The Isle's Evrima server is a free anonymous SteamCMD download that you have to pull from a beta branch, configure through a single Game.ini, and register with Epic Online Services before anybody can find it. Budget 6 GB of memory for a small server and 12 GB or more if you want a hundred slots, three ports, and an evening of reading class names. Everything else is detail - but it is the detail that decides whether your server has thirty regulars in a month or an empty map and a Discord nobody posts in.
Two things catch almost everyone. The first is the -beta evrima flag: without it SteamCMD hands you the retired Legacy build, which no current client can join. The second is that a correctly configured server can run flawlessly for hours and still never appear in the in-game browser, because browser registration goes through EOS and has nothing to do with your game port being open.
What the Evrima dedicated server is#
Evrima is the ground-up rewrite of The Isle. The old Legacy branch is retired and is not what players are running, so a server built on it is invisible in practice. The dedicated server is a separate Steam application (app id 412680), free, downloadable with login anonymous, and it does not need an account that owns the game.
Unlike a Valheim or a Minecraft server, this one really does simulate the world. It owns dinosaur growth, hunger and thirst timers, AI critter and plant spawning, weather, migration zones and carnivore patrol zones. That is why the memory and CPU numbers below are higher than people expect from a game with a modest player cap, and why AIDensity is a performance setting and not just a gameplay one.
Two more things to know before you plan anything:
- Player progress lives on the server, per Steam account. In current builds each player's state is written to its own file under
TheIsle/Saved/Databases/, keyed by SteamID64. That is how growth survives a restart, how you wipe, and how you can hand one player their dinosaur back without touching anybody else. - There is no supported mod loader. What separates one community server from another is configuration, RCON tooling and moderation, not mods. If you are arriving from a game where plugins carry the server, adjust your expectations: here the config file and the rules you enforce are the product.
Requirements and resource usage#
Evrima is a heavy Unreal server. Memory scales with the number of loaded players, the AI population and how much of the map has been touched; CPU scales with the same things but is bound by one dominant thread.
| Slots | RAM | vCPU | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 20, private group | 6 GB | 2 | Comfortable with default AI density |
| 20-50, small community | 8 GB | 2.5 | The common case for a new server |
| 50-80, busy public | 10-12 GB | 3 | Watch AI density and migrations |
| 80-100, full | 12-14 GB | 3.5 | Expect tick cost at peak hours |
- CPU: the simulation leans on a single thread, so clock speed beats core count. The extra cores still earn their keep on saving, networking and asset streaming. If the server feels sluggish only at peak, check which of the two is actually at its limit before paying for more of the other - CPU vs RAM for game servers walks through how to tell.
- Disk: roughly 15 GB installed, and it grows with every content patch, so do not size the disk at exactly what the install needs today. The databases folder is small by comparison, a few megabytes for a busy server.
- Network: modest per player, but a hundred players moving through a jungle is a steady stream of position updates. Latency matters more than throughput for how the game feels; see latency, jitter and packet loss for telling those apart.
The single biggest lever on cost is MaxPlayerCount. Setting it to 100 because the field allows it, on a plan sized for 30, produces a server that is fine at 3am and unplayable at 8pm. Pick a number you can actually serve and raise it when the queue is consistently full.
Installing the server with SteamCMD#
On your own Linux machine:
$ steamcmd +force_install_dir /home/isle/server +login anonymous \ +app_update 412680 -beta evrima validate +quit$ cd /home/isle/server$ ./TheIsleServer.sh -log -Port=7777 -QueryPort=27015Let it start once and then stop it. The first run creates the configuration tree, which is where everything else in this guide happens:
TheIsle/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/Game.iniTheIsle/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/Engine.iniTheIsle/Saved/Databases/On Windows the same files sit under TheIsle/Saved/Config/WindowsServer/. On a panel-based host you do not type the SteamCMD line at all: the branch and the launch arguments are fields on the Startup tab, and the config files are edited in the browser or over SFTP. SteamCMD explained covers app ids, branches and validation in general if this is your first Steam dedicated server.
Game.ini: the settings that matter#
Everything lives in two section headers. Get the header wrong by one character and the server does not complain - it silently falls back to defaults, which is why people swear they set the growth multiplier and it did nothing.
[/Script/TheIsle.TIGameSession]ServerName=Northern Migration | EU | Semi-RealismMaxPlayerCount=60MapName=GatewayDiscord=https://discord.gg/examplebServerPassword=FalseServerPassword=bServerWhitelist=FalsebQueueEnabled=TrueQueuePort=10000bRconEnabled=TrueRconPort=8888RconPassword=change-thisGrowthMultiplier=2CorpseDecayMultiplier=1bEnableHumans=FalsebEnableMutations=TruebSpawnAI=TrueAIDensity=1AISpawnInterval=40bSpawnPlants=TruePlantSpawnMultiplier=1ServerDayLengthMinutes=45ServerNightLengthMinutes=20bServerDynamicWeather=TruebEnableMigration=TruebEnablePatrolZones=TrueIdentity and access
| Key | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
ServerName | empty | The name in the browser. Put the region and ruleset in it |
MaxPlayerCount | 100 | Slots. Size it to your plan, not to the field |
MapName | Gateway | Case sensitive. Gateway is the current Evrima map |
Discord | empty | Shown to players in game; the cheapest recruitment you have |
bServerPassword | False | Must be True for ServerPassword to be enforced |
bServerWhitelist | False | Allow-list mode, driven by the ID list below |
bQueueEnabled | True | Holds players when full instead of refusing them |
The password pair trips people up: setting ServerPassword alone does nothing. Both keys have to change.
Growth, diets and the shape of the game
GrowthMultiplier is the setting your players will judge you on. At 1 a large dinosaur takes many hours of real time to reach adult. Community servers commonly run 2 to 5; the developers' own guidance is to keep it low, and anything past about 10 produces adults faster than the food and AI systems can support. Change it only between wipes if you can - a mid-week jump from 1 to 5 makes everyone who ground out their growth feel robbed.
| Key | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
GrowthMultiplier | 1 | Growth speed. 2-5 is the usual community range |
CorpseDecayMultiplier | 1 | How fast bodies rot. Lower means more food lying about |
bEnableHumans | False | Playable humans, where the build supports them |
bEnableMutations | True | The mutation system |
bAllowReplay | False | Server-side replay recording |
AllowedClasses | all | One line per playable species |
AllowedClasses is a repeated key, one line per species, using the exact class names the shipped Game.ini already lists. Copy them from the file rather than typing what you think a dinosaur is called - an invalid name is ignored, and the usual result is a roster missing one species nobody can explain. Delete a line to remove that species from the selection screen. Leave the block absent and everything is allowed.
AI, plants and weather
| Key | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
bSpawnAI | True | AI critters, the carnivore food supply |
AIDensity | 1 | How many. The main performance dial |
AISpawnInterval | 40 | Seconds between spawn checks |
DisallowedAIClasses | empty | Block individual AI species |
bSpawnPlants | True | Plant spawning, the herbivore food supply |
PlantSpawnMultiplier | 1 | Plant density |
bUseRegionSpawning | False | Restrict player spawns to map regions |
ServerDayLengthMinutes | 45 | Length of daytime |
ServerNightLengthMinutes | 20 | Length of night, deliberately shorter |
bServerDynamicWeather | True | Weather changes over time |
bEnableMigration | True | Species migration zones |
MaxMigrationTime | 5400 | Seconds a migration zone lasts |
bEnableMassMigration | True | Server-wide migration events |
MassMigrationTime | 43200 | Seconds between them, so twelve hours |
bEnablePatrolZones | True | Carnivore AI patrol zones |
Turning AI off makes the server cheaper to run and the game much worse: carnivores have nothing to eat but each other and players, and the map empties out socially as well as literally. If you are short of CPU, drop AIDensity to 0.5 before you consider bSpawnAI=False.
Ports, EOS and appearing in the browser#
| Port | Protocol | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
7777 | UDP | Game traffic |
27015 | UDP | Steam query |
8888 | TCP | RCON, on a protocol of its own |
10000 | TCP | Join queue |
The game and query ports are set on the command line (-Port= and -QueryPort=); the RCON and queue ports come from Game.ini. All four need to be reachable if you want all four features. UDP is the part people get wrong - a firewall rule that only allows TCP produces a server that starts, logs happily and accepts nobody. Game server ports explained covers why the query port exists at all and what breaks when only one of the pair is open.
Browser registration is separate from all of this. Evrima registers with Epic Online Services, and the server needs valid EOS dedicated-server credentials in Engine.ini under an [EpicOnlineServices] header, with DedicatedServerClientId and DedicatedServerClientSecret. Recent builds ship a working pair; if yours does not, or if a patch invalidates it, the log shows an EOS login failure and the server never lists even though players can still join by other means. Registration also takes a few minutes after start, so give a fresh server five minutes before deciding it is broken.
Admins, whitelists, VIPs and the queue#
Access lists live under a different header, and this is the second place a typo costs you an hour:
[/Script/TheIsle.TIGameStateBase]AdminsSteamIDs=76561198012345678AdminsSteamIDs=76561198087654321WhitelistIDs=76561198011112222VIPs=76561198033334444Each key is repeated, one SteamID64 per line. The 17-digit ID is not the Steam profile name or the vanity URL; the reliable way to get it is to have the person join once and read the ID out of the server log, where every connection is recorded. Admins listed here are what RCON recognises, so an RCON password without an admin entry gets you a connection and no authority.
bServerWhitelist=True plus a populated WhitelistIDs block turns the server allow-list only. Leave the whitelist on with an empty list and nobody can join, including you. VIPs bypass the queue, which is the practical use of the queue system: a public server that is full at peak but always has room for the people who keep it alive.
Adding people to these lists means stopping the server, editing the file and starting again. On a busy community that is disruptive enough that most admins batch whitelist additions into one daily restart rather than doing them as they come in. The Schedules tab on a panel host can run that restart on a cron expression so it always lands at the same quiet hour.
RCON and remote administration#
Evrima's RCON is not Source RCON. It speaks a protocol of its own, so rcon-cli, mcrcon and the Source tools in your bookmarks will connect and then fail to do anything useful. You need a client written for The Isle; several community tools and Discord bots exist, and every decent one exposes the same set of operations: broadcast an announcement, direct-message a player, list who is online, kick, ban, save, toggle the whitelist and toggle global chat, and adjust AI spawning without a restart.
That last one is the reason to enable RCON at all. Being able to announce a restart, kick a rule-breaker and save the server without dropping everyone is the difference between moderating a server and rebooting it.
Treat the RCON password as a root password, because it effectively is. Give it a value nobody can guess, never paste it into a Discord channel, and do not expose the RCON port to the whole internet if you can restrict it. RCON safely goes through the failure modes; the short version is that an open RCON port with a weak password is the most common way a game server gets taken over. If several people need admin powers, give each of them their own panel account with limited permissions rather than sharing one credential - subusers and least privilege covers the idea.
Saves, updates and wipes#
Evrima writes player state continuously enough that a clean stop loses nothing meaningful, but a hard kill can still catch the server mid-write. Stop from the panel, or send the process a normal termination signal, rather than killing the container.
- Back up the databases folder, not the whole install.
TheIsle/Saved/Databases/is your players' progress. The 15 GB of game files can be re-downloaded from SteamCMD in minutes; the databases cannot. - Back up `Game.ini` separately and keep the copy off the server. After a patch the server may regenerate it with defaults, and a config you tuned over three months is worth more than it looks.
- Update the server the moment a client patch lands. The Isle enforces a version match, so an out-of-date server rejects every player, and your regulars will find another server for the evening. A scheduled task that runs the SteamCMD update before a nightly restart handles this for you; scheduled tasks worth having has sensible patterns.
- A wipe is a folder deletion. Stop the server, take a backup, remove the contents of the databases folder, start. Config, whitelist and admins survive because they live elsewhere. Announce it a week ahead - unannounced wipes lose communities faster than lag does.
A backup that has never been restored is a hypothesis, not a backup. Restore one to a second server occasionally and actually log in; testing a restore before you need it explains how to do that without risking the live world.
On RE:NODE the Restart button sends a clean stop, backup slots come with every plan and restoring is one button, and the Schedules tab can chain a backup and a restart at a fixed hour. If a server ever hits its memory limit the container is stopped and restarted clean rather than left to swap, which is one more reason to keep MaxPlayerCount and AIDensity honest.
Troubleshooting#
The server runs but is not in the browser. Check the log for an EOS login failure first, then wait five minutes, then confirm the query port is open on UDP. In that order - it is nearly always EOS or patience, not the firewall.
Players get "version mismatch" or are dropped at the loading screen. The server is on an older build than the client, or you downloaded without -beta evrima. Re-run SteamCMD with the branch flag and validate.
Settings in `Game.ini` do nothing. Either the section header is wrong, or the server rewrote the file because it was running when you edited it. Stop the server, open the file, confirm the header spelling exactly matches [/Script/TheIsle.TIGameSession], save, start.
Nobody can join a whitelisted server. bServerWhitelist=True with an empty or malformed WhitelistIDs block. Every entry must be a bare 17-digit SteamID64 on its own repeated key.
RCON connects but commands are rejected. The account you are using is not in AdminsSteamIDs, or your tool is speaking Source RCON at a server that does not.
Memory climbs all day and the server dies in the evening. Either the slot count is above what the plan can hold at peak or AIDensity is too high. A nightly restart hides the symptom and is worth having anyway; see restart schedules that help for how to schedule one that does not annoy people.
The server restarts itself repeatedly. Read the console before changing anything - the last twenty lines before a crash are usually explicit. Reading the console and why your game server keeps restarting cover the common causes.
FAQ#
Do I need to own The Isle to run a server?
No. The dedicated server is app 412680 and downloads with login anonymous, so a SteamCMD install needs no account that owns the game. You do need the game to play on it.
Why must I use the evrima beta branch?
Because the default branch of that app still points at the retired Legacy build. Every current player is on Evrima, so a Legacy server is unjoinable in practice. Add -beta evrima to the app_update line and re-validate.
How much RAM does an Evrima server need?
About 6 GB for a private group of twenty, 8 GB for a small community and 12 GB or more for a full hundred slots. AI density and the number of loaded players drive it more than the map does.
Can I install mods on an Evrima server?
There is no supported mod loader. Servers differentiate themselves through configuration, RCON tooling, Discord integration and moderation rather than through mods.
How do I wipe without losing my configuration?
Stop the server, back it up, and delete the contents of TheIsle/Saved/Databases/. Game.ini, the admin list and the whitelist live in the config folder and are untouched.
Why does changing GrowthMultiplier upset people?
Because growth is the only long-term investment the game asks for. Raising or lowering it mid-cycle changes the value of every hour your players have already spent. Change it at a wipe, and announce it beforehand.
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