Rust Panel (Flask) — with Auto Install/Update for Rust + Oxide

A tiny Flask web panel to manage a Rust Dedicated Server on Linux. Features:

• Secure login screen (session cookie, configurable credentials)
• Live console (journalctl -fu) via Server-Sent Events
• Start / Stop / Restart (systemd service)
• Install Rust via SteamCMD (first-time bootstrap)
• Update Rust via SteamCMD
• Install/Update Oxide/uMod from a provided ZIP URL (or Carbon if you supply its URL) — prefilled with the latest Linux build
• Optional toggle to auto-run a Rust download before Oxide installs
• Web configuration page to adjust service paths and script settings

Paths & assumptions

• Steam user: steam
• SteamCMD: /home/steam/steamcmd/steamcmd.sh
• Rust server dir: /home/steam/rust-server
• Systemd service name: rust-server

You can change these in the helper scripts under scripts/, via the new web configuration page, or with env vars used by the service.

Install

1) Create the helper scripts (as root)

install -Dm755 scripts/rust_install.sh /usr/local/bin/rust_install.sh
install -Dm755 scripts/rust_update.sh /usr/local/bin/rust_update.sh
install -Dm755 scripts/oxide_update.sh /usr/local/bin/oxide_update.sh

2) Sudoers (limit panel privileges)

Allow the rustpanel service user to run just these commands without a password:

/etc/sudoers.d/rustpanel
---------------------------------------
rustpanel ALL=NOPASSWD: /bin/systemctl start rust-server
rustpanel ALL=NOPASSWD: /bin/systemctl stop rust-server
rustpanel ALL=NOPASSWD: /bin/systemctl restart rust-server
rustpanel ALL=NOPASSWD: /bin/systemctl status rust-server
rustpanel ALL=NOPASSWD: /bin/journalctl -u rust-server
rustpanel ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/local/bin/rust_install.sh
rustpanel ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/local/bin/rust_update.sh
rustpanel ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/local/bin/oxide_update.sh *
---------------------------------------

The * after oxide_update.sh allows passing a single URL argument.

3) Python app

Deploy app.py and templates/index.html to e.g. /home/rustpanel/rust-panel/. Create a venv and install Flask:

sudo -u rustpanel bash -lc '
  cd ~/rust-panel
  python3 -m venv ../venv
  ../venv/bin/pip install --upgrade pip Flask
'

4) Systemd unit for the panel

/etc/systemd/system/rustpanel.service
---------------------------------------
[Unit]
Description=Flask Rust Panel
After=network.target

[Service]
User=rustpanel
WorkingDirectory=/home/rustpanel/rust-panel
Environment=RUST_SERVICE=rust-server
# Optional: override login credentials (defaults admin/rustpanel)
# Environment=RUSTPANEL_USER=rustpanel
# Environment=RUSTPANEL_PASSWORD=ChangeMeNow
# Or provide a pre-hashed password (pbkdf2:sha256)
# Environment=RUSTPANEL_PASSWORD_HASH=...
# Optional auth token for API callers (still works in addition to UI login)
# Environment=RUSTPANEL_TOKEN=YourStrongTokenHere
ExecStart=/home/rustpanel/venv/bin/python /home/rustpanel/rust-panel/app.py
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
---------------------------------------

Enable:

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable --now rustpanel

Using the panel

• Visit: http://<container-ip>:8080
• Log in with the configured credentials (default admin / rustpanel — change these!).
• Buttons:
  • Start/Stop/Restart
  • Install Rust: bootstraps/validates the dedicated server with SteamCMD
  • Update Rust: runs SteamCMD +app_update 258550
  • Install/Update Oxide: provide a direct ZIP URL and click update

Getting an Oxide/Carbon ZIP URL

• uMod/Oxide: get a direct Linux build ZIP URL from the uMod site.
• Carbon: copy the link to the Linux build zip from their releases. The panel now pre-populates the Oxide field with the latest Linux build from GitHub, so you can simply click install to grab the newest release. Paste a different URL if you need a specific build.

Nightly auto-update (optional)

Add a cron for the steam user:

sudo -u steam crontab -e
# Example: 04:30 daily
30 4 * * * /usr/local/bin/rust_update.sh >> /home/steam/rust-update.log 2>&1