How to Become an Admin on a 7 Days to Die Server

Context

On a 7 Days to Die server, owning the server grants no in game privilege. Admin rights are declared in a dedicated file, serveradmin.xml, and until your account appears in it, the in game console will refuse most commands.

Two details usually catch people out. First, the identifier used is not necessarily your SteamID, the game relies on platform identifiers including EOS. Second, the permission scale runs the opposite way to intuition, 0 is the highest level of rights and 1000 is the ordinary player.

This guide covers the method the game itself recommends, going through console commands from the Winheberg game panel, along with the file structure for those who want to understand what happens behind the scenes.

Requirements

• An active 7 Days to Die server on the Winheberg game panel
• The player to promote must have connected to the server at least once
• Access to the server's Console tab on panel.winheberg.com

1. Find the player identifier

The game identifies a player by a platform and identifier pair. For a PC player connected through Steam, the identifier used server side is most often their EOS ID.

A player cannot read their own EOS ID from the game. They therefore need to connect to the server once, after which you can read the identifier server side.

In the panel's Console tab, with the server running, run the following command.

listplayers

The output lists connected players. The identifier appears as crossid=EOS_0002a2eacfff46808543ffdab9380672, and it is the part after the EOS_ prefix that acts as the identifier.

Two related commands are useful.

2. Add the admin from the console

The admin command handles rights. Its syntax accepts a player name, an entity id or a platform identifier, followed by the permission level.

admin add <player> <level>

To grant full rights to a connected player, going through their name is simplest.

admin add Maxime 0

If the name contains spaces, wrap it in quotes.

admin add "My Name With Spaces" 0

Removal follows the same pattern.

admin remove Maxime

And the list of declared admins comes from the following command.

admin list

3. Understand permission levels

This is what trips up most people. The scale runs from 0 to 1000, and a lower number means more rights.

The principle is this. Each command carries a required level, and a player can run any command whose level is equal to or above their own. A player at 0 can therefore do everything, a player at 1000 can only run commands open to everyone.

Commands not listed in the file default to level 0, meaning they are reserved for full admins.

4. Check the result in serveradmin.xml

After an addition, serveradmin.xml holds an entry in the <users> section, in this form.

<adminTools>
  <users>
    <user platform="EOS" userid="0002a2eacfff46808543ffdab9380672" name="Maxime" permission_level="0" />
  </users>
</adminTools>

The platform attribute accepts EOS, Steam, XBL and PSN. The name attribute is purely cosmetic, it only reminds you who the entry belongs to.

To locate the file, the most reliable route is the UserDataFolder line printed at the top of the server startup log, the file living in the Saves subfolder of that directory. You can also use the panel file manager search on the name serveradmin.xml.

On Winheberg servers, that folder is .local/share/7DaysToDie/Saves, reachable from the Files tab with hidden folders shown.

Troubleshooting

❌ Commands are refused despite the entry

• Check that the player disconnected and reconnected after being added
• Confirm the level given is 0 and not 1000, the scale is inverted
• Check the identifier matches the right player by comparing it with the lpi output

❌ The identifier is not recognised

• Drop the EOS_ prefix, only the identifier that follows should be entered
• Avoid copying the identifier from a screenshot, one wrong character is enough
• Use the player name while they are connected instead, it is the safest route

❌ serveradmin.xml stays empty

• The file is only filled in on the first use of the admin command
• Check you are reading the file in the server save folder and not a copy elsewhere
• Confirm the server was stopped before you read it, changes may only be written on shutdown

Best practices

• Grant level 0 sparingly, it opens commands that can permanently alter the world

• Define an intermediate level for moderators rather than handing them full powers

• Keep a separate note mapping names to identifiers, names change, identifiers do not

• Use console commands rather than editing the file by hand, as the game itself recommends

• Copy serveradmin.xml before any manual edit, a single XML syntax error can stop it loading

• Combine admin rights with the whitelist if you open the server to strangers, see How to Enable the Whitelist on a 7 Days to Die Server

Need help

If rights do not apply despite a correct entry in the file, open a ticket with our support team from your client area, Technical department, with the server in the Related Product field. Our team can check the file content and the connection logs with you.

You are now in control of your server. 🎮