The problem:

I'm trying to run a swbf2 dedi server that will be up 24/7, but I'm having issues. It seems that whenever the computer 'goes to sleep' or whatever, the map list goes blank, so the battlefront server begins to repeatedly crash and get restarted by the manager.

On top of that, if I log the user that started the manager off, or the session ends, the manager and battlefront server will turn off.

I've tried to get around these issues by scheduling the manager as a task, but it only opens when I log on, and it needs to run without that.

So I've tried setting up a service to run it, but I don't think it can be done without a 3rd party software. FireDaemon supposedly works, but it's not free. Others I've looked at are free/open source, but too old.

The OS I'm trying to do this on is Windows Server 2008 R2.

Servers are meant to stay running 24/7. The dedicated server cannot run if Windows isn't booted and if an account isn't logged into.

So servers are left lying around logged in all the time? My server is also running web servers, which by default do run as soon as the computer boots up, without logging on.
There has to be a user logged in to start the Battlefront server, and it stays running for a while, but the problem is, even if I do that, it won't stay on 24/7 because it loses the map list, seemingly when the computer ends the user session or 'locks' the session due to inactivity. I don't want to sit at my server 24/7 and move the mouse every few minutes, and I don't want to sacrifice security.

Well, a server never really should be put to sleep or on standby since those are both inactive states and data cannot really be sent/received in those states.

Hm, that error with the maplist is not reproducing at the moment. I'll let it go overnight to see if it happens, but maybe it's related to using remote desktop to manage that computer, as I currently am not.

Edit: used remote desktop, still not happening. no idea why.

The reason I want it to run as a service is that a service can start up when the computer starts, before logging in, so if it should lose power or crash or reboot on its own, the service would automatically start and not have to wait for someone to notice and then manually start it by logging in.

I did a Google search and found this as the first result. That looks like what you're looking for