Need help setting up private server

[JohnnySabu]

I am going to host a dedicated private server for me and a couple of friends to play on. This dedicated server computer is run 24/7 and we host other games on it as well.

There are a couple of ways I've read so far that guide how to go about setting up a server but they all end up showing in the game's server browser which I don't want (if at all possible) and would rather like my friends to connect to my server directly via IP and a password. How would I need to set up the server in this case and is there a step-by-step guide that I can follow to do this?

I also want to install a couple of mods on the server and host caves.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Daniel86268]

DST servers usually show up in the public list. Just put a password on it and noone should even try to connect. If you still really don't want it to show up you can just set it to offline_cluster = true in the cluster.ini. That's it, nothing else needed now that you already have it basicially set up. This way the server doesn't connect to the Klei servers and won't show up in the list iirc. Then you can just connect directly using "c_connect(<ip>, <port>, <PW>)" from the main menu. There's no official guide on that afaik, because noone really wants to do it like that apart from you as far as I've seen.
For the caves you just set up a second server with the same settings but a different game port and 

return {
    override_enabled = true,
    preset = "DST_CAVE",
}

in your worldgenoverrides.lua for the cave server, and start it up after the master server with -shard caves instead of -shard master. The servers should connect to eachother automaticially as long as the master_port is the same.
Mods you install over the dedicated_server_mods_setup.lua in the mods section, and add them using the steam ID numbers like this:

ServerModSetup("378160973")

. (The long number at the end of the mod page adress.) Then you activate them on each shard individually in the modoverrides.lua like this:

return {
  ["workshop-378160973"] = { enabled = true }
}

Examples taken from this guide: https://forums.kleientertainment.com/topic/63723-guide-how-to-installconfigure-and-update-mods-on-dedicated-server/ 

Start up your servers are you are good to go.
Keep in mind that with a offline cluster (one that doesn't connect to klei servers) you might have to portforward your server ports and open the ports in your firewall.