Before You Begin

Before logging into Cortex and setting your game instance up you should know how to log into Cortex and move around it's interface.

 

Logging In

You can log into Cortex by heading to either of the following URLs in your web browser:

http://<your server IP address>:8365/
https://<your server’s IP address>:8366/

The IP address, your username, and your password are provided by the administrator. If you are the administrator check the users portion of the administrator manual to learn how to create user accounts or see the Getting Started section to log in with the administrator account.

 

The Cortex Layout

Upon logging in you will be brought to the news page. All messages from Insomnia365’s staff and/or your system administrator appear here.

Cortex’s layout is divided into three main sections: The main menu, the status bar, and the main data area. The main menu shows all options available for you to work with your Instances, modify your profile, and perform network diagnostics. The status bar shows your current position within Cortex as well as any status or error messages generated by Cortex.

 

Managing Your Account

Once logged in you have the option to change your user account settings. Click the Profile link in the main menu to get to the profile editing page.

 

Editing Your Account

Cortex lets you change your account details as you need to. Keep in mind that the system administrator can also edit these fields at their discretion:

Email Address	Your email address. You must enter a valid address if you want to receive any event email from Cortex. Otherwise starting and stopping instances will produce an error on the Instances page.
First Name Last Name Address Primary Number Secondary Number Aim Icq Msn	Your personal information. This is here for records pruposes only and is not reported back to Insomnia365.
Edit Mode	You have the ability to modify your profile on every server in your cluster or just the server you’re logged into. If your account exists across a cluster you will be able to log into all servers on the cluster.

Click the save icon to save your changes and redirect you to the profile page.

 

Changing Your Password

At the bottom of this page is a separate form you can use to change your Cortex password. Enter and confirm your new password then click the Edit Password button to change your password. The dropdown box on this form works just like the Edit Mode option in the edit form above, letting you only change your password for the account on the local system or across the cluster. This will only change your Cortex account password and does not affect any of your game instances or other accounts.

 

We give the option to change your password only on the local server in the odd case you'd need to do so. If your account exists across a cluster we highly recommend keeping the same password on all servers in your cluster.

 

 

Working With Instances

Click the Instances link in the main menu to load up your instances page. This page only shows instances that the administrator has assigned to your account. If your account has administrator privileges on the server then you'll see everyone's instances except for the "admin" user's instances. If you're logged in as the admin user you'll see every game instance on the server.

Each game instance has its own section on this page. To the direct right of the instance's game icon is a table showing real-time status for the instance. This table provides the following information:

 

Address	The IP and port the server is listening on. This is the address your clients use when they want to connect to your game server.
Web Administration	If the server has a built in web based configuration system, like TeamSpeak's web administration, then this link will direct you to that administration page.
Players online	The number of players currently on the server. This will read "N/A" if the server is not running.
Hostname	The hostname of the server set itn it's configuration file. This will read "N/A" if the server is not running.
Map	The map currently running on the server. This will read "N/A" if the server is not running.
CPU Use	The amount of CPU power the server is currently using. This is measured as a percentage of total CPU power and will read "N/A" if the server is not running.
Memory Use	The amount of RAM the server is currently using. This is measured in megabytes and will read "N/A" if the server is not running.

To the right of this table are the options you have for working with this instance. These options may change depending on your account permissions or whether the game supports that option:

 

• Stop/Start the server. Note that it may take 30-60 seconds for a server to start after clicking the Start button. If the server is started then the Stop button is displayed.
• Edit Maps: Set up your map rotations.
• Edit Config: Work with your server config.
• Browse Files: Get direct access to your instance's files.
• Edit Plugins: Certain game mods and 3rd party plugins are supported in Cortex. If your game instance has a plugin available for it then this icon is visible.
• Event Log: Track your server's start, stop, and crash activity.
• History Graphs: View a chart of your server's CPU, memory, and network usage over time.
• Rcon: If your game has a remote console you can interact directly with it on this page.
• Status: Get info on the current players connected and if the game supports it kick, ban, or run network diagnostics on them. This page also shows a quick rundown of your server's state.

 

Remember that your instance's CPU use is measured as a percentage of the total CPU power on the system. For example if Cortex reports 25% CPU use and there are four processors on the system, then your instance is using 100% of one of the server's processors.

 

Instance Configuration

 

Click the Edit Config button for your instance to load it's configuration page. Here you can manage your instance's configuration. System administrators have extra options to set on this page. Instance editing for admins is described in more detail in the administrator manual.

 

General Information

The top section of this page lets you edit the options that were set up when your instance was first created. Most users have access to change the remote console password for the server. If you are setting up a Teamspeak instance then this password corresponds to your instance's superadmin password. In order for the change to take effect your instance will restart itself after clicking the Save button.

 

Instance Configuration

Cortex gives you three configuration modes: basic, advanced, and import. Look in the middle of the page for the Configuration Mode form to change your config mode. Once you click Next the page will refresh with the appropriate form.

 

Basic Configuration

This is the default config mode displayed on the Instance Config page. Cortex shows each server cvar as a form field on the config page. Boolean, or values that can either be true or false, are shown first, followed by server variables that require an explicit value. To help you out each variable has a tooltip to it's right that explains what this setting will change. Click the expand icon next to the tooltip to view the whole tooltip. The basic config mode only shows variables that are essential for server config. You can find things like friendly fire settings, fraglimit, gametypes, and round time limits here. Once you've filled out the form click the Save icon at the top fo the form to write the server's config file. You need to restart your instance for the new config to take effect.

 

Advanced Configuration

Advanced configuration mode is much like basic configuration mode except it shows every server option you can configure in its form. Cvars for things like server speed, gravity, and weapon respawn times are found in advanced mode. Advanced config mode also contains an admin only text field cvar where you can paste custom scripting and data into the bottom of your config file.

 

Importing a Configuration

Use this mode if you have a config saved on another server that you want to duplicate on your instance. Select the Import Configuration option in the config mode drop down menu and the page will reload with the Import Config form. This form contains a text field for the name of the config and one text field per game config file. Paste the contents of the config that you're importing into these fields and hit the Save button. Cortex will parse your configs and save your options into it's database.

 

Cortex only imports cvars that it knows and will skip cvars that you do not have access to, such as IP address, port, and max players. The admin will need to set these options manually. If Cortex encounters a line in your config that it doesn't recognise it will skip the line and go onto the next. If you find a cvar that is not in Cortex's database please let us know and we'll add them in a later patch.

 

Managing Configurations

Cortex lets you save configurations for later use. In the center of the Instance Configration page is the Manage Configurations form, which will help you set manage your configs. When your instance was created a config called "Default" was created along with it containing a default server configuration. To create a new configuration simply enter it's name in the "Create New Configuration" text field and click the Create button. Cortex will create a new server config and load the game's default variables and values into it. You can work with this config in the same manner as the default config. Remember to hit the Save button to write your instance's config files.

If you want to switch back to the Default config or any other custom configuration you've saved select it in the "Saved configurations" drop down menu then click the Load Button.

To remove your current configuration select it in the "Saved configurations" drop down menu then click the Delete Button.

 

Exporting Configurations

There are two destinations to import your server config to: right to your web browser, or to a file on server. Exporting to your web browser will help you save the config to run on another server, while saving the config as a server script file will help if you plan on running that config as a script through your server's remote console.

Click the Next button next to the line "Export configuration to browser" to export your config to your local machine. After clicking Next the page will reload with text fields containing your server config in place of the instance configuration form. Cortex shows one text field per config file and a single text field for your server's startup command line.

To save your config as a serverside script enter the name of your config script in the text field next to the line "Write configuration to local script" and click the Save button. Cortex will pull your instance's current config out of the database and write to your server's filesystem. You can exececute that config in most games by running the "exec name of your config script" command in your server's remote console.

 

Editing Map Lists

 

Click the Edit Maps button for your instance to load it's map rotation page. You have a number of options here for setting up your game instance's map order.

 

The Map Rotation

Your current map rotation sits at the top of this page. After adding maps into the rotation you can move them up and down or delete them here. Servers with one map rotation per gametype like F.E.A.R. will only allow you to rotate maps within that gametype. Games that have multiple gametypes supported per map have an extra option to change gametype per map right in the rotation.

Once you have your map rotation set right click the Save icon at the top of this page to write your instance's map cycle files.

 

Adding Maps

The Add Map form is located below your current map rotation. Use this to add any map in your game's map pool to your current rotation. This form is different depending on the type of game you're useing due to how different games handle the map and gametype associations:

 

• Some game engines, such as the Half-Life and Source engines, don't have a gametype associated per map. In this case the add map form displays a dropdown list of maps with an add button. Simply select your map and click Add to add it into your rotation.
• Other engines allow you to run any gametype per map. These types of games have an add form with a gametype and map field. Select your gametype and map then click Add to add it into your rotation. Halo and Battlefield 1942 have add map forms like this.
• Some engines have gametypes that are restricted to run only on certain maps. Most Quake 3 based games act like this. In this case the add map form is a two part form. First select which gametype you wish to run and click Next. The page will reload with the add map form showing a dropdown list of maps that are compatible with that gametype. Select your map and click Add to place it into your rotation.
• Finally, some game servers, such as F.E.A.R, load one maplist per gametype. In this Add Map form you must select both a map and gametype and click the Add button. Cortex will add the map into the rotation for the gametype you selected.

Some games have configuration options per map. Noteable examples of this are the map size in Battlefield 2 and the random-generated-maps in Soldier of Fortune II. These kind of maps have an extra step in the Add Map form. After clicking the Add button the form will reload with the options available for that map. Select your options and click the Add button to add it into the rotation.

 

Uploading Your Own Maps

When your instance is created Cortex creates a map pool with all of the game's default maps. Cortex lets you add custom maps into the map pool as well. Use the Custom Maps form under the add map form on this page to get started.

You can either upload a map file directly from your home system or tell Cortex to download it from a remote website. Use either form in the Custom Maps section to to get the map into Cortex. Cortex will accept either the map file itself or a zip archive containing one or more maps. If you upload a zip file then cortex will display a form with all maps in the zip file on a multi-select form field. Choose which maps you want to add and click Next. If your game engine has gametype restrictions per map then Cortex will display a new form where you choose which gametypes your custom map supports. Remember that your server may not start if you load an incompatible map and gametype. Once you've chosen your gametypes click Add and Cortex will place the map files onto the system and add the map into your map pool. Now you can select that map from the Add Map form.

 

Managing Map Rotations

Cortex lets you save multiple map rotations for later use. Look for the Manage Map Rotations form at the bottom of this page to work with your rotations. When your instance was created a map rotation called "Default" was created along with it with a single map in the rotation. To create a new map rotation simply enter it's name in the Name: text field and click the Create button. Cortex will create a new map rotation and load a single default map into it. Adding and managing the maps in your rotation will automatically save to the map rotation.

If you want to switch back to the Default rotation or any other map rotation you've saved, select it in the Load Map Rotation drop down menu then click the Load Button.

To remove your current map rotation click the Delete icon at the bottom of the page. Cortex will delete the current loaded map rotation and load one of your other saved map rotations. The Delete icon is greyed out if you only have one saved map rotation.

 

Remember to click the Save icon at the top of the map edit page to write the instance's mapcycle after changing your map rotation!

 

 

The Filebrowser

Click the Browse Files button for your instance to load it's filebrowser.

 

Navigating Your Files and Directories

The filebrowser starts you out in the root directory of your instance. All files have Expand icons that show you file creation and modify dates when clicked. Directories have folder icons to their left. Click the directory name or the folder to move you to that directory in the file browser. The filebrowser can only navigate directories for that instance. If you need to browse files for another instance you should use that other instance's filebrowser.

 

File Actions

Cortex gives you quite a few options to work with the files in your current directory. Some of these actions are listed to the right of the file or directory, and some are found below the file list. To the right of the file list you have the following options:

 

• Download the current file via your web browser.
• Delete the file. Be careful as deleting the wrong file may break your game instance.
• View the file. Clicking the View icon will reload the page with a text field below the file list containing the contents of your file. This option is only available for .txt, .cfg, .ini, .con, .inf, .log, .ban, .mapcycle, and .xml files.
• Edit the file. Click the Edit icon to open that file in a text field below the file list. Make your changes and click the Save icon to change the file. This option is available for the same types of files you can view, but is not available for config files controlled by Cortex. If you want to edit a config file directly use the config import functions.
• Rename the file. Click the Rename icon to open a new text field below the file list with the name of your file. Make your changes then click Save to rename the file.
• Unzip the file. If the file is a zip archive you can decompress its contents right into the current directory .

Cortex also has a number of actions available for multiple files and creating new files below the file list.

 

• Click the checkbox next to your given files and move them to another directory in your current directory. Select which files and directories you want to move, or select all of them by clicking the Select All checkbox, choose the Move option, choose the directory to move them to, and click the continue arrow to move your files.
• Copy selected files to any directory within your current directory. Follow the same procedure to move files, but select the Copy option in the dropdown list under the file list to create copies of your selected files rather than moving them.
• Delete the selected files. In the same dropdown list select Delete and click the continue arrow to delete your files. While this may be useful for deleting multiple files please be careful or you may render your instance unusable.
• Create a zip archive out of the selected files. Select the Archive option in the drop down list and enter the name of your zip archive to create a zip file out of the selected files. This option does not zip folders yet, only files.
• Below the dropdown list are options to create new directories and new files in the current directory. Enter the name of your directory or file in the appropriate text field and click the continue button. If you are creating a file the page will reload with a form for you to enter the contents of your file into a text field. Click the Save icon to save the file in your current directory.

 

If you need to download multiple files, such as PunkBuster screenshots, you can save a lot of time by selecting them in the file list, adding them to a zip archive in Cortex, then downloading the single zip file.

 

Uploading Files

The bottom of the file browser page has five form fields to upload up to five files from your local machine into the current directory. Select up to five files then click the Upload Files button to send them to your server. If you want to upload a map its best to use Cortex's built in map uplaoding functions so they can go into Cortex's database and you can use the map on the edit maps page.

 

If you need to upload more than five files into the directory zip them up on your home machine, upload the single file, then unzip it using the unzip file action. This can save you quite a bit of time.

 

Using the FTP Server

Cortex runs it's own built-in FTP server for you to log into and work directly with your instances's files. Using an FTP client log into port 4365 on the IP of your game server with your Cortex username and password. Once logged in you should see a single folder called instances. Inside the instances folder is one folder for each instance you have installed on the server. The instance folders in the FTP server are tied in to what you see in the filebrowser. You'll only see instance folders for instances where the admin has assigned enabled filebrowser permissions for it. Likewise the instance folders and files on your FTP server have the same view and writing permissions as the filebrowser for that instance.

The FTP server does not run over a Cortex cluster. When logged into the FTP server you'll only see instances that are installed on that server. If you have a cluster of Cortex servers you must FTP into each server individually.

 

The default Windows command line FTP client has issues connecting to Cortex's FTP server, and we do not recommend using it.

 

Plugins

Cortex has support for certain 3rd party mods and plugins for many game servers. If your administrator installed one of these plugins on your server you will see an Edit Plugins icon next to your instance on the instances page. Click this button to bring you to a page where you can enable or disable use of that plugin on your server. To enable or disable the plugin click or un-click the checkbox next to it on the plugins page and click Save.

Many plugins have their own configuration opions. To edit a plugin's config select the plugin in the dropdown list on the bottom of this page and click Next. If your plugin does not have any config options then a page showing plugin info is displayed. If your plugin has options for you to set then a form is displayed to edit your plugin. These forms look different depending on the plugin you're working with. Click the Save button to save your plugin settings. In order for your changes to take effect you may have to restart your instance after editing your plugin.

 

The Event Log

Click the Event Log button for your instance to load it's event log. The event log keeps track of:

 

• Overall game activity, noting when the game is created, activated, deleted, manually started, manually stopped, and when Cortex detects the game crashed.
• When the event occured.
• Which user caused the event.
• If email was sent because of the event.

Cortex will automatically restart the instance if it crashed, but is unable to determine the cause of a crash. The event log is here for your personal reference and can be useful in troubleshooting a troublesome game instance. As the event log can get rather large over time previous and next pagination buttons are provided to the right of the log for you to flip through the log page by page.

 

Checking Your Usage

Click the History Graphs button for your instance to load it's history page. From here you can check your instance's system usage. By default Cortex shows the past hour of usage. You can change this to show the past hour, two hours, six hours, day, two days, or the past week by selecting the approprite time in the top-right hand corner of the graphs window and clicking the refresh button.

Your instance's Bandwidth History graph shows two lines for inbound and outbound network usage. The darker line represents traffic outbound to the Internet, while the lighter shows your instance's inbound network traffic. Below the graph is a calculation of your server's total and average inbound and outbound traffic for the duration of the graph. Network traffic is measured in kilobit or megabit (not bytes).

CPU and memory use are measured on individual graphs on your instance's history page. CPU use, as shown on the Instances page, is measured as a percentage of the total CPU usage on your system. If your instance is using 25% CPU power on a four processor system, then it is using 100% of one processor. Memory is measured in megabytes on the memory history graph.

 

Working With Rcon

button to load your instance's rcon page. Rcon, short for "remote console", is a way for game server administrators to give commands directly to the server through a text interface without having to go in-game. Cortex's rcon interface is unique in that you receive the response from each command you enter into your web browser. When you first open the rcon page cortex runs the instance's status command to give you a quick overview of your server when you connect. To run an rcon command simply enter the command you wish to run in the text box and click Execute. Cortex will display the command and its response. Not all games have a remote console. Games that do not have an rcon will not have an rcon icon on the instances page.

The rcon connection is an open conenction stream from your browser to Cortex to your game server. Since this is a time sensitive connection the rcon page will timeout after two minutes of inactivity. If your session times out reload the rcon page in your browser to reconnect.

 

The rcon page does not show you the local server console. See our troubleshooting guide to see how to view the game server console. This page has been tested to work in Firefox, Opera, and Internet Explorer, however it does not work in Safari on the Macintosh platform.

 

Built in Commands

Each game server has its own unique set of rcon commands you can run. Listing all of them here is quite outside the scope of this manual. We have, however, taken some of the more popular commands per game and entered them into a dropdown list for you to run. These commands range from listing maps to showing the current status to kicking and banning players. Select the command in the dropdown list and if necessary enter a player name before hitting the Execute button to run one of the builtin commands.

 

Checking Instance Status

button to load your instance's status page. This page is divided into a number of sections. The top of the page shows the same information shown for the server on the Instances page. In the top-right corner of this page is a refresh link that will reload the page with more current information.

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Player History

If your game is supported by the Game-Monitor game tracking system your status page shows three images collected by Game-Monitor. The first one is an image designed for forum signatures that shows the current state of your server and a small chart with your server's player count history. Use the URL below this image for your forum signatures. The other two images are larger and more detailed versions of your server's player history and current state.

 

Player Information

Next, this page shows a quick rundown of the players on your server, showing the following information:

 

• Player name
• Player ID
• Ping time
• Score
• Team Affiliation

This information is gathered via rcon by Cortex when you load a status page. If your server doesn't support rcon then this table is hidden. Different game servers report different values to their status queries, so what is shown in this table will vary per game engine.

 

Player Management

If your game server can produce the player information list then it can also provide special actions to perform on those players. Depending on the game you can perform the following actions with your players.

 

• Kick them from the server. This option only displays if the server has an rcon kick command and has a unique way to identify players.
• Ban them from the server. Like kick, this option only displays if the server has an rcon ban command and has a unique way to identify players. Some servers have ban files which Cortex will also write the ban to. Cortex kicks your player from the server after banning him or her.
• Ping them from the server. Cortex's built in network functions can ping them directly from the server. This can be very useful when diagnosing lag. This option is only available for game servers that provide player IP addresses to its status command.
• Traceroute to them. Cortex's built in network functions can traceroute to them directly from the server. This can be very useful when diagnosing lag. This option is only available for game servers that provide player IP addresses to its status command.

 

There is no function in Cortex to unban users from the server. Some game servers have ban list files which you can edit in the instance's filebrowser. Other game servers only keep their ban information while they're running, so restarting your instance may remove all of its player bans.

 

Runtime Variables

The bottom of the status page gives a quick rundown of your server's current settings. Cortex gathers these values when the status page is loaded. This information is useful for diagnosing server functionality.

 

Network Diagnostics

Troubleshooting lag and network connectivity can be one of the most difficult things tasks for a game admin. Cortex makes this chosre a bit easier by giving you the ability to run simple network diagnostics from any server on your cluster to you or one of your players. Click the Network Tools link in the main menu to load the networking tools page.

The network tools page has three form fields to fill out:

 

IP/Hostname	The IP address or hostname of the computer you want to run tests against. If you want to run tests against your computer you can add your IP address to this field by clicking the link under this form.
Server	Which server in your cluster you want to run tests from. Cortex can run network tests from any server in your cluster, but defaults to the server you're logged into.
Test	Select which test you want to run here. You have your choice of four tests to run:   ping: Send data 4 times to the test IP and record the time it takes for the server to respond. This test is useful for determining overall network latency. If you see large return values then a connection between your Cortex server and your test computer may be saturated. If you see any timeouts then there may be a physical problem or an issue with one of the pieces of network equipment between your test computer and your Cortex server. traceroute: Get a report of the network route from your Cortex server to your test IP. Its best to ignore the response times in a traceroute as many routers assign traceroutes low priority, causing response times to appear larger than they are. Traceroutes are useful for find routing issues from your Cortex server to the system you're testing. nslookup: Perform a DNS lookup of a hostname to get its IP address. If you are testing an IP address then nslookup will run a reverse DNS lookup to try to get its PTR hostname. This is a useful network tool, but should not be used to diagnose lag. whois: Find out which organization owns an IP address or domain. Like nslookup this isn't a useful lag test, but is nontheless a good way to track an address down.

After filling out the form click the Continue icon to run the test. Cortex will load the results of the test in a frame in the window and display the results in real-time to your browser. The Continue icon remains on the page in case you want to run the same test again.