Scheduled Restarts and Server Messages on DayZ
Why DayZ servers restart every few hours, the restart options on GameGrid, how DayZ's own messages.xml timer works, and how to schedule warning and rules messages.
Why DayZ Servers Restart So Often
Most busy DayZ community servers restart every 3 to 6 hours, and players expect it:
- Performance. A long-running server accumulates objects and memory use, and server FPS drifts down.
- Loot. A restart is when the loot economy gets a clean start, and when
RestartSpawnand file edits apply. - Changes. DayZ reads its settings and mission files only when it starts.
Players plan around restart times, so pick a schedule, publish it in your server description or Discord, and warn players before each one.
Your Options on GameGrid
| Method | Restarts when | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Restart button in the status bar | When you press it | Stops DayZ cleanly with #shutdown, which saves the world, then starts it |
| Automatic Daily Restart (Admin tab) | Every 6, 12 or 24 hours of uptime, but only while nobody is online | For quiet servers, and as a safety net |
DayZ's messages.xml shutdown timer | A fixed time after each start | DayZ's own feature: DayZ shuts itself down and the platform starts it again, see below |
The Command Manager can send warning messages before a restart you have planned. It never restarts the server itself.
Automatic Daily Restart
On the Admin tab, the Automatic Daily Restart card offers every 6, 12 or 24 hours. The restart happens when no players are online and the interval has passed, so it never interrupts a game.
On a DayZ server that is rarely empty, it may almost never fire. That is expected. Details: Automatic Daily Restart.
DayZ's Own Timer: messages.xml
DayZ can show timed messages and shut itself down on a timer. The file is mpmissions/<mission>/db/messages.xml (Sakhal's mission does not ship one; create it with the same structure).
A shutdown 4 hours after every start, with a message:
<messages>
<message>
<deadline>240</deadline>
<shutdown>1</shutdown>
<text>Server restart in #tmin minutes.</text>
</message>
</messages>| Tag | Meaning |
|---|---|
deadline | Minutes after the server starts at which the message fires |
shutdown | 1 shuts the server down when the deadline is reached |
countdown | 1 repeats the message as the deadline approaches |
delay | Minutes after start before a repeating message first shows |
repeat | Minutes between repeats |
onconnect | 1 shows the message to each player when they join |
#tmin | Replaced with the minutes left |
#name | Replaced with the server name |
How GameGrid handles a shutdown DayZ starts itself: when DayZ exits without the panel asking, as it does after
#shutdownfrom the Console, the platform treats the exit as unexpected and starts the server again, usually within a minute or two. Amessages.xmlshutdown ends DayZ in the same way. Automatic starts after unexpected exits are limited to a few attempts, so watch the status bar after the first scheduled shutdown, and press Start if the server stays stopped. For a restart at a time you choose, use the Restart button.
Because the timer counts from each start, a restart you do by hand moves the schedule.
Welcome and Rules Messages
The same file can show messages to players:
<message>
<onconnect>1</onconnect>
<text>Welcome to #name. No KOS in towns. Discord: discord.gg/yourserver</text>
</message>
<message>
<delay>10</delay>
<repeat>60</repeat>
<text>Restarts every 4 hours. Read the rules on our Discord.</text>
</message>Keep messages short: long lines are hard to read in DayZ's chat. serverDZ.cfg also has a message-of-the-day list (motd[] with motdInterval), shown after joining; messages.xml is more flexible.
Edit the file in the Files tab, keep the XML valid, and restart to load it. Join afterwards and check the messages appear.
Warnings with the Command Manager
The Command Manager (Event Manager page) sends console commands on a schedule. On DayZ those are BattlEye RCon commands.
Its Restart warning sequence template sends warning messages over BattlEye RCon (say -1) at 30, 10, 5 and 1 minute before a restart time you pick. It does not stop, restart or lock the server, so pair it with a restart you have scheduled another way.
Two other templates save you retyping a line every week. Rotating tips takes the next entry from a list you wrote, using a {rotList:…} token, so one saved message cycles through all of them. Event Result reads out the winner of the last event your server recorded, using the {lastEventWinner} token — it is filled in when the command runs, it says "nobody yet" rather than leaving a gap when there is no recorded result to read, and a shared first place is read out in full.
Use Run Now and read the Log to see what the server replied, and check in game that the message arrived. General help: Command Manager Guide.
Console #shutdown and Stop Are Different
Typing #shutdown in the Console is not the same as pressing Stop. The platform did not ask for that exit, so it treats it as unexpected and starts the server again, usually within a minute or two.
- To take the server offline and keep it off, use Stop.
- To restart now, use Restart.
If your server stops and does not come back when you expected it to, start it from the status bar and open a support ticket with the time it happened.