Update an ARK: Survival Ascended server and its mods

With every new ARK version, a server that is not up to date turns players away. Z-ARK spots the version, warns players, backs up and updates, for ARK and for your mods alike.

How Z-ARK spots a new version

Every 30 minutes, Z-ARK checks whether a new ARK version is out on Steam. The “Check for updates” button on the home screen compares versions right away, without installing anything.

By default, the update is applied at each server’s scheduled restart. To apply it during the day, go to “Settings”, “General” tab, then “Updates”: choose to only be notified, or to update right away, with messages to players (for example 15, 10, 5 then 1 minute before).

Update by hand

1. Open the server’s page, “Control” tab, and click “Update”.
2. Choose when to warn players: right away, or 1 to 15 minutes before.
3. Leave “Full backup before the update” ticked, then click “Start the update”.

Z-ARK warns players, stops the server, backs it up, updates it and starts it again. If a version causes trouble, “Previous version…” puts back the one before.

Try the version on a test server

A new ARK version can break a plugin. With the Z-ARK licence, choose a test server in “Settings”, “General” tab, then “Updates”, “Update test server” card, and tick “Automatic trial”. Each new version is first started there with your plugins:

• if everything starts, your other servers follow at the next restart;
• if something breaks, the version is refused, with the reason, and your servers stay on the one that works.

Add and track mods

1. Open the server’s page, “Mods” tab, and click “Find a mod”.
2. Choose “By CurseForge ID” and paste the mod’s number: it appears in the address of its page on curseforge.com.
3. Click “Add to the list”. To reuse another server’s mods, “Copy its mods here” copies them all at once.

ARK downloads mods at startup: a restart is enough to apply a mod update. For Z-ARK to track them on its own, your installation must be linked to your Z-ARK account (“Settings”, “Account” tab).

In “Settings”, “General” tab, then “Updates”, tick mod checking in the “Mod updates” card: Z-ARK then checks them every hour. When a mod changes, it notes it in the journal, or it restarts the server after warning players. It restarts only one server at a time, and never if a restart is already planned within 3 hours.

Schedule restarts

In “Settings”, “Cluster” tab, then “Restarts”, choose the days, the time and the warning messages, and whether the servers stop all together or one after another. The world is saved before every stop, and pending updates are applied at that moment.