TeamSpeak Server Setup Guide on Ubuntu 20

I. Introduction#

First, here’s the official TeamSpeak website: https://www.teamspeak.com/en/

Let’s briefly introduce TeamSpeak. In short, it’s a long-standing open-source VoIP application that supports voice calls, online chat, file sharing, and more. Its biggest strengths are high customizability plus extremely low bandwidth and system resource usage. In this guide I’ll use Ubuntu 20 as an example to show how to set up your own TeamSpeak voice server.

II. Preparation#

Before we start installing the server, prepare the following:

A server with a public IP address
The TeamSpeak server archive matching your server OS
The TeamSpeak client installer for your desktop system
Tools that can remotely connect to your server and upload files, such as PuTTY, Xshell, WinSCP, or MobaXterm

About downloading the server: after opening the TeamSpeak website, click Downloads and then select the Server tab.

Choose the server build that matches your OS. In my case, the server is running 64-bit Ubuntu, so I download the LINUX SERVER 64-BIT build:

All of the remaining steps will be done on Linux. The Windows Server version is even simpler—you just download it and double-click the single .exe file—so I won’t go into detail here.

After downloading the server, the process for downloading the client is similar. Switch to the Client tab and download the installer that matches your client OS.

You can also download the newer client version if you prefer the look; the usage is more or less the same.

III. Install and Configure the Server#

1. Create and prepare configuration#

Once all files are ready, we can start installing the server.

First, update the package index and dependencies:

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sudo apt update

Typically, we log into the server as the root user, but TeamSpeak is not allowed to run under root. So we need to create a dedicated user to run the TeamSpeak server:

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useradd teamspeak -m
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passwd teamspeak

After the second command you’ll be prompted to enter and confirm a password for the new user. Just follow the prompts.

Next, upload the TeamSpeak server archive to the server and extract it, then rename the directory (here I upload directly to the root directory):

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tar -xvf teamspeak3-server_linux_amd64-3.13.7.tar.bz2
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mv teamspeak3-server_linux_amd64 teamspeak3

Note: the exact server version number may change as new releases come out, so don’t copy this command blindly—adjust it according to the actual filename.

Since we’ll run the server as the teamspeak user, we need to copy the extracted directory to that user’s home and fix ownership:

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cp -R teamspeak3 /home/teamspeak/
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chown -R teamspeak:teamspeak /home/teamspeak/teamspeak3/

Now we can run the server. First, switch to the user we just created:

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su - teamspeak

Then change into the server directory (the one we renamed and copied earlier):

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cd teamspeak3

Before starting the server, we need to create a license acceptance file. If we skip this, the server will error out at startup because it can’t find the license file:

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touch .ts3server_license_accepted

With the license file created, we can start the server:

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./ts3server_startscript.sh start

After it starts, you should see a block of I M P O R T A N T information. That means the server is running successfully.

Copy that output somewhere safe; you’ll need it later. Then press Ctrl + C to stop the server for now.

2. Open firewall ports#

On most servers nowadays, firewall rules can be managed directly in the provider’s control panel. You’ll need to allow three ports:

9987/udp
10011/tcp
30033/tcp

If you also have a firewall service running on the server itself, you can add the rules manually:

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systemctl start firewalld
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firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=9987/udp --permanent
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firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=10011/tcp --permanent
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firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=30033/tcp --permanent
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firewall-cmd --reload

IV. Configure systemd Auto-Start#

First switch back to the root user (you’ll be prompted for the root password):

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su -

Now create a custom systemd service file ts3.service (you can use vim or any editor you like):

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vim /lib/systemd/system/ts3.service

Put the following content into the service file:

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[Unit]
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Description=Teamspeak server
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After=network.target
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[Service]
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WorkingDirectory=/home/teamspeak/teamspeak3
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User=teamspeak
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Group=teamspeak
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Type=forking
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ExecStart=/home/teamspeak/teamspeak3/ts3server_startscript.sh start inifile=ts3server.ini
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ExecStop=/home/teamspeak/teamspeak3/ts3server_startscript.sh stop
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PIDFile=/home/teamspeak/teamspeak3/ts3server.pid
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RestartSec=15
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Restart=always
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[Install]
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WantedBy=multi-user.target

Note: WorkingDirectory, ExecStart, ExecStop, and PIDFile must all use the correct absolute paths for your installation. If your directory structure is different from mine, remember to adjust these paths.

Save and exit the editor, then reboot the server if needed.

After the service file is in place, we can use systemctl to manage the TeamSpeak server and enable auto-start at boot.

Start the server:

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systemctl start ts3

Stop the server:

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systemctl stop ts3

Enable auto-start on boot:

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systemctl enable ts3

Check server status:

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systemctl status ts3

At this point, the server-side configuration is complete and the service should be running.

V. Troubleshooting#

Sometimes, when you run systemctl status ts3, you might see something like this:

In that case, first disable and stop the service, then reboot the server:

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systemctl disable ts3
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systemctl stop ts3
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reboot

After rebooting, switch to the teamspeak user, go to the TeamSpeak server directory, and run the following command:

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su - teamspeak
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cd teamspeak3
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./ts3server_minimal_runscript.sh createinifile=1

If you see output similar to this, it means the operation succeeded:

Now press Ctrl + C to exit, switch back to root, re-enable auto-start, and start the service again. Checking the status should now show something like this:

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su -
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systemctl enable ts3
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systemctl start ts3
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systemctl status ts3

Now your TeamSpeak server is up and running successfully.