How to Create Your Own Raspberry Pi Docker Based 3.3.5 WoW WotLK AzerothCore Server [2024]

[@rynsmnsmovies]

Thanks for this! It was a fun project to tackle this weekend and learn a bunch about Docker, Portainer, MySQL, and AzerothCore. I get nostalgic for wow sometimes and having my own server to putter around in with GM commands will scratch that itch. Your written instructions are well done and even show how to play with modules since they include how to install the player bots module. I used ChatGPT to fill in the blanks.

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

No problem and glad it's helping people! Enjoy! :)

[@BofM]

Excellent guide!!! Here's a tip some people may find useful! If your build step keeps failing at 'ac-db-import' and your logs show permission denied errors. The help text says that it's possibly caused by cloning the repo as root, and then suggests some work-arounds. I was not root!!! However I also was not user:1000 or group:1000 which is hard-coded into the dockerfile. So if this is your scenario, then edit the dockerfile and search for 1000. Each location will have two entries for user ID and group ID. Change them both to match your user ID and group ID and then re-build from scratch be sure to delete old docker images/containers/volumes. Good luck!

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

Thank you for that information!

[@250252]

Been stuck with this for almost 2 days now. Keep getting error related with ac-db-import, i've checked the dockerfile and yes, its set to user_id 1000 and group_id 1000 but when i check id -u and id -g it returns me the same 1000. So i recon these are correct. Tried rerunning the build multiple times waiting approx 2 hrs every time for it to rebuild (rebuilding clean after each failure). Despite everything, tried to edit values in db, and after changing and restarting containers (restarts without errors) i noticed that ac-worldserver is stuck on constant restarting. If it goes up, only for a few seconds. Once checking logs i noticed many errors. But they always start with: Can't set process priority class, error: Permission denied . Tried looking for workarounds like adding privileged: true under ac-worldserver in docker-compose file, but no changes there. Any tips what else i could try ?I"m using pi4 with 4g ram (clean install as per video)

[@250252]

the exact error i get from db-import is: ERROR 1146 (42S02) at line 2 in file: '/azerothcore/data/sql/updates/db_world/2024_07_16_02.sql': Table 'acore_world.version' doesn't exist Checked folders, 2024_07_16_02.sql exists.

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

Hmmm, it might be worth checking the projects discord as something might have broke with project updates.

[@250252]

@@Digital-Scriptorium Could be, for the time being after checking all logs i found that the initial db import only managed to prepare 1/3 of the entire table. So at the moment i'm updating schema manually with all of the tables, once thats done, will try to run the build once more. Will update the comment if that works. EDIT: That worked. After manually fixing initial tables, import was successful. Though had another issue right after it when trying to attach ac-worldserver, fixed it by manually creating docker network with : docker network create ac-network . After all that, server is up and running. Cheers.

[@seungchullee7729]

good guide. Thanks for your efforts!

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

No problem! Enjoy! :)

[@willkydd]

Something like an M710q is about the same price and power draw as a raspberry pi (when idle) but packs A LOT more power.

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

This is true! I personally use my m720q's

[@Seele56]

Great Tut - even for my poor language Skills but i understand all - Thanks a lot for your efford

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

No problem and enjoy! :)

[@FeedehC]

Excellent guide! Thanks a lot

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

No problem! :)

[@bdbch]

quick note: You don't need to use PUTTY as Windows nowadays has native SSH support in the terminal now.

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

This is true!

[@CuriousMira]

Hey, so cool to update your tutorial !!

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

It's very close but with some refinements specific for raspberry pi's. Plus some new methods I've learned recently to make the setup easier and more streamlined.

[@blinky042002]

Like the player bot addition. Would love to see the auction house bot actually work and post useful items like gems and glyphs as well as healthy amounts of trade goods. Not sure if you’ve come up with any solutions for that?

[@Painbow9553]

There has been an update to AHBOT not too long ago which gives more options in the config file - have you taken a look? I think the playerbots in cmangos craft their own gear and post it on the AH. I've been testing cmangos out lately and the bots are a bit more sophisticated than azerothcore, but they're not as tough.

[@blinky042002]

@@Painbow9553yeah been trying to play around with it. Even explicitly adding itemid to the config doesn’t help. There is a couple forks out there that I think I’ll try though to see if someone has solved the issue before I start tearing apart the C++ code lol

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

I haven't tried the AH ones yet but I'll give it a shot soon.

[@plazmax]

superb 👍

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

I'm happy it's helping people :)

[@1337kaas]

I couldnt get the playerbots module to work, because the SQL files couldn't get imported. After watching your video i found out i need to mount the module directory in the conpose file as bindmount. Will try compiling again today

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

You got this! :)

[@Jefflenious]

Hello! Glad to see you're still active Had a question, I installed wotlk on windows and it works flawlessly. Problem is I wanted to setup the server to try out some levelling strategies with certain gears and consumables but apparently most of "exploits" have already been patched. Pretty sure stuff like "ZF" or "SM" infinite kiting levelling was still on WOTLK classic live servers, could be wrong idk Any ideas on how I can get back to those versions?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

Hmmm that's a good question and perhaps something better for the projects discord page for those that might know more than me on that topic.

[@Madben1982]

Great guide thanks a lot for you efforts! Is there a way to run a Wow Vanilla Server, maybe something like the single player project in a Pi 4 Docker, too? I think vanilla should be much "friendlier" to the Pi's Hardware. Asking for a friend ;)

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

That should be fine. My vmangos 1.12 docker guide can run that no problem on my pi 4 4gb or 8gb models.

[@studiouspiglo]

God bless this man

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

Enjoy :)

[@LigitandMeyers]

ALmsot ready to buy a Pi...but still waiting for an updated Azeroth core install on WIndows 11 video *hint*

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

Hahaha you are in luck! That's next. Hopefully later this week.

[@nirv]

Hey Scriptorium - sort of unrelated question: Are you actually paying for a mediafire premium account to host the burning crusade client data? I'm just curious because I think I'm going to host the vanilla data on my own server in the living room if I make a cmangos guide, but I feel the community for all this self hosting WoW is so niche that it won't even put a dent in my upload speed. Does that file use more than 500GB per day and how much is it costing you?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

Yeah, I use premium for the permanent links. It's like $50 or $60 a year for 1tb of storage. I can't remember what the monthly data cap is but I haven't come anywhere close to maxing it out.

[@shaneflach4731]

Any tips on a simple method to reboot the world server nightly?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

Hmmm that's a good question. Chatgpt might be a good reference for that one :)

[@250252]

Create cron job that executes specific container restart

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

@@250252 thank you for the info

[@nkl254]

Hey, great video! Please tell me, on Debian 12, is the command accurate?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

It is just don't do the raspberry pi kernal fix if it's a PC.

[@nkl254]

@@Digital-Scriptorium Thanks for your quick answer!

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

@@nkl254 no problem! Enjoy! :)

[@Vegavalane]

This is so cool! ordered a pi to try this out. if i get the 8gb version, do you think i could run 1 more lightweight application in docker with this? Want to run a frontend for AI that should need no more then 0.5gb ram or so (SillyTavern).

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

Yeah, that should be fine to do on an 8gb one.

[@Vegavalane]

@@Digital-Scriptorium sweet, il try it out! Also, i might have missed it but don't most everyone have dynamic ip? or did a step in this setup remove that?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

@@Vegavalane yeah, I didn't show anything on that since it can get into some complicated territory that isn't the same for everyone.

[@Vegavalane]

@@Digital-Scriptorium im sure there are better ways, i used tailscale. since amazin were fast today! yay! This also allows me to remote into it outside of local, as if i was local. so thats nice.

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

O great idea! I always forget about Tailscale.

[@fredboots3535]

I would love the txt file you are showing to the right so i can start on my nice rp5 i have lying in vain🙂

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

Absolutely, it should be in the description as a "commands sheet" I believe is what I named it.

[@fredboots3535]

@@Digital-Scriptorium Have it and a nice cup of co-fi.

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

@@fredboots3535 thank you! I appreciate it! Enjoy! :)

[@RequiosWoW]

Do you know of a way to have some kind of development environment that will easily backup/restore a database state? Im a jr software dev, last time I got into azerothcore I was having fun modifying and trying to make modules but had a hard time getting a nice safe way to experiment and make changes while being able to have a "stable" database to go back to at the same time. It was too complicated for me so I stopped. Any ideas/tips?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

Well a simple way would be to have a ProxMox server and have it take snapshots as a whole. You can look on the projects wiki for SQL backup methods too.

[@spotLV]

335 tho. Aren't there any new era classic wotlk server files available?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

3.4.x Classic didn't have a huge amount of interest bringing to life. I think people held off because of the changes that Blizzard made.

[@whiro638]

Can I also apply the tutorial to an Intel NUC with Proxmox?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

Absolutely!

[@whiro638]

@@Digital-Scriptorium Thank you for your quick response. I'll try it in a few days.

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

@@whiro638 no problem and enjoy! :)

[@fixitman2174]

Thanks for the great guide. The only issue I have is that the server is set to UTC time. That means both of the fishing tournaments are going to happen way too early for me. Do you have any idea how to fix that?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

Hmmm, what's your pi set to for time?

[@fixitman2174]

@@Digital-Scriptorium The date command shows the correct time zone and time. It looks as though this is a docker issue, but I've had no luck finding a workaround. Is your server time correct in-game?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

@@fixitman2174 hmm interesting. It could be the containers themselves are set to UTC.

[@fixitman2174]

@@Digital-Scriptorium That's what I thought as well. What little information I find ends up without a fix, because it's considered best practice to do that. Unfortunately, it isn't in this case.

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

@@fixitman2174 very interesting. Well I learn something new every day. I will look into it though.

[@fredboots3535]

Got it all working thanks one question... is there a way to convert a trinity database to this one )that is the one we are playing on for more then a year now on a vmware server server hosting Debian.

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

That's a good question. AzerothCore technically has a lot of TrinityCore infrastructure since it broke off from them. However, it might not be so apples to apples anymore for database structure.

[@fredboots3535]

@@Digital-Scriptorium Indeed that is so i will continue my search and i find something that can convert the databases i will post it here you for you and others.

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

I appreciate that and best of luck! :)

[@CooperCooper-fp1cr]

The first method works great but the one with bot doesn't. I have a lot of red warning saying some table doesn't exist for the playerbots. Any idea?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

Did you get the prompt to force create the playerbot tables when you kicked off the world server? You just hit enter and it would auto create it for you.

[@CooperCooper-fp1cr]

@@Digital-Scriptorium I don't remember seeing a prompt to force creating the tables. I've tried the installation 3 times. I may have missed something.

[@CooperCooper-fp1cr]

I've tried again. It was a file residue from docker. The database volume was not correctly removed between the installations. It seems to be working now.

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

@@CooperCooper-fp1cr nice and good catch! Glad to hear all is well now! Enjoy! :)

[@Marcus-ql6qy]

Thank you. I would like to start with a warlock. But the imp does not work. Is this right?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

It should work last I knew.

[@Marcus-ql6qy]

@@Digital-Scriptorium I press ctrl +1 for the attack but Imp doesn't do anything just the button flashes that it would attack

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

@@Marcus-ql6qy interesting. I'm surprised with a project like this that pet actions like that wouldn't work.

[@Marcus-ql6qy]

@@Digital-Scriptorium kzbin.info/www/bejne/pp26Ymp7ebWei5Y

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

I'm curious if the project knows of this bug.

[@shaneflach4731]

does the guild create cmd not function in this build? I tried via the attach and also via console in the game but i get nothing good. In the world console i try .guild create [Fang] "GuildName" and it says charector does not exist but it does and i play with that charector on my account. Am i missing something with the syntax??

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

It might be worth checking out the wiki for the project they might have the exact syntax you're looking for.

[@shaneflach4731]

@@Digital-Scriptorium Do you know what i would need to change in the playerbot.conf to spawn more bots? Is it just min max bots or do i need to add more accounts to?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

I believe that is what is needed.

[@joshuajohnson6649]

So I got far to the end of this video without problems. Until it was time to set my realmlist. I'm not able to connect even tho I checked the mysql auth and world server is up and healthy. 🤷‍♂️

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

So you set the realmlist to what your IP is and then restarted all of the containers? Double check you saved your realmlist config in the client as well. Be sure to give your containers a few minutes to fully come back to a fully started state as well.

[@joshuajohnson6649]

​@@Digital-Scriptorium Ok update. The server must be connected online to work. I was trying to use it on an offline private lan network. I hope I am wrong though. It works now. Thank you Digital for making my project a reality.

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

@@joshuajohnson6649 no problem! Enjoy! :)

[@joshuajohnson6649]

Two more questions, how do you gracefully shutdown the world server with this method? Type: docker attach ac-worldserver followed with CNTRL+ C? And how do you edit or make changes to the world server config file? Thanks

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

For the world server attach to it and type "server shutdown 1" without the quotes. As for adjusting the world server config. I haven't tried to change it in a docker build before. The results might be mixed because of it.

[@weluvmusicz]

How can I go questing with these PlayerBots?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

You know it's funny I haven't tried but you can invite them to your party. Let me know how it goes! You might have to adjust the playerbot configuration file to allow the level ranges that will accept the invites.

[@florianernst2988]

what do you think - how many players can handle a rasp 5 with 8gb?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

I've heard people say around 1,000 but I can't confirm that myself.

[@layol692k7]

Incredible video impressive waht a raspberry pi can do also

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

Yeah, I'm going to create more raspberry pi based videos to show off they can do more than just Minecraft and trinket projects. :)

[@layol692k7]

@@Digital-Scriptorium I bet a hell of a family and friends server can be made with one of these mini ryzen pc's with like 32 to 64 gb of ram on it . what do you think?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

@@layol692k7 haha well In my opinion getting a Lenovo M720q "Tiny" off eBay is a great option. Even that is pretty overkill though.

[@Pentlochnap]

Is there a way to play it with friends (2) online ? btw it doesnt work for me, everything went smooth I got the IP but when I turn on WOW and login it can see the world but it will not connect me I can only cancel...

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

Yes, you can play online with others if you make the firewall rule adjustments on your router which you can find info on the projects wiki. Double check your realmlist SQL table IP is proper and your clients wtf file. Your router needs to support loopback as well. Most do these days and should work out of the box

[@Pentlochnap]

@@Digital-Scriptorium thank you for answer, so I assume the IP should be the global one ? And lets say I dont want to change router rules, it should work with hamachi too ? If yes what IP I should use than, if you dont know answer I will try it at friday, if I dont forget I will post it here (I think with hamachi it would be the easiest way to do it with friends).

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

@@Pentlochnap no problem! Hamachi I believe should still be the global IP

[@CuriousMira]

I can't figure out how to add ahbot on this azerothcore and other modules, could you do a tutorial to show it if you have time please ?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

That one is been a big question. I'll have to look into it.

[@CuriousMira]

@Digital-Scriptorium thank you soooo much !!! I really wanted to do crafting on my server

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

@@CuriousMira like profession crafting?

[@CuriousMira]

@@Digital-Scriptorium no just to be able to sell item and buy ressources with my friends

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

@@CuriousMira ah

[@shaneflach4731]

How would i add another module to this server, the ah-bot for example? I see install guides but they don't seem to be for this docker build. Add it tot he compose and re run it? I'd rather not rebuild a functioning server if i can help it.

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

You should be able to pull it down into the modules folder also then try docker compose again.

[@shaneflach4731]

@@Digital-Scriptorium will this affect any player data in the databases?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

@@shaneflach4731 if you have any you want to keep it might be a good idea to back up just in case.

[@shaneflach4731]

@@Digital-Scriptorium do i need to add the mod path to the compose file simnilar to the existing addon? Should all containers be shutdown before the re-compose?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

@@shaneflach4731 it might be worth mentioning it in the AzerothCore discord. I don't want to give you bad information :)

[@shaneflach4731]

Any steps to shut down the server itself without corrupting anything? How can i back up the server info, inventory/players/etc?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

You can shut the world server down by attaching yourself to that container and telling it "server shutdown 1". As for backups the AzerothCore wiki has a few recommendations.

[@shaneflach4731]

@@Digital-Scriptorium Sorry i meant the rpi itself with containers and all. Just server shutdown 1 in the container and then shutdown the whol eunit or do i need top shut down mysql etc seperatly?

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

@@shaneflach4731 server shutdown 1 in the world server and then shut the containers all down. Then it should be safe to sit the pi down I believe.

[@DaRealAnti]

i wonder if there could be a tutorial how to set up a season of discovery server, with locking player levels to a certain lvl :D

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

It's an interesting idea. I believe it just needs a little SQL work. Perhaps something for me to queue up though :)

[@FrenziedManbeast]

FYI I tried to do this on a Rpi 3B and it died during docker compose up -d on 'ac-dc-import 8/8'. I wasn't expecting much but thought I'd mention it here in case anyone else was curious as to how old of a pi can run this. Probably better off not bothering on anything slower than Rpi 4 from what I observed, but I'm not the end-all, be-all linux/docker guru.

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

Haha yeah the raspberry pi 3b for sure is going to have troubles.

[@jensv874]

So... Edge? Hmm.

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

Edge for Portainer land?

[@jensv874]

@@Digital-Scriptorium I just like to joke about edge. Love the vid.

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

@@jensv874 haha I don't blame you

[@RaduUrsache]

use Windows terminal instead of putty, putty is trash

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

That is another option too.