Configuring 7 Days to Die Telnet and Alloc's Fixes via Pterodactyl

7 Days to Die exposes more management surface than almost any other Unity title. Beyond the default UDP game port, the dedicated server can open a Telnet command channel for live operator commands, plus an HTTP API once Alloc's Server Fixes is loaded. The combination drives every popular external manager, including CSMM, Bot Man, and the venerable Server Tools panel.

Pterodactyl gates network access through its allocations system, so the Telnet and HTTP ports need to be explicitly bound to the server instance before the container can listen on them. Skip that step and the binary boots cleanly but no external tool ever connects, which is the single most common support ticket for this title.

Prerequisites

• Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with Pterodactyl Panel reachable and at least one Wings node attached.
• A 7 Days to Die A22 egg imported (the official egg in the Pterodactyl community repository).
• 8 GB of RAM allocated to the instance, 16 GB recommended for navezgane plus large prefab packs.
• Three free ports on the node: 26900 game, 8081 Telnet, 8082 HTTP API.

Step 1: Create the Allocations

Before creating the server, open the node in Pterodactyl and assign the three ports as separate allocations on the same IP. The primary allocation will be the game port, and the two additional allocations will become the Telnet and HTTP channels.

$IP: 10.0.0.5
$Port 26900   (primary, game traffic, UDP)
$Port 26901   (auxiliary, Steam query)
$Port 26902   (auxiliary, Steam master)
$Port 8081    (additional, Telnet)
$Port 8082    (additional, HTTP API for Alloc Fixes)

When you create the server, attach all five allocations to the instance. Pterodactyl exposes them inside the container as SERVER_PORT, SERVER_PORT_2, and so on, in the order they were assigned.

Step 2: Configure the Server Egg

The 7 Days to Die egg uses a generated serverconfig.xml instead of command line arguments. The container template writes that XML on first boot from the startup variables, so editing the variables in the panel is enough for the most important values.

$SRCDS_APPID=294420
$SERVER_NAME=No Bears Allowed
$SERVER_PASSWORD=
$SERVER_MAX_PLAYERS=24
$GAME_WORLD=Navezgane
$GAME_MODE=GameModeSurvival
$GAME_DIFFICULTY=2
$TELNET_ENABLED=true
$TELNET_PORT=8081
$TELNET_PASSWORD=REPLACE_WITH_LONG_PASSWORD
$CONTROL_PANEL_ENABLED=true
$CONTROL_PANEL_PORT=8082
$CONTROL_PANEL_PASSWORD=REPLACE_WITH_ANOTHER_LONG_PASSWORD

Step 3: Install Alloc's Server Fixes

Alloc's mod is a DLL that drops into Mods/ and replaces the stock HTTP control panel with a vastly more capable API. Without it, you cannot push commands from CSMM, you cannot query player inventories, and you cannot serve the live map renderer. Install it once per instance.

$cd /home/container
$mkdir -p Mods
$# Replace the URL with the current release that matches your game build
$wget https://github.com/Alloc-illy/7dtd-server-fixes/releases/latest/download/Alloc-Server-Fixes.zip
$unzip -o Alloc-Server-Fixes.zip -d Mods/
$rm Alloc-Server-Fixes.zip
$ls -la Mods/

Restart the server. The console should print a banner from Alloc's mod during boot. If it does not, check that the version downloaded matches the live game build, because mod ABI breaks on every A22 dot release.

Step 4: Verify Telnet and HTTP API

Telnet authentication is plaintext password followed by a prompt. Test it from any workstation that can route to the node:

$nc 10.0.0.5 8081
$# Server prints: Please enter password:
$REPLACE_WITH_LONG_PASSWORD
$lp
$# Should list connected players, or an empty list, plus a prompt

The HTTP API is browser testable. Visit http://10.0.0.5:8082/index.html and you should see Alloc's web frontend. Once that responds, point CSMM, Bot Man, or any other manager at the same URL with the panel password.

Performance and Tuning

• Allocate 12 GB to the instance for any world larger than Navezgane. The Unity asset cache balloons with high view distance.
• Drop ServerMaxAllowedViewDistance from 12 to 8 in serverconfig.xml for hosts under 16 GB. View distance is the single biggest memory multiplier.
• Schedule a Pterodactyl restart task at 04:00 local time. The Unity garbage collector recovers significant memory on cold boots, far more than any in game cleanup.
• Pin the world save directory to an NVMe volume. Spinning disks cause client lag spikes during chunk saves.

Conclusion

With Telnet and HTTP allocations attached to the instance and Alloc's Fixes loaded into Mods/, your 7 Days to Die server is fully addressable by every popular external manager. The Pterodactyl allocation system is what makes this possible, and once you internalize the pattern of pre allocating auxiliary ports before server creation, you can reproduce the same workflow for any title that exposes a management channel beyond its primary game port.