ARK: Survival Evolved Dedicated Server Setup

Windows ARK: Survival Evolved Dedicated Server Setup

I am running the server through cheapwindowsvps.com on a GB network with a dual core processor and 8GB of RAM. It is a clean server 2012 server so some prereqs you will have if you run other games on your server.  I hope to run some statistics on hardware requirements for ARK dedicated servers in the future.

PreReqs:

Direct X (Included with download, C:\arkserver\_commonredist\DirectX)

Visual Studio 2013 (Included with download C:\arkserver\_commonRedist\Vredist\

Download SteamCMD and Extract it: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD

Create a folder where you wish to store your ARK: Survival Evolved Dedicated Server Files (C:\ArkServer)

Doubleclick the extracted SteamCMD.exe file.  It will start downloading the rest of steamcmd.  Once you reach the prompt type the following.

login anonymous

force_install_dir C:\ARKServer\

app_update 376030 validate

You can close the application once the download has finished.  You can also download the entire game and the server files are included in the game folder.

You can start the standard server by browsing to the C:\ArkServer\shootergame\binaries\win64\ and creating a batch file:

Right click > New text Document

Change name >Serverstart.bat

Open the new batch file in a text editor and place the code into it.  Save the file.

Change the code below as needed.

start ShooterGameServer "TheIsland?SessionName=GameServerSetup?QueryPort=27015?ServerPassword=MyPassword?ServerAdminPassword=MYPassword?listen"
exit

Make sure your forward the ports and allow them through the firewall.

Double Click the serverstart.bat to launch your server!

To update the server just run the code above again.

Linux ARK: Survival Evolved  Dedicated Server Setup

Testing on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Server 64bit using cheapwindowsvps.com.

So, you like to do things the hard way?  This procedure worked for me.  If you are doing this on a VPS you will need to add a user with sudo privileges and possibly modify your iptables.

OS Preperation

There are a few OS parameters that need to be changed for ARK: SE to run correctly.  It’s fairly easy to do, just enter the following commands one at a time at the shell prompt.  When it asks for your sudo password enter the password you used to login on the server.

echo “fs.file-max=100000” | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf

sudo sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.conf

echo “* soft nofile 100000” | sudo tee -a /etc/security/limits.conf

echo “* hard nofile 100000” | sudo tee -a /etc/security/limits.conf

echo “session required pam_limits.so” | sudo tee -a /etc/pam.d/common-session

Your terminal should look like this;

Since we are on Ubuntu we need to open up the ports on the firewall.

sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp –dport 27015 -j ACCEPT

sudo iptables -A INPUT -p udp –dport 27015 -j ACCEPT

sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp –dport 27016 -j ACCEPT

sudo iptables -A INPUT -p udp –dport 27016 -j ACCEPT

sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp –dport 7777 -j ACCEPT

sudo iptables -A INPUT -p udp –dport 7777 -j ACCEPT

And finally,

sudo /sbin/iptables-save

Just a note.  You may not need to have all of those open, and you might actually need more to be open (I’ve seen ARK try and use port 14001 as well..)  There really doesn’t seem to be a solid answer on this.  Hopefully some day it will be correctly documented.

SteamCMD Install

Since we are on a 64bit OS we need to install the 32bit libraries for SteamCMD to work.

sudo apt-get install lib32gcc1

First lets create a directory for SteamCMD, and then switch to it.

mkdir ~/steamcmd

cd ~/steamcmd

Use the following command to download SteamCMD.

wget https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/installer/steamcmd_linux.tar.gz

Now lets extract the files.

tar -xvzf steamcmd_linux.tar.gz

Launch SteamCMD

./steamcmd.sh

Getting ARK: SE on your server

Congratulations!  You should new be at the SteamCMD prompt which should look like this; Steam>

First we can login and download ARK: SE as anonymous.

login anonymous

Second we need to set our install path.

force_install_dir ./ark

Third, lets download ARK: SE!

app_update 376030 validate

If you get an error 0x402 while downloading the file just run app_update 376030 validate until it finishes.

Now quit the SteamCMD app and go back to the command prompt.

Scripting

We are almost there.  Now we need to create a script to launch the ARK: SE server and pass some options to it.

Lets start by moving to the ARK: SE folder where the server binaries are.

cd ark/ShooterGame/Binaries/Linux

Then lets create the script with the nano editor.

nano server_start.sh

Now enter the following in to the document. You will need to replace all options with <> with values of your own.  Remove the <> as well eg; SessionName=<server_name>? to SessionName=GameServerSetup World?.  If no join password is desired remove ServerPassword=<join_password?.

#! /bin/bash

./ShooterGameServer TheIsland?listen?SessionName=<server_name>?ServerPassword=<join_password>?ServerAdminPassword=<admin_password> -server -log

Here is an example of what it should look like on your screen;

To close nano hit Ctrl + X and Y to save.

Next we need to make the script we just created executable.

sudo chmod +x server_start.sh

Finally, to run your ARK: SE server simply run.

./server_start.sh

Since the update 171.0 there have been some formatting changes! Here is the new format for the INI in your GameUserSettings.ini, please update your INI’s accordingly and you shouldn’t have any further issues:

You can find it here:

force_install_path\ShooterGame\Saved\Config\WindowsServer\GameUserSettings.ini

[AdminPassword]
Password=YOURADMINPASSWORD[/script/engine.gamesession]
MaxPlayers=10

[ServerSettings]
ShowMapPlayerLocation=False
ServerHardcore=False
GlobalVoiceChat=False
ProximityChat=False
NoTributeDownloads=Fasle
AllowThirdPersonPlayer=False
AlwaysNotifyPlayerLeft=Fasle
DontAlwaysNotifyPlayerJoined=False
ServerPVE=False
ServerCrosshair=False
ServerForceNoHUD=False
DifficultyOffset=0 to 1
ServerPassword=