Ark-MicroK8s

ARK: Survival Evolved via MicroK8s.

This project was inspired by Cervator/KubicArk, but I wanted something I could maintain myself and could run on my basement MicroK8s edge node (an old Dell R620).

What I'm running:

• Ubuntu 22.04.2 on a Dell R620 with 64GB of RAM, an SSD boot drive, and SSD ZFS pool for local storage (not documented in this repo)
• Using my own nhalase/ark Docker image because I wanted finer control over the image

Getting started

If you don't want to use the default ark namespace, you can adjust the namespace in the source.sh file and kustomize will take care of things for you (note: you'll need kustomize installed).

You'll need to enable the MicroK8s addons: ingress, dns, and hostpath-storage.

1. Run ./generate-files.sh to get the secret files you need to start the server.
2. Fill out AllowedCheaterSteamIDs.txt, PlayersExclusiveJoinList.txt, PlayersJoinNoCheck.txt, and ark-server-secrets.env.
3. Run ./create-ns-and-auth.sh (you only need to do this once).
4. Run ./start-server.sh "mapname" to start the server. Valid names are names that match server directory names (e.g., "theisland").
5. You don't have to fill out main.cfg, but it will be volume mounted over /etc/arkmanager/instances/main.cfg regardless.

Note: after running ./start-server.sh "mapname", the build directory will contain generated YAML manifests of what has been applied. This wasn't necessary, but included for spot-checking what was applied.

ulimit adjustments

Edit /var/snap/microk8s/current/args/containerd-env on your MicroK8s node and adjust the ulimit -n value to 1000000. There is NO way to do this in the container directly.

Networking

If your MicroK8s does not have a public IP, port forward the service nodePorts as follows:

• client port as UDP
• server port as UDP
• steam query port as UDP
• rcon port as TCP

Updating the ingress plugin

1. Edit the nginx-tcp configmap: microk8s kubectl -n ingress edit cm nginx-ingress-tcp-microk8s-conf. Add a data entry for each server:

# example
data:
  "32003": ark/theisland:32003

2. Edit the nginx-udp configmap: microk8s kubectl -n ingress edit cm nginx-ingress-udp-microk8s-conf. Add a data entry for each server:

# example
data:
  "32000": ark/theisland:32000
  "32001": ark/theisland:32001
  "32002": ark/theisland:32002

3. Edit the nginx daemonset: microk8s kubectl -n ingress edit ds nginx-ingress-microk8s-controller. Add a port entry for each server:

# example
- containerPort: 32000
  hostPort: 32000
  name: udp-32000
  protocol: UDP
- containerPort: 32001
  hostPort: 32001
  name: udp-32001
  protocol: UDP
- containerPort: 32002
  hostPort: 32002
  name: udp-32002
  protocol: UDP
- containerPort: 32003
  hostPort: 32003
  name: tcp-32003
  protocol: TCP