Dedicated Server - Banlist gets Wiped (Known Issue) - Temporary Solution

[SemlerPDX]

There is a known issue with Dedicated Servers where the banlist gets wiped from time to time. We have not found any corresponding event to this behavior, it seems to be random. The banlist.con file becomes an empty file and must be manually restored. We use this solution on the VETERANS-GAMING COOP Server, and I figured I'd make it public here to help other servers maintain the health of their banlists.


Temporary Solution:
I've written a batch file to monitor the banlist. It compares it with an example of a broken banlist, and if it's the same, it restores the banlist from a backup folder, otherwise it creates a new backup of the banlist. The batch script loops every minute, and writes a time-stamp note to a log file if the banlist is broken and has been restored.

To use this, unzip/extract the contents to the root PR folder on your server. You can run PR_Banlist_Monitor.bat from a webpanel or as a service, or manually run (double-click) the PR_Banlist_Monitor.bat and just minimize the cmd window while it runs in the background -- to manually stop the monitor from a webpanel or as a service, run the Stop_PR_Banlist_Monitor.bat

On first run, it will create the backup of your banlist.con in the BanlistMonitor\MasterBackup folder. The log.txt file here will appear empty until the banlist breaks and is restored.

CPU resource usage should be next to nothing even on older servers.


Download Here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/a6y3nni0322sd ... r.zip?dl=0
File list:
BanlistMonitor\BrokenExample\banlist.con
BanlistMonitor\MasterBackup\log.txt
PR_Banlist_Monitor.bat
Stop_PR_Banlist_Monitor.bat


PR_Banlist_Monitor.bat code: https://pastebin.com/08sJ7mc4
Stop_PR_Banlist_Monitor.bat code: https://pastebin.com/b248wnHY


**to be clear, the .bat files and BanlistMonitor Folder must reside in the root folder of PR on the server. Any questions, feel free to ask.