How to Backup Ark Dedicated Server
In this video I share my method for backup and restore of my Dedicated Ark Server worlds. I only back up the SavedArks directory, so the scope of the backup is strictly the world itself and not the Ark Server binaries.
Follow my instructions on how to install Ark Server first: • Installing Dedicated ARK Server on Ubuntu ...
vi backup_ark.sh
#!/bin/bash
####################################
# Backup Ark server to a
specified folder.
#
####################################
What to backup.
backup_files="/home/steam/arkserver/ShooterGame/Saved/SavedArks"
backup_file_name="arkserver"
Specify which directory to backup to.
Make sure you have enough space to hold 30 days of backups. This
can be on the server itself, to an external hard drive or mounted network share.
Warning: Ark worlds can get fairly large so choose your backup destination accordingly.
dest="/home/steam/backups"
Create backup archive filename.
day=$(date +"%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S")
archive_file="$day-$backup_file_name.tar.gz"
Stop ARK Server
systemctl stop ark
Backup the files using tar.
tar zcvf $dest/$archive_file $backup_files
Clear backups
/home/steam/clear_backups.sh
Start ARK Server
systemctl start ark
chmod +x backup_ark.sh
vi clear_backups.sh
#!/bin/bash
####################################
# Clean up ARK saved game to a
specified folder.
#
####################################
-mtime +30 means any file older than 30 days
find /home/steam/backups -type f -mtime +30 -exec rm -f {} \;
chmod +x clear_backups.sh
crontab -l
crontab -e
m h dom mon dow command
0 3 * * * /home/steam/backup_ark.sh
############## Restoring a backup:
E.g.
Stop ARK Server
systemctl stop ark
Remove existing data
rm -rf /home/steam/arkserver/ShooterGame/Saved/SavedArks/*
Restore a saved file.
tar -xvf /home/steam/backups/FILENAME.tar.gz -C /
Restore permissions on files
chown steam:steam -R /home/steam/arkserver/ShooterGame/Saved/SavedArks/
Start ARK Server
systemctl start ark