Schedule a ARK: Survival Ascended server restart
Survival Ascended inherits Survival Evolved's appetite for memory and adds the higher baseline cost of the newer engine. A scheduled restart is not optional on a busy server; it is part of running one.
When should it restart?
Use {{minutes}} where the countdown number should go.
What happens, in order
- Job startsWarn
ServerChat Server restarting in 15 min - 10 min beforeWarn
ServerChat Server restarting in 10 min - 5 min beforeWarn
ServerChat Server restarting in 5 min - 1 min beforeWarn
ServerChat Server restarting in 1 min - Restart timeSave
SaveWorld - Restart timeStop
DoExit
Same as Survival Evolved: SaveWorld first, wait, then DoExit. Ascended writes a larger world and takes correspondingly longer.
The crontab line
Shifted 15 minutes earlier than your chosen time, so the restart itself lands on it rather than 15 minutes after.
45 3 * * * /opt/restart-ark_sa.sh
The script it runs
Save as /opt/restart-ark_sa.sh and make it executable. It assumes rcon-cli is on the path and reads the password from the environment rather than embedding it.
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
# Scheduled restart for ARK: Survival Ascended.
# Generated by spawnly.net/tools/restart-scheduler
# The password stays out of this file. Put it in the environment, or in a
# file only root can read, and export it before this script runs.
RCON_HOST="${RCON_HOST:-127.0.0.1}"
RCON_PORT="${RCON_PORT:-27020}"
: "${RCON_PASSWORD:?set RCON_PASSWORD before running}"
send() {
rcon-cli --host "$RCON_HOST" --port "$RCON_PORT" --password "$RCON_PASSWORD" "$1"
}
# 15 minute warning
send 'ServerChat Server restarting in 15 min'
sleep 300
# 10 minute warning
send 'ServerChat Server restarting in 10 min'
sleep 300
# 5 minute warning
send 'ServerChat Server restarting in 5 min'
sleep 240
# 1 minute warning
send 'ServerChat Server restarting in 1 min'
sleep 60
# Flush the world to disk
send 'SaveWorld'
sleep 10
# Shut down cleanly
send 'DoExit'
# Give the process time to finish writing before anything restarts it.
sleep 30
systemctl start ark_sa 2>/dev/null || trueCron uses the server’s timezone, not yours. Check it with timedatectl before assuming 04:00 means 04:00 where you are — a container in UTC and an admin in Europe are two hours apart in summer and one in winter.
The part specific to ARK: Survival Ascended
SaveWorld first, wait, then DoExit — the same rule as Survival Evolved, and it matters more here because Ascended's world files are larger and take longer to write. Give the save a generous margin before the stop command, and give the process a generous margin before anything tries to bring it back up.