Deployment Overview of ARK Survival Evolved Server on Server¶

Prerequisites and Basic Requirements¶

Operating System: Ubuntu (Debian family)
Privileges: Root or sudo access
Required Packages: curl, lib32gcc1, lib32stdc++6, screen, wget, tar
System User: steam
Firewall: ufw must be configured to allow specific UDP ports

FQDN of the Final Panel¶

The server does not expose a web panel. The connection is established directly via IP address and ports. If a custom subdomain is configured externally, the naming convention follows the pattern ark-server<ServerID>.hostkey.in, though no server ID is defined in the current configuration.

File and Directory Structure¶

SteamCMD Directory: /home/steam/steamcmd
ARK Server Directory: /home/steam/ARK
Installation Script: /home/steam/install.sh
Startup Script: /home/steam/ARK/ark_server_start.sh
Systemd Service File: /etc/systemd/system/ark.service

Application Installation Process¶

The application is installed using SteamCMD to download the ARK Survival Evolved Dedicated Server (App ID 376030).

A system user named steam is created with the home directory /home/steam.
SteamCMD is downloaded and extracted into /home/steam/steamcmd.

The installation script /home/steam/install.sh executes the following command:

/home/steam/steamcmd/steamcmd.sh +force_install_dir /home/steam/ARK +login anonymous +app_update 376030 validate +quit

The ARK server files are extracted into /home/steam/ARK.
A startup script is generated at /home/steam/ARK/ark_server_start.sh.

Access Rights and Security¶

The server runs under the non-root user steam.
The systemd service is configured to run as the steam user and group.
Firewall rules are applied using ufw to allow traffic only on the required UDP ports.

Starting, Stopping, and Updating¶

The ARK server is managed as a systemd service named ark. Use the following commands to manage the service:

Start the service:
```
sudo systemctl start ark
```
Stop the service:
```
sudo systemctl stop ark
```
Restart the service:
```
sudo systemctl restart ark
```
Enable the service on boot:
```
sudo systemctl enable ark
```
Check service status:
```
sudo systemctl status ark
```
Reload systemd daemon (after modifying the service file):
```
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
```

Available Ports for Connection¶

The following UDP ports are opened in the firewall and used by the server:

Port	Protocol	Description
7777	UDP	Main Game Port
27015	UDP	Query Port
32330	UDP	RCON (Remote Console) Port

Location of Configuration Files and Data¶

Configuration parameters are embedded directly into the startup script /home/steam/ARK/ark_server_start.sh. The script executes the server binary with the following parameters:

Binary Path: /home/steam/ARK/ShooterGame/Binaries/Linux/ShooterGameServer
Map: TheIsland
Server Name: My ARK Server
Server Password: TestPass123!
Admin Password: TestPass123!
Max Players: 20
Library Path: /home/steam/ARK/linux64 (exported as LD_LIBRARY_PATH)

The full execution command within the script is:

/home/steam/ARK/ShooterGame/Binaries/Linux/ShooterGameServer TheIsland?listen?SessionName="My ARK Server"?ServerPassword="TestPass123!"?ServerAdminPassword="TestPass123!"?Port=7777?QueryPort=27015?RCONEnabled=True?RCONPort=32330 -server -log