the player or slot reassignment command.
#restart Restart the server.
#shutdown Shut down the server.
#Init Run the initialization command.
#plock [password] Set a password lock using the command’s password argument.

These names come from an old community reference, not a current command-by-command verification in the official documentation. Treat the table as a starting point, retain the leading #, and verify behavior against current Arma 3 documentation and your server version before using a command that can restart, lock, or shut down a live server. The bracketed text in #plock [password] denotes an argument to replace; do not type the brackets unless the current command syntax explicitly requires them.

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Troubleshoot the setup systematically

The server ignores the command

  • Open chat with /, not a different chat key or console window.
  • Check that the first character is #.
  • Remove accidental spaces or copied formatting before the hash.
  • Try a simple command only after confirming that the login was accepted.

The login is rejected

  • Compare the password character by character with passwordAdmin.
  • Confirm you edited the configuration loaded by this server instance.
  • Confirm the server was restarted after the change.
  • Check whether another administrator changed the password or whether the host panel generates a separate configuration.
  • If the password contains characters that were altered by copying, replace it with a new strong password using a simpler character set.

The server starts with the old password

This usually indicates that the process did not load the file you edited, the old process was not fully stopped, or a host panel regenerated the configuration. Stop the server, inspect the startup configuration selection, and verify the file timestamp and value before starting it again.

RCON cannot connect

  • Check that BattlEye = 1; is enabled in the active server configuration.
  • Verify the path battleye/beserver_x64.cfg.
  • Match the RCON client password to RConPassword, not passwordAdmin.
  • Match the client port to RConPort.
  • Confirm that the selected port is allowed by the host firewall and any external firewall.
  • Restart after changing BattlEye or the RCON file.

Only one administrator can work at once

Do not assume that adding another shared-password user creates independent accounts. The ordinary login is a shared-password flow. If your administrators need separate identities or remote concurrent management, test the admins[] approach and consider RCON, while verifying the behavior on the current server build.

Operate admin access safely

  • Use different secrets for passwordAdmin and RConPassword.
  • Give credentials only to people who need them.
  • Change the passwords when an administrator leaves the team or a credential may have been exposed.
  • Keep a backup of the last known-good configuration before changing access settings.
  • Record which file, port, and password purpose each setting controls; server.cfg and beserver_x64.cfg are separate.
  • Test a login after every restart rather than assuming a saved file was loaded.
  • Be cautious with #restart, #shutdown, and #lock on a populated server.

The shortest reliable workflow is therefore: set passwordAdmin, restart, join, press /, run #login ADMINPASSWORD, and verify an administrative command. Add admins[] only after confirming its current syntax, and configure BattlEye RCON separately when remote administration is genuinely needed.

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