Requirements

A single-page list of what your host needs to provide before you can install SourceBans++. If anything below is unfamiliar, ask your host’s support team — most shared and dedicated hosts can confirm or enable these in a few clicks.

Web side

The web panel runs on PHP and stores its data in a MySQL- or MariaDB-compatible database.

Database

Either MySQL or MariaDB works. They’re SQL-compatible engines and SourceBans++ has supported both since the project started.

MariaDB

>= 10.0 is the floor. We recommend MariaDB for new installs — it’s what the dev stack and CI use, and the Database setup guide targets it directly.

MySQL

>= 5.6 is the floor (8.0+ is fine and recommended). MySQL 8 dropped the combined GRANT … IDENTIFIED BY syntax — use the two-statement form shown in Database setup → Granting permission.

The character set must be utf8mb4 (the real 4-byte UTF-8, not the 3-byte utf8 alias). Without it, player names with emoji or some CJK characters fail to insert and the plugin logs a SQL error.

PHP

• PHP 8.5 or newer. This is checked by the install wizard’s “System check” step.
• 64 MB memory limit minimum. The wizard doesn’t enforce this, but the panel can run out of memory on large ban-list pages below 64 MB.
• These PHP extensions must be loaded:
  • gmp — large-integer math (for Steam ID conversion)
  • pdo_mysql — MySQL/MariaDB driver
  • openssl — TLS for SMTP and the panel’s session tokens
  • xml
  • mbstring

You can confirm them all in one command:

php -m | grep -E '^(gmp|pdo_mysql|openssl|xml|mbstring)$'

You should see all five printed back. If any are missing, install your distro’s php-<name> package for that version (e.g. php8.5-gmp). If pdo_mysql is the missing one, Driver not found has the fix.

Composer (only when installing from main)

The release zip on the GitHub Releases page bundles everything already — a normal install needs no Composer step.

You only need Composer if you’re installing from a git clone of the main branch (development install). In that case:

cd web && composer install

If you skip this on a main checkout, the install wizard surfaces a recovery page (/install/recovery.php) that explains the fix.

Game side

The SourceMod plugins are what runs on your game servers:

• SourceMod 1.11 or newer — 1.12 stable recommended.
• Metamod: Source — SourceMod’s loader.

Most game-server hosts ship SourceMod 1.11+ by default; if yours doesn’t, you can install it from sourcemod.net.

The plugin also needs SourceMod’s dbi.mysql extension to talk to the database. On Linux this is bundled with SourceMod itself; on exotic setups it may need to be enabled explicitly — see Driver not found if the plugin logs a connection error.

Networking

The web panel reaches your game servers over the network:

• It sends UDP queries to read map name + player list.
• It opens TCP connections for RCON to push commands.

If the panel and game servers are behind firewalls (typically: yes), both protocols need to reach the game server’s listening port from the panel’s host. The full firewall checklist is in Network ports and the diagnostic flow if the panel can’t reach a server lives in Server connection issues.

Ready to install?

When the boxes above are ticked, head to the Quickstart and follow it end-to-end.