Create an ARK: Survival Ascended server on Windows

A dedicated ARK: Survival Ascended server on your own Windows PC or server, without the command line: Z-ARK downloads the game, prepares the server and then keeps watch over it.

What you need

• A computer running Windows 10, Windows 11 or Windows Server 2019 or later, 64-bit.
• About 12 GB of disk space per ARK server.
• Access to your router’s settings, to open the game port.

Nothing else to install: Z-ARK downloads SteamCMD and the server files itself.

Download Z-ARK

1. Create your account on z-ark.fr, then activate it with the link you receive by email.
2. In your account, click “Download Z-ARK”. The archive is personal: it is tied to your account.

Install and open the dashboard

1. Unzip the archive into the folder of your choice, on one of the machine’s own disks (never on a network drive).
2. Double-click z-ark.exe and accept the administrator prompt.
3. If Windows shows “Windows protected your PC”, click “More info”, then “Run anyway”.
4. The dashboard opens in your browser.

On first launch, Z-ARK asks you to create the machine’s administrator account: a username, the email address of your Z-ARK account and a password of at least 10 characters. Z-ARK then starts with Windows; you can change this in “Settings”, “General” tab.

Create the server

1. Click “Add a server”, then “New server”.
2. Choose the install folder and the session name: this is the name players will see in the game’s server list.
3. Choose the map, the maximum number of players and, if you want them, the mods (their CurseForge numbers, separated by commas).
4. Free ports are already filled in. Set an RCON password: without it, there are no clean saves and no player list.
5. Click “Create + install”. The server download (about 12 GB) runs in the background: you can close the window.

Open the game port

For your friends to join you from the Internet, the game port must reach your machine. In “Settings”, “Ports & network” tab, click “Run the diagnosis”: Z-ARK checks the server, the Windows firewall (it can open it for you) and your router.

The router is set by hand: in its interface, forward the game port (UDP) to the computer running the server.

Start the server

1. Open the server’s page, “Control” tab, and click “Start”.
2. Be patient: an ARK server often takes 2 to 6 minutes to start, which is normal.
3. Once online, the “Players”, “RCON console” and “Logs” tabs show what is happening.

From then on, Z-ARK keeps watch: it restarts the server if it crashes, makes the backups and applies ARK updates at restart. Schedule a daily restart in “Settings”, “Cluster” tab, so everything happens overnight.