ARK: Survival Ascended dedicated server on bare metal: sizing, ports, setup

The published requirements

The figures below are the ARK wiki's, from its dedicated server setup page. They are per server instance.

The CPU line matters most. The wiki notes that gameplay, physics aside, still runs on a single thread, so one fast core does more for the game than a second socket of slow ones. Extra cores pay off when they host a second map, not when they sit under one.

Memory per map

The wiki measured each map on a new save, default settings, no players, excluding the operating system. The range comes from the creature spawn phase at start-up.

These are floors. The wiki says usage climbs with connected players, the age of the world (structures, tames, storage) and installed mods, and gives no per-player figure for ASA. Our own arithmetic for a two-map cluster of The Island and The Center: 18.5 to 22 GiB idle, before Windows and before anyone logs in. Size for that, then watch the process over a few weeks of play.

Ports and protocols

ASA ignores ?Port= on the command line: the wiki says it needs -port=7777 style, or it falls back to 7777. A second instance on the same machine takes the next free set: 7779 and 7780, query 27016, RCON 27021. The server does no UPnP, so every port is opened by hand in Windows Defender Firewall.

RCON accepts the server admin password. Leave TCP 27020 closed unless you need it, and when you do, allow it only from the addresses you administer from.

Windows only, and what that costs

The wiki states that ASA requires Windows, or a Windows-like environment, and does not support Linux natively. No Linux build ships with app 2430930. Running it under Wine or Proton on Linux is a community-made route, outside anything Studio Wildcard supports; budget for Windows.

• Version: the wiki recommends Windows 10 22H2 or later, or Windows Server 2016 or later. Our images run from Windows Server 2008 R2 to 2025, depending on the line, so pick 2016 or newer.
• Licence: Windows is a paid licence on top of the machine, counted per core, and it takes no discount for paying 3, 6 or 12 months ahead. More cores raise the licence, so for ASA, favour fast clocks over a high core count.
• Windows Server editions: the wiki documents an extra step for ASA: install Amazon's r2m02.crl revocation list into Trusted Root Certification Authorities and make sure TLS 1.2 is enabled. On Windows Server, a server that starts but never appears in the list can point here.
• ARM: no ARM line runs the Windows images, so ARM machines are out.

See the Windows dedicated servers page for the lines and editions on offer.

Choosing the machine

ASA is a long-running, memory-heavy, single-thread-bound process. On a shared VM the neighbours take the cores and RAM it needs most once the world is old. Our bare metal game servers are HPE enterprise hardware, single tenant, with every core and all the memory going to the game.

• Memory first: our suggestion from the table above, not a published figure: 16 GB covers a lighter map such as Extinction or Scorched Earth with Windows counted; The Center, or any world running mods, wants 24 GB or more; a two-map cluster, 32 GB. The 8 GB cartridges cannot hold an empty Island.
• Clock second: compare base and turbo frequencies on the Intel processor page; fewer, faster cores suit one map.
• Port: every dedicated server includes an unmetered port, 1 Gbps on 10 of the 18 configurable lines and 500 Mbps on the other 8, and one IPv4. Nothing counts the traffic.
• Console: rack servers and blades carry HPE iLO, Dell iDRAC or a Supermicro BMC, published in the dashboard once you add a console login. A Windows box that stops answering RDP is still reachable.
• Delivery: a racked machine is live about 30 minutes after the order is approved; a build to order takes 4 to 24 hours.

Choose the city nearest your tribe. The five data center locations are New York, Miami, San Francisco, Amsterdam and Bucharest, all on our own network, AS19624, and the looking glass runs ping and traceroute from our New York and Bucharest routers to your own connection before you order.

Installing and first start

1. Install the Visual C++ 2013 x64 Redistributable and the DirectX June 2010 runtimes.
2. Download SteamCMD from Valve's developer wiki and unzip it to C:\steamcmd.
3. Create C:\arkserver and pull the server with the first command below. Anonymous login has worked since patch 25.18; before it, the server needed a Steam account that owned the game, one instance per account and machine.
4. In C:\arkserver\ShooterGame\Binaries\Win64, save the second block as start_server.bat.
5. In Windows Defender Firewall, add an inbound UDP rule for 7777-7778, 27015, then run the batch file. Expect memory to swing for several minutes at first start while creatures spawn.

cd C:\steamcmd
steamcmd +force_install_dir C:\arkserver +login anonymous +app_update 2430930 validate +quit

ArkAscendedServer.exe TheIsland_WP?SessionName=MyTribeServer -port=7777 -WinLiveMaxPlayers=20

-WinLiveMaxPlayers sets the slot count; the wiki says it replaces MaxPlayers for ASA, which is otherwise forced back to its default, 70 by the wiki's table. If you do pass ?ServerAdminPassword= on the command line, it has to be the last ? option, or the server reads everything after it as part of the password.

Admin password, RCON, mods and clusters

Keep the admin password out of the batch file: a command line is visible to anyone who can list processes on the box. Set it in ShooterGame\Saved\Config\WindowsServer\GameUserSettings.ini, which the server creates on its first run, and restrict that file to the account that runs the server.

[ServerSettings]
ServerAdminPassword=REPLACE_WITH_A_LONG_RANDOM_STRING
RCONEnabled=True
RCONPort=27020

• Admin in game: open the console and type enablecheats followed by the password. Or whitelist your EOS ID as an admin, as the wiki describes, so you never type it.
• RCON: drop the two RCON lines if you do not use it. The wiki marks RCONEnabled as unconfirmed for ASA; check that 27020 is listening before you rely on it.
• Mods: ASA uses CurseForge, not the Steam Workshop. Add -mods=ID1,ID2 with CurseForge project IDs; the server updates them at every start.
• Clusters: give each map the same -clusterid= and a shared -ClusterDirOverride= folder so survivors can transfer. Pick an uncommon ID: servers with the same one appear in each other's transfer lists.

Running it day to day

• Backups: copy ShooterGame\Saved. It holds the world, tribes, player profiles, configuration, logs and cluster data. Do it before every update.
• Autosave: the default interval is 15 minutes, so a crash inside the first 15 minutes of a new world loses it.
• Updates: stop the server, take the backup, rerun the same SteamCMD line, start it again.
• Start on boot: a Task Scheduler task triggered at start-up, running the batch file with Start in set to its folder and Run whether user is logged on or not.

Licence terms and honest limits

The ASA end-user licence, as the wiki summarises it, allows dedicated servers for personal, non-commercial use only, unless you obtain a commercial dedicated-server licence from the licensing partner the EULA names. Donations that buy nothing in return, or that only cover running costs, are allowed. Read the EULA before you sell slots or perks.

A whole machine is the wrong buy for a weekend with three friends on one map: the Windows licence and the memory floor still apply. It earns its place when the world runs for months, a cluster shares one box, or mods push memory past what a slot plan allows.