ARK VPS

How to create a virtual private server for ARK

ARK is one of the most popular action-adventure survival games on the market. Since the initial release of Survival Evolved in 2017, through the Survival Ascended reboot in 2023 and the wait for ARK II—the fan base continues to grow.
There are a few different ways to join the game, but the best gameplay at the best price tag is definitely an ARK VPS.

ARK:
Survival Evolved small

For up to 5 players on Linux

$45/mo

Buy now

4 vCPU

8 GB RAM

240 GB SSD

5 TB bandwidth

ARK:
Survival Evolved
large

For up to 10 players on Linux

$67/mo

Buy now

4 vCPU

12 GB RAM

320 GB SSD

6 TB bandwidth

ARK:
Survival Ascended small

For up to 5 players on Linux

$90/mo

Buy now

6 vCPU

16 GB RAM

440 GB SSD

7 TB bandwidth

50% off 3 mos

ARK:
Survival Ascended large

For up to 10 players on Linux

$61.50/mo

$123/mo

Save 50% for 3 months

Buy now

6 vCPU

24 GB RAM

540 GB SSD

8 TB bandwidth

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ARK: Survival Ascended and ARK II

ARK: Survival Ascended (ASA) is a remaster of the original, 2017 game, ARK: Survival Evolved. Gameplay starts on a prehistoric beach, and characters are stranded on one of several maps—also populated with dinosaurs, monsters, and other prehistoric creatures.
Players must establish a base and learn to survive by collecting resources, creating weapons, taming and breeding prehistoric wildlife, and discovering the secrets each map holds.
ARK II is the latest evolution of the game, starring Vin Diesel (reportedly a huge fan). We were supposed to get our hands on it in 2022, but the release has been delayed a couple of times as of this writing.
Also stirring anticipation is the new Ark: The Animated Series cartoon. There’s a lot going on with ARK.

ARK VPS: Why set up a private server?

Imagine playing ARK with your friends and/or family with no lag, no connection issues, no (internet) trolls, and no players who should really mute their mics but refuse to do so.
A VPS is a virtual private server. It’s like getting a whole server to yourself, without paying for an entire, physical server. In a VPS setup, the hosting company (that’s us) uses specialized software to spawn multiple virtual servers from one physical machine.
Why?
Because a physical server is a big machine with a lot more computing power than you probably need. But building small physical servers is not efficient, so we virtualize them instead.
You absolutely can rent an entire dedicated server for ARK, but if you’re not quite ready for all that, a VPS is a great place to start.

Customize your ARK server

You get root access to your VPS server, so you can configure your preferences, install mods, personalize your games, and more.

Enjoy 100% uptime

We’re proud to offer the best VPS uptime on the market. All major routing devices in our network are reachable 100% of the time.

Don’t break the bank

You pay a low monthly fee, and any resources you don’t use are prorated back to your account at the end of the month.

How to create an ARK server: requirements

The first thing you’ll need to do is rent a server. Liquid Web lets you customize your VPS to get exactly what you need, so let’s talk about the requirements.

ARK: Survival Evolved specs

  • A dual-core processor with at least 3 GHz of processing speed.
  • 6 GB of RAM is the requirement, but I recommend at least 16 GB for larger maps like Genisys: Part 2
  • At least 20 GB of hard drive space, but I recommend at least 25 GB

ARK: Survival Ascended specs

  • A quad-core processor with at least 3 GHz of processing speed.
  • 12 GB of RAM is recommended
  • At least 10 GB of hard drive space, but I recommend at least 15 GB
And, of course, a high-speed broadband internet connection.

OS specs

You can run your VPS on Windows or Linux, but remember each OS has its own requirements for running gaming servers. For Windows you’ll need an additional:
  • 4 GB RAM
  • 32 GB of hard disk space
To run your server on Linux, you need an additional:
  • 1 GB of RAM
  • 25 GB hard drive space

Adjust your minimums accordingly

These are the minimum requirements for hosting a vanilla Ark server. More people playing at the same time will take up more memory. As time goes on, more files will be created and saved data will also take up additional disk space. Also, if you plan on using mods, the memory and disk space requirements will increase.

How to create an ARK server

Now that you have a server with the minimum requirements lets get an Ark server running:

You will need to establish a remote connection to your server typically through SSH [Linux] or RDP [Windows]. There are different ways to accomplish this, just choose what works best for you.

SteamCMD is a command line client that allows you to install and run games or servers from the vast Steam library. Be sure to follow the guide that matches your operating system of choice on how to install and configure SteamCMD.

Now that you have SteamCMD installed on your system it’s time to get the server installed.

  1. Create a folder/directory where you want to install your Ark server.
    • Linux example: /home/steam/servers/ark
    • Windows example: C:\ark-server
  2. Launch SteamCMD. In the commands below replace INSTALL-LOCATION with the folder/directory you created in the previous step and replace APP-ID with 376030 for Survival Evolved or use 2430930 for Survival Ascended.
Steam> force_install_dir INSTALL-LOCATION
Steam> login anonymous
Steam> app_update APP-ID validate
Steam> exit

This can also be run in a single line from console:

steamcmd +force_install_dir INSTALL-LOCATION +login anonymous +app_update APP-ID +quit
  1. Open ports in your firewall and port forward them in your router. There are many different firewalls and routers that require different actions to accomplish this task. Do some quick online searches for the software you are running and the router that you are using.
ProtocolPortServer usage
UDP7777Game client port
UPD7778Game client port +1
UPD27015Query port for Steam’s server browser
TCP27020[Optional] RCON for remote console server access

Windows:

  1. Open PowerShell.
  2. Navigate to the folder you installed your Ark server into. Replace ARK-SERVER-FOLDER with the location of your Ark folder.
cd ARK-SERVER-FOLDER/ShooterGame/Binaries/Win64/
  1. Start the server up and make sure to change MAP-NAME, SERVER-NAME, SERVER-NAME, SERVER-PASS, ADMIN-PASS, MAX-PLAYERS to your desired configuration.
ShooterGameServer.exe 
MAP-NAME?listen?SessionName=SERVER-NAME?ServerPassword=SERVER-PASS?ServerAdminPassword=ADMIN-PASS?MaxPlayers=MAX-PLAYERS

Linux:

  1. Open a terminal.
  2. Navigate to the directory you installed your Ark server into. Replace ARK-SERVER-DIR with the location of your ark folder.
cd ARK-SERVER-DIR/ShooterGame/Binaries/Linux/
  1. Start the server up and make sure to change MAP-NAME, SERVER-NAME, SERVER-NAME, SERVER-PASS, ADMIN-PASS, MAX-PLAYERS to your desired configuration. It is highly recommended to run the server within a screen.
screen -dmS ark-server ./ShooterGameServer 
MAP-NAME?listen?SessionName=SERVER-NAME?ServerPassword=SERVER-PASS?ServerAdminPassword=ADMIN-PASS?MaxPlayers=MAX-PLAYERS
MapName for dedicated server
The IslandTheIsland
The CenterTheCenter
Scorched EarthScorchedEarth_P
RagnarokRagnarok
AberrationAberration_P
ExtinctionExtinction
ValgueroValguero_P
Genesis: Part 1Genesis
Crystal IslesCrystalIsles
Genesis: Part 2Gen2
Lost IslandLostIsland
FjordurFjordur

You can get detailed instructions for each step on our Guide to Dedicated ARK Servers.

Getting started with an ARK VPS

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desmond mcdermitt

Desmond McDermitt is a Quality Engineer at Liquid Web. When he’s not empowering our teams to deliver the highest quality hosting possible, Desmond dabbles in programming and runs/administrates gaming servers for a small gaming community.