ferment9348/ark-survival-ascended repository overview

⁠ARK: Survival Ascended — dedicated server

A SteamCMD-based ASA dedicated server. Wildcard ships no native Linux server binary, so this installs the Windows depot and runs ArkAscendedServer.exe under GE-Proton. Both SteamCMD and Proton are fetched on first start, which keeps the image small.

Built for Unraid, but it is an ordinary container and runs anywhere.

docker run -d --name ark-sa \
  -p 7777:7777/udp -p 27020:27020/tcp \
  --ulimit nofile=1048576:1048576 \
  --stop-timeout 150 \
  -e SERVER_NAME="My Server" \
  -e SRV_ADMIN_PWD="change-this" \
  -v /path/to/serverfiles:/serverdata/serverfiles \
  -v /path/to/steamcmd:/serverdata/steamcmd \
  ferment9348/ark-survival-ascended:latest

⁠Before you start

• Disk: about 15GB installed, growing with saves and mods. Prefer an SSD — ARK is heavy on random I/O, so spinning disks slow startup and world saves.
• RAM: 16GB is a sensible floor. A stock TheIsland_WP server settles around 10GB.
• First boot is slow and quiet. A ~13GB download, then Proton builds its prefix. After that the server starts in well under a minute.

⁠Ports

To run the game on a different port, change it in three places to the same number — both sides of -p and GAME_PORT:

-p 7779:7779/udp -e GAME_PORT=7779

Docker gives the container no way to discover which host port it was published on, so the server can only report the number it binds; keeping the three equal is what makes the startup log name the port players type. -p 7779:7777 alone works but logs 7777, and a GAME_PORT that disagrees with the container side of -p leaves nothing behind the mapping and no error in the log. The peer port is game port + 1 derived by the engine, with no variable behind it, so move that mapping to match.

On Unraid, the Container Port box of every port a template supplied is greyed out, so your number will not go in it. Remove the Game Port entry and add your own Port entry with both sides set to your number — an entry you create yourself stays editable. Do the same for the peer port, at your number + 1. The README has the steps.

The query and RCON ports need none of this — nothing reports them back to you, so mapping a different host port to them works on its own.

⁠Common settings

Full list in the README⁠.

⁠Worth knowing

Proton is pinned on purpose — do not set latest. GE-Proton 11 hangs ArkAscendedServer.exe before it writes a single line of engine log: no crash, no error, the container just sits there forever. Verified directly with this image on 2026-08-20 — GE-Proton11-5 hangs, GE-Proton10-34 reaches "advertising for join" in 44 seconds, same machine and same files. The container warns in its log if you run a build it was not tested against, and says so again if no engine output appears.

Stopping saves the world. On docker stop it sends SaveWorld over RCON, then DoExit, and only force-kills after STOP_TIMEOUT. Give the container a stop timeout above that — on Unraid, Settings → Docker → Default shutdown time-out — or it gets killed mid-shutdown.

The engine log is in the container log, so docker logs shows what ARK is actually doing, not just the wrapper.

ARK writes your passwords into ShooterGame.log in clear text. Nothing here can prevent that; treat that file as sensitive before pasting it anywhere.

⁠Tags

latest tracks the newest release. The 1.0.x tags and the 1.0 tag are broken and withdrawn — they predate a fix without which the server never starts. Use 1.1.0 or later.

⁠Unraid

Add templates/ark-survival-ascended.xml from the repository, or find ARK-Survival-Ascended in Community Applications.

⁠Source and issues

github.com/blckassassin/unraid-game-servers⁠ — MIT. Structure and environment-variable naming follow ich777's⁠ game server containers.