In this tutorial, we’ll learn how to setup an ARK Survival server on CentOS 7.
Prerequisites
ARK requires a large amount of memory. I recommend using a VM with at least 8GB of RAM.
Make sure the system is fully updated.
yum update -y
Create a new user for the server. Make sure to use a strong password.
adduser ark
passwd ark
Open the necessary firewall ports.
firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=7777/udp --permanent
firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=27015/udp --permanent
firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=32330/tcp --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload
Install the libraries needed to run SteamCMD.
yum install glibc.i686 libstdc++.i686 ncurses-libs.i686 -y
ARK requires certain system changes to run smoothly.
echo "fs.file-max=100000" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.conf
Add the following lines to /etc/security/limits.conf.
* soft nofile 1000000
* hard nofile 1000000
Switch to the user that we have just created.
su ark
cd ~
Download SteamCMD.
wget https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/installer/steamcmd_linux.tar.gz
tar xf steamcmd_linux.tar.gz
Run SteamCMD and install the server files.
./steamcmd.sh +login anonymous +force_install_dir ./ark +app_update 376030 validate +quit
When the install finishes, you will see the message: Success! App '376030' fully installed..
Updating your server
We’re going to make a script to update your server. Create the file update_ark.txt.
nano /home/ark/update_ark.txt
Populate it with the following data.
login anonymous
force_install_dir ./ark
app_update 376030
quit
When you need to update your server, simply run the following command:
cd ~
./steamcmd.sh +runscript update_ark.txt
Running your server
It’s recommended to create a start script for ARK as its parameters can cause issues with the shell. Create a startup shell script.
cd /home/ark/ark/
nano ark-server.sh
Populate the file with the following data and customize it to your needs.
#!/bin/bash
servername="ServerName"
port="7777"
queryport="27015"
rconport="32330"
rconpassword="YourAdminPassword"
maxplayers="50"
screen -dmS ark ShooterGame/Binaries/Linux/ShooterGameServer TheIsland?listen?Multihome=0.0.0.0?SessionName=$?MaxPlayers=$?QueryPort=$?RCONPort=$?Port=$?ServerAdminPassword=$ -server -log
To start the server, execute the following command:
sh ark-server.sh
The server will run in the background. Note that it may take a minute or so for the server to start.
To shut down the server, run the following command:
screen -S ark -X quit
Enjoy your new ArkSE server!