How do I create an Ark: Survival Evolved dedicated server?
Released on 2 June 2015 as an early-access title, Ark: Survival Evolved is one of the most ambitious multiplayer survival games ever. Its 12 million players worldwide receive regular content in the form of DLC packs and season passes. A new extension released in 2021, Genesis: Part 2, offers new content for further exploration. This means more equipment, biomes and missions, and a new map waiting to be discovered. Gather your community of players and enjoy a unique gaming experience with our Ark dedicated servers.
Team up and try to survive!
If you grew up with Jurassic Park, then Ark: Survival Evolved is for you. Enter a unique open world, from lush jungles to steep mountains. Survive alone or together in this merciless nature. Tame and ride a tyrannosaurus, build a base and plan your hunts...there’s so much to do.
The gameplay in Ark: Survival Evolved has been designed to keep you on your toes. You’ll need your wits about to you to manage your resources and win battles. But great rewards are up for grabs and you will really feel like you’re making progress.
The game is available on PC (Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS, via Steam and Epic Games Store), Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and smartphones (Android and iOS).
Why create an Ark dedicated server?
In Ark, there are two ways to play. In PvE, you can enjoy the game’s world by fighting NPCs alone or as a team. PvP, the mode where players compete against each other, offers many more possibilities. You can create a tribe, and fight other players. However, this mode requires more computing resources. Both PvE and PvP mode can be hosted on public or private servers. Most of these servers are standardised for a specific number of players and offer limited customisation options.
There are several ways to enjoy this multiplayer game:
- join a public server
- host your game locally
- create your own dedicated server
Hosting your own Ark server locally may seem like the easiest solution. But this method may prove to be difficult, especially for a world as vast as Ark. Furthermore, if you want to host a large number of players (over 15 people), you will face two issues:
- high resource consumption - if your machine isn’t powerful enough, it may cause bugs and slow performance for you and other players.
- players must remain in a small area - so you won't be able to fully enjoy what the game has to offer.
A dedicated server allows you to create your own rules. Bring your community of players together in a single powerful and stable environment, and give them a unique experience in their favourite game. It’s your world: manage it the way you prefer, and minimise latency for players on your server.
Our OVHcloud Game dedicated servers give you the best power for you and your community.
What are the advantages of an Ark dedicated server?
Unlimited customisation
Build your Ark server the way you like it. Configure its specifications to shape a unique gaming experience. Add the game mods you want and get your community involved. You can offer a server that they have an affinity with and unite them around an optimised game.
Are you going to encourage cooperation or competition among your players? The choice is yours!
High performance
Our Game dedicated servers are built on technology optimised to offer you a unique performance. They use the latest generation of AMD Ryzen processors based on Zen 3 architecture, giving you up to 26% more performance than the previous versions (3000 series).
Hosted in one of our datacenters, your server also benefits from our water cooling technology ensuring constant efficiency.
Availability
Our Game servers have up to 1 Gbit/s bandwidth, to process traffic without compromising service availability. To achieve the lowest latency possible, you can choose a server closest to where your players are based, from our datacentres located around the world. All servers in the Game range have a 99.9% service level agreement (SLA), offering you the best possible availability for gaming and e-sports.
Anti-DDoS Game Protection
This solution is included with all of our Game dedicated servers, and was specially designed for gaming to protect your games and your players’ experience. Unlike standard solutions, it is adapted to UDP traffic (specific to video games), with incoming and outgoing controls. Dedicated gaming profiles can also be applied to further optimise your protection.
Adapts to your needs
Our servers were designed to meet the needs of the gaming industry.
- For resellers: you can configure your game servers using our solutions. Offer your players a quality experience in a protected environment.
- For developers: focus on designing your game. We’ll take care of the hosting. Find out which infrastructure is most suitable for your project in terms of server clusters, cloud gaming, resilience, and more.
- For streamers and your community: want to create a shared experience with your viewers? Rent a Game server and create a world of your own. Configure Twitch directly on the server and provide unique entertainment. You can also install Mumble or TeamSpeak, or host a Discord bot to optimise game interactions between your community members.
How do I create an Ark dedicated server?
Here is the minimum recommended configuration for your Ark dedicated server:
- 8 GB RAM
- 20 GB minimum disk space (however, we recommend between 25 and 50 GB)
- 2 CPU cores with more than 3.0 GHz (for 10 to 15 players)
- Windows or Linux 64-bit operating system (CentOS Linux is recommended for a standalone server)
- A reliable internet connection - 100 MB/s is recommended.
Please note that these are the minimum requirements for a small community of players. OVHcloud Game servers also offer higher performances to allow you to create a more advanced gaming experience with more players.
Need help setting up your dedicated server? Many guides are available.
After setting up your machine, install SteamCMD to download the files from your Ark server. Next, be sure to open UDP ports 27015/27016, UDP 7777, UDP 7778 and TCP 27020.
Even if you have a large storage space included with the server (500 GB), we advise adding extra space for your backups.
Each server has a public IPv4 address and an IPv6 address range. You can order more (up to 256 per machine). They enable you to be visible in the list of Ark servers.