Running a Factorio server with Factorio Server Manager and Docker

The Factorio server at factorio.wihan.dev is one container and one compose file. Factorio Server Manager runs inside it: a web UI that downloads the headless server, manages saves and mods, and starts and stops the game process. Server administration is a browser tab.

Credit where it is due: Factorio Server Manager is Tricade’s work, carrying on the OpenFactorioServerManager project. Everything pleasant about running this server - the mod portal login, the save management, the graceful shutdown - is their code. Star the repo if you run a factory.

services:
  manager:
    image: ghcr.io/tricade/factorio-server-manager:0.17.5
    restart: unless-stopped
    stop_grace_period: 3m
    environment:
      FACTORIO_VERSION: stable
      FSM_COOKIE_SECURE: "true"
    ports:
      - "34197:34197/udp"
    volumes:
      - fsm-data:/opt/fsm-data
      - factorio-data:/opt/factorio

The details that took a moment to get right:

• stop_grace_period: 3m. On SIGTERM the manager asks Factorio for a clean save-and-stop and needs up to 165 seconds. The Docker default of 10 seconds kills the game mid-save, which is how maps die.
• UDP bypasses the proxy. The UI rides Traefik over HTTPS, but game traffic is UDP on 34197 and Traefik cannot route it. Docker publishes the port straight on the host, and the DNS record must be a DNS-only A record. A CNAME to a proxied hostname resolves to the Cloudflare edge, which accepts your packets and tells no one.
• Named volumes. factorio-data holds the game and saves, fsm-data holds the manager state. Explicit names keep the compose project prefix out, so a backup job can address them directly.
• The first login. The manager generates an admin credential on first start and writes it to /opt/fsm-data/initial-admin-password.txt inside the volume. Log in, change the password, and the file deletes itself. Until you do, the bootstrap credential is lying around; do it first.

Version pinning matters twice here. The manager image is pinned to an exact release tag, and the Factorio version is pinned by the UI after install, because the server version must match the players’ clients. stable is only the first-install default.

Mods, save uploads, and restarts all happen in the UI afterwards. The compose file changes only when the manager itself gets an upgrade, which is exactly how often I want to think about it.