Determine the number of players on the server

[Salaander]

Hi,

I hope I create this topic in the right channel, if not move it please.
I created a server yesterday on DigitalOcean and also a small webpage so I would be able to send the server management to my friends I'm playing with.
So far we played from a local server but I want to move it to a 3rd party.

My plan is to have the VM shut down if there is no activity on the server for X minutes and then if somebody tries to connect to the server (over a domain and proxy I manage) I will auto start the server with the DO API. I wanted to ask what do you think would be the best and most supported way to determine the number of players on the server? I see JOINED and LEAVE are logged but I really would like to avoid log parsing. I thought I might be able to solve it with a LUA mod and write the player list to a file every few tick, but I'm not sure how a good idea it is and if this disables the achievements or not.

Would you share your suggestions and ideas with me please? Maybe it is solved already? If you are interested in the result I can share the setup too.

Best,
Salaander