Install uMod & Plugins/Mods to your Rust Server (Easy)

This guide assumes you already have a server

If you’d like to see how I set up a dedicated server, check out the Rust Dedicated Server Guide. This will also help you get started assuming you’d like to set up and install plugins or mods on a fresh server.

uMod and Oxide

uMod, previously Oxide, is a mod for Rust (and other) Dedicated Servers that allow you to add plugins and customize functionality of your server. You can even hot-reload most plugins and configs using a command without needing to restart your server.

Plugins are made in C# and can be as simple or as complex as your heart desires. But let’s install uMod on our Rust server, and get it to automatically update.

Installing uMod

You can download the latest version of uMod as a zip from the uMod Rust Download Page. In the zip you will find RustDedicated_Data. Simply extract the zip and merge this folder with your existing RustDedicated_Data in your Rust dedicated server’s files. Restart your server, and the plugins, config and other folders will be created inside a brand new oxide folder, next to your RustDedicated_Data folder.

Installing uMod plugins

You can obtain uMod plugins from the uMod Plugins page, or third-party websites such as using paid plugins. The uMod plugins page should have people looking into code for malicious behaviour, while off-site plugins may not have the same.

uMod plugins usually come as plain .cs files, which are just c# code. These code files are compiled and loaded by uMod on your server so there are (usually) no more steps than just extracting your new .cs file to the <Rust Server>\rust\oxide\plugins.

When a plugin is placed or modified in this folder either restart the server entirely, or preferably use oxide.reload * or oxide.reload <plugin name> to reload all, or just one plugin. Something along the lines of oxide.reload kits for example.

Configuring plugins

Once a plugin is loaded it should generate a configuration file (if it has anything to configure. This is almost always a true). Check your <Rust Server>\rust\oxide\config folder for new configuration files once your plugin has been loaded by the Rust server.

When you change options in the configuration file make sure to use oxide.reload * to reload all, or oxide.reload <plugin name> to reload just one plugin. This will activate the new settings.

Keeping uMod up-to-date

Your server likely uses SteamCMD to keep itself up-to-date when it restarts, but it’s also worthwhile checking for and downloading updates for uMod at the same time.

You can either manually update by downloading a new copy of uMod and extracting it over the existing files in your server folder (overwriting changes), or by adjusting your server’s start.bat.

The simple way to automate your Rust uMod auto-updates is to add a few lines near where SteamCMD updates your server. The following should work for most Windows 10 and 11 computers with updates past 2019 (tar and curl were added to Windows by default then).

update.bat

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@echo off echo --------------------------- echo - Updating server - echo --------------------------- "<STEAMCMD FOLDER>\steamcmd.exe" +force_install_dir "<RUST FOLDER>" +login anonymous +app_update 258550 validate +quit curl -SL -A "Mozilla/5.0" "https://umod.org/games/rust/download" --output latest-uMod.zip tar -xvf latest-uMod.zip del latest-uMod.zip pause

• curl command downloads the latest uMod version from the website and saves it as latest-uMod.zip.
• tar extracts the uMod zip over your existing files, updating it.
• del removes the zip previously downloaded to clean up.

These commands can also be used to initially install uMod alongside your server if you wish.

I would also recommend adding these to your start.bat if you have an auto-update for the server built-in there:

start.bat

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@echo off :start echo --------------------------- echo - Updating server - echo --------------------------- "<STEAMCMD FOLDER>\steamcmd.exe" +force_install_dir "<RUST FOLDER>" +login anonymous +app_update 258550 +quit cd <RUST FOLDER> echo - Updating uMod - curl -SL -A "Mozilla/5.0" "https://umod.org/games/rust/download" --output latest-uMod.zip tar -xvf latest-uMod.zip del latest-uMod.zip echo --------------------------- echo - Starting server - echo --------------------------- "RustDedicated.exe" /B RustDedicated.exe -batchmode +server.port 28015 +server.queryport 28016 +app.port 28017 +app.listenip <YOUR PUBLIC IP> +sever.level "Procedural Map" +server.seed 1234 +server.worldsize 5000 +server.maxplayers 250 +server.hostname "TroubleChute's Rust Guide Server" echo Server restarting... echo Press Ctrl+C to stop. goto start

This file should update your server if there are new versions available, download and install the latest version of uMod and finally start your server. This file will likely be different to yours (mostly around the SteamCMD location and the cd <RUST FOLDER> opening your game’s folder) so remember to change those if necessary.

Keeping plugins up-to-date

There are a few ways to accomplish this. Most of the time plugins don’t need to have big updates as Rust updates because a lot of the core game mechanics and functionality stay the same. You could use a plugin like Plugin Update Notifications to check for new plugin updates, and install them manually. This plugin should notify your Discord server through the use of a Discord Webhook.

Alternatively you could use something like the Automatic Plugin Updater however at the time of writing this has not seen an update in 4+ years. You will need to experiment if you choose to use something like this.

And, of course, if you paid for plugins or obtained plugins through third-party websites that aren’t related to uMod you likely won’t be able to have automatically updating plugins and you will need to do this manually.

Permissions

This is a rabbit hole. To learn about giving users access to permissions, and groups of users permissions, as well as other permission management things, check my uMod Permissions Made Easy (+How to use Groups).