5Stack

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Servers & Regions ​

5Stack can host matches several ways and keeps your servers up to date for you — all managed from the panel. For first-time setup of a node, see the Servers section; this page covers what admins do with servers day to day.

Server types ​

  • Game Server Nodes — machines 5Stack manages directly to spin up on-demand game servers. The node list shows hardware (CPU sockets/cores/threads, GPU, disk), status, region, and the CS2 build each node is on. See Game Server Nodes.
  • Dedicated Servers — external or third-party servers you connect to 5Stack with host/port and RCON credentials. See Dedicated Servers.
  • Public Servers — a public server browser that lists your connected servers grouped by game and type, with live player counts, capacity bars, and a quick-connect button. LAN servers get their own section.

When a match is created, it can use a dedicated server or provision an on-demand server in a chosen region automatically.

Automatic CS2 updates & version pinning ​

By default, nodes auto-update to the latest CS2 build and the latest 5Stack game-server plugin — there's nothing to babysit. When you need stability instead:

  • Pin a CS2 build on a node to freeze it on a specific version; unpin to go back to always-latest.
  • Pin the plugin version separately.
  • A warning flags any node whose build differs from the current stable version, and an Install CS action appears if CS2 isn't on the node yet.

See Version Pinning for details.

Match server controls ​

From a match's server tab, organizers and admins get hands-on control of the match server:

  • RCON console — send commands to the live server from the browser.
  • Live server logs — watch the match server's console output.
  • Round restore — roll back to a backed-up round.
  • Reboot the server.

File browser & plugins ​

Both game server nodes and dedicated servers have an in-browser file manager — browse the file tree and edit, rename, delete, or upload files (server configs, plugin files, and more) right from the panel, no SFTP needed.

Game server nodes also support custom CounterStrikeSharp (CSS) plugins dropped into a special folder. See Custom Plugins.

Server tuning ​

  • CPU pinning — enable it and set CPUs per server (CPU Pinning).
  • Reserved disk space — separate reservations (GB) for fresh and existing instances.

See also CPU Governance and Low Latency Kernel.

Regions ​

Manage where servers run:

  • Create, edit, and delete regions.
  • Per region: Use Steam Relay (hide your real server IP — see Steam Datagram Relay) and LAN mode.
  • See available vs. total servers per region at a glance.

Map pools ​

Curate the maps matches can use — auto-update pools to the official list, or create and edit custom pools per format. See Matchmaking & Ranks.