panel/modules/ark-sa/README.md

ARK: Survival Ascended — panel module

A panel-compatible module for running ARK: Survival Ascended (SA) dedicated servers on any agent with Docker available.

What this is

A thin manifest wrapper around mschnitzer/ark-survival-ascended-server — the most actively-maintained community image for ASA on Linux. That image handles the Proton runtime (ASA has no native Linux server) + SteamCMD + the Windows binary wrapper.

First-run flow

1. Create the server in the panel (pick ARK: Survival Ascended from the module picker).
2. Click Update on its card → our generic SteamCMD sidecar downloads ~18 GB into the instance's install volume.
3. Open Config → under Identity, set the server name and admin password. Save.
4. Click Start. First map load takes 3–5 minutes — watch the Console tab; when you see Server started on port 7777, it's ready.

RAM

ASA is a hog. Plan for:

• 12 GB minimum for TheIsland_WP with up to ~30 players
• 16 GB comfortable
• 24 GB if you're running a popular community

Changing maps

Set SERVER_MAP in the container env (the mschnitzer image reads it at boot). Valid values include:

• TheIsland_WP
• TheCenter_WP
• ScorchedEarth_WP
• Aberration_WP
• Extinction_WP
• Astraeos_WP
• ClubArk_WP

After changing the map, click Stop → Start.

Using your own image

Replace the image: field in module.yaml with your Docker image. Keep the volume mounts (/home/steam/ASA/AppFiles and /home/steam/ASA/AppFiles/ShooterGame/Saved) so SteamCMD's output lands where ASA expects and saves persist across updates.

Known quirks

• First start is slow (3–5 min). This is Proton loading + ARK doing its world init. Subsequent starts are ~90 seconds.
• Windows file locks — don't run Update while the server is running; SteamCMD will conflict with ARK's open file handles.
• EAC is enabled by default. If you want to run mods that EAC blocks, disable via -NoBattlEye in the server args (community image exposes an env for this).