ARK: Survival Evolved Linux Server Tools

This tool allows you to manage any ARK: Survival Evolved linux server without having to remember long commands.
It provides a lot of features, to get the full list check the Commands section on the bottom of this page.

Pre-requisites

To install ARK Server Tools you must have already installed SteamCMD following this guide:

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD#Linux

We assume you have created the steam user to store steamcmd and your ARK server.

Requirements

To allow your ARK server to communicate with the outside you have to open some ports in your firewall:

iptables -I INPUT -p udp --dport 27016 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 27016 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -p udp --dport 7778 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 7778 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 32330 -j ACCEPT

NB: Change the ports according to the ones set in your arkmanager.cfg file.

Install ARK Server Tools

To install ARK Server Tools run this command:

curl -sL http://git.io/vtf5N | sudo bash -s steam

NB: You may want to change the bash -s parameter to fit your steam user if different from steam.

This will copy the arkmanager script and its daemon to the proper directories and will create an empty log directory in /var/log for ARK Server Tools.

To instead perform a user-install of ARK Server Tools as an unprivileged user, run this command:

curl -sL http://git.io/vtf5N | bash -s -- --me

Configuration

Stored in /etc/arkmanager/arkmanager.cfg you can find the variables needed to start the server, like the port numbers, the system environment variables and so on.

Also, in this file, you can specify any parameter you want to add to the startup command of ARK server.
These parameters must be prefixed by the ark_ string, some example could be:

ark_SessionName="My ARK server"
ark_MaxPlayers=50
ark_ServerPVE=False
ark_DifficultyOffset=1

Your session name may not contain special characters (eg. !![EU]!! Aw&some ARK) as it could break the startup command.
In this case you may want to comment out the ark_SessionName variable and define it inside your GameUserSettings.ini file instead.

To specify an option without an argument (e.g. bRawSockets), specify an empty argument (e.g. ark_bRawSockets="").

To specify a dash-option without an argument (e.g. -log), add the option="" prefixed with arkflag_ (e.g. arkflag_log="").

To specify a dash-option with an argument (e.g. -StructureDestructionTag=DestroySwampSnowStructures), add the option=value prefixed with arkopt_ (e.g. arkopt_StructureDestructionTag=DestroySwampSnowStructures).

You can override or add variables for a specific system user creating a file called .arkmanager.cfg in the home directory of the system user.

Install ARK Server

To install ARK Server just run this command as normal user:

arkmanager install

Commands

To get a complete list of the script commands you can run arkmanager --help or arkmanager -h.

arkmanager install

Installs arkmanager to the directory specified in /etc/arkmanager/arkmanager.cfg or ~/.arkmanager.cfg.

arkmanager start

Starts ARK server

arkmanager stop

Stops ARK server

arkmanager restart

Restarts ARK server

arkmanager update

Manually updates ARK server if a new version is available. This accepts zero or more of the below options.

arkmanager update --force

Apply update without check the current version

arkmanager update --safe

Waits for server to perform world save and then updates.

arkmanager update --warn

Warns the players for a configurable amount of time before updating. Should be suitable for adding to a cron job.

arkmanager update --validate

Validates all ARK server files

arkmanager update --update-mods

Updates installed and requested mods

arkmanager update --backup

Takes a backup of the save files before updating.

arkmanager status

Get the status of the server. Show if the process is running, if the server is up and the current version number

arkmanager checkupdate

Check if a new version of the server is available but not apply it

arkmanager upgrade-tools

Check for a new ARK Server Tools version and upgrades it if needed

arkmanager uninstall-tools

Uninstalls the ARK Server Tools

arkmanager backup

Saves a backup of your server inside the backup directory

arkmanager broadcast "message"

Broadcast a message to all curently connected players. Example:

arkmanager broadcast "Hi, admin here"

arkmanager saveworld

Saves the current world.

arkmanager rconcmd

Run a rcon command on the server. Example:

arkmanager rconcmd "ListPlayers"

Full list of available command here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=454529617&searchtext=admin

Credits

Original author of arkmanager: LeXaT