Gaming has evolved beyond simple entertainment. It has become a social hub for connecting with friends and communities worldwide. Among Us, with its engaging gameplay and collaborative features, has taken the gaming experience to the next level. However, relying on public servers can sometimes lead to disruptions, lag, or security concerns, which can further impact the overall experience of players. Hosting your own Among Us server on a virtual machine helps eliminate these challenges and also gives you complete control over the gaming environment that you can share with your close network. This setup ensures a smoother gaming experience, enabling private matches tailored to your preferences.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the step-by-step process of setting up an Among Us server on a virtual machine. Whether you’re hosting a game night with friends or fostering a gaming community, this blog will help you unlock the potential of self-hosted gaming environments.
Prerequisites
- A Virtual Machine (such as the ones provided by NodeShift) with at least:
- 1 vCPUs
- 1 GB RAM
- 10 GB SSD
- Ubuntu 22.04 VM
- Docker installed on Ubuntu
Note: The prerequisites for this are highly variable across use cases. A high-end configuration could be used for a large-scale deployment.
Step-by-step process to set up Among Us on Ubuntu VM
For this tutorial, we’ll use a CPU-powered Virtual Machine by NodeShift, which provides high-compute Virtual Machines at a very affordable cost on a scale that meets GDPR, SOC2, and ISO27001 requirements. It also offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it easier for beginners to get started with Cloud deployments. However, feel free to use any cloud provider you choose and follow the same steps for the rest of the tutorial.
Step 1: Setting up a NodeShift Account
Visit app.nodeshift.com and create an account by filling in basic details, or continue signing up with your Google/GitHub account.
If you already have an account, login straight to your dashboard.
Step 2: Create a Compute Node (CPU Virtual Machine)
After accessing your account, you should see a dashboard (see image), now:
- Navigate to the menu on the left side.
- Click on the Compute Nodes option.
- Click on Start to start creating your very first compute node.
These Compute nodes are CPU-powered virtual machines by NodeShift. These nodes are highly customizable and let you control different environmental configurations, such as vCPUs, RAM, and storage, according to your needs.
Step 3: Select configuration for VM
- The first option you see is the Reliability dropdown. This option lets you choose the uptime guarantee level you seek for your VM (e.g., 99.9%).
- Next, select a geographical region from the Region dropdown where you want to launch your VM (e.g., United States).
- Most importantly, select the correct specifications for your VM according to your workload requirements by sliding the bars for each option.
Step 4: Choose VM Configuration and Image
- After selecting your required configuration options, you’ll see the available VMs in your region and as per (or very close to) your configuration. In our case, we’ll choose a ‘1 vCPUs/1GB/25GB SSD’ Compute node.
- Next, you’ll need to choose an image for your Virtual Machine. For the scope of this tutorial, we’ll select Ubuntu, as we will install Among Us private server on Ubuntu.
Step 5: Choose the Billing cycle and Authentication Method
- Two billing cycle options are available: Hourly, ideal for short-term usage, offering pay-as-you-go flexibility, and Monthly for long-term projects with a consistent usage rate and potentially lower cost.
- Next, you’ll need to select an authentication method. Two methods are available: Password and SSH Key. We recommend using SSH keys, as they are a more secure option. To create one, head over to our official documentation.
Step 6: Finalize Details and Create Deployment
Finally, you can also add a VPC (Virtual Private Cloud), which provides an isolated section to launch your cloud resources (Virtual machine, storage, etc.) in a secure, private environment. We’re keeping this option as the default for now, but feel free to create a VPC according to your needs.
Also, you can deploy multiple nodes at once using the Quantity option.
That’s it! You are now ready to deploy the node. Finalize the configuration summary; if it looks good, go ahead and click Create to deploy the node.
Step 7: Connect to active Compute Node using SSH
As soon as you create the node, it will be deployed in a few seconds or a minute. Once deployed, you will see a status Running in green, meaning that our Compute node is ready to use!
Once your node shows this status, follow the below steps to connect to the running VM via SSH:
- Open your terminal and run the below SSH command:
(replace root with your username and paste the IP of your VM in place of ip after copying it from the dashboard)
ssh root@ip
2. In some cases, your terminal may take your consent before connecting. Enter ‘yes’.
3. A prompt will request a password. Type the SSH password, and you should be connected.
Output:
Step 8: Install Among Us Server
- Update the Ubuntu package source-list and upgrade the packages.
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
Output:
2. Run Impostor’s Docker Container.
Next, we will set up our Impostor server using its Docker container. Run the container using the following link:
docker run -p 22023:22023/tcp -p 22023:22023/udp -e IMPOSTOR_Server__PublicIp=your.public.ip.here aeonlucid/impostor:nightly
Output:
3. Check the server connection
Open a local terminal and use the below command to check if you can connect to the Among Us server from your physical device.
(replace <YOUR_SERVER_IP> with your server’s IP address)
nc -zv <YOUR_SERVER_IP> 22023
Output:
Step 9: Share the Impostor server link
- Visit the Impostor website and paste the server’s IP address in the Server address input box.
- Give a unique name to your server in the Server name input box.
- Click on Create sharable link to generate a customized link for your Among Us server.
- Copy and share this URL (from the URL bar) with your friends, using which they can join your Among Us server.
Conclusion
Setting up an Among Us server on a virtual machine can transform casual gaming into a seamless and customizable experience, helping users to host private games with ease. By following the steps mentioned in this guide, players can leverage the power of virtualization to create a stable and secure server environment. NodeShift plays a crucial role in simplifying this process by offering a user-friendly and intuitive cloud interface that makes managing virtual machines and deploying applications effortless.
