PolyPanel — multigame server manager for Linux · web UI in the browser

ARK: Survival Ascended · ARK: Survival Evolved · Satisfactory · 7 Days to Die · Space Engineers — one manager, one web UI.

English · Deutsch — the installer asks for the language up front, and the UI can switch any time (button in the top right, polypanel lang en on the console).

Installation · Uninstall · Features · Access

Your own server manager for ARK ASA dedicated servers: start, stop, updates, mods, backups, settings and player management through a web interface.

Not an app for your PC — no Windows or macOS program. polypanel runs as a service on the Linux server and is used in a browser: from your PC, laptop, tablet or phone, on your LAN or over VPN. You install it on the server once (git clone, install.sh); after that there is nothing to download and no program to launch — just the address with a token.

Plain Python (standard library only), SteamCMD for install and updates, Wine for the server process, RCON for everything the server exposes.

More games (ARK: Survival Evolved, Satisfactory, 7 Days to Die, Space Engineers)

polypanel manages other dedicated servers besides ARK: Survival Ascended. The core (start/stop, updates, backups, schedules, web UI, multi-instance) is game-agnostic; a game profile only provides what the game needs:

Profile	Steam app	Launch	Control
ark	2430930	ArkAscendedServer.exe under Wine	Source RCON
arkse	376030	ShooterGame/Binaries/Linux/ShooterGameServer (native)	Source RCON (ServerAdminPassword)
satisfactory	1690800	FactoryServer.sh (native)	HTTPS API /api/v1 (bearer token)
7d2d	294420	startserver.sh (native)	Telnet (TelnetPassword in serverconfig.xml)
spaceengineers	298740	DedicatedServer64/SpaceEngineersDedicated.exe under Wine	no RCON — start/stop, XML config, server console

Create an instance:

polypanel --name island  init --game arkse --map Ragnarok
polypanel --name factory init --game satisfactory
polypanel --name horde   init --game 7d2d
polypanel --name yard    init --game spaceengineers
polypanel --name factory start

ARK: Survival Evolved is the older ARK generation and needs no Wine: SteamCMD ships a Linux server. Configuration lives in ShooterGame/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/ (GameUserSettings.ini and Game.ini), the manager writes ports, name, admin password and workshop mods there, and the map plus cluster arguments go into the launch line. Mods are Steam Workshop IDs, searched directly in the workshop from the UI and loaded on start (-automanagedmods); the settings tab reads every property from both INI files — 262 values, all with German labels.

The web UI accepts the extra game parameter on POST /api/instances. Ports: Satisfactory needs three (-Port, -QueryPort, -BeaconPort), 7 Days to Die game, query and telnet ports. Instance directories live in ~/polypanel-instances/<name>.

Screenshots

Installation

git clone https://github.com/Ronny-H-79/PolyPanel.git polypanel   # once
cd polypanel
./install.sh --check     # check what is missing (changes nothing)
./install.sh             # install
polypanel web           # start the web UI - the address with token is printed

Instances are created in the browser: open the address the command prints, enter a name, pick the game and map and press Anlegen / Create — the card then offers Install (SteamCMD, then start). No terminal is needed after the first command.

Console only, optional: polypanel wizard is the terminal alternative to the browser — it asks for name, map, port and session name, downloads the server files and sets up the systemd service. It needs an interactive shell and is not required: everything the wizard does is also in the web UI. ./install.sh --wizard runs it directly after installing.

Requirements: Linux, Python ≥ 3.10, Wine, curl and tar. Missing packages are offered by the installer (pacman, apt, dnf, zypper). SteamCMD is downloaded automatically; root is only needed to install Wine.

Where it is tested — as of 8 November 2026, each with a running ARK ASA server:

System	Version	Environment
Ubuntu LTS	24.04.5	Python 3.12.3, Wine 9.0
Arch Linux (CachyOS)	current	Python 3.14.9, Wine 11.21

Debian, Fedora and openSUSE are supported by the installer as well (apt, dnf, zypper), but PolyPanel has not been tested there yet — feedback welcome. 64-bit Wine is required (the ARK server is a Windows build); Wine older than 8.0 is untested.

Check your own box:

. /etc/os-release && echo "$PRETTY_NAME"; python3 --version; wine --version

The installer asks, in order:

• language (German/English)
• whether missing packages (Wine, iproute2) should be installed
• how the UI should be reachable: Tunnel — client-side only over SSH, Domain — public with HTTPS (stored for later), IP — directly via IP and port (HTTP, open the port in your firewall)
• only for "Domain": whether the UI should run permanently (polypanel-web.service) — as root a system service in /etc/systemd/system (starts at boot, no login or linger needed), as a normal user a user service in ~/.config/systemd/user

With "Tunnel" the last question is skipped: no long-running service is needed, the UI starts with polypanel web when you want it.

At the end you get the command that matches your choice: the SSH tunnel with your user and the server IP (not the hostname — often not resolvable from outside), or sudo polypanel proxy --write --cert, which uses the stored domain. --web / --no-web skips the service question.

Security: the UI is an admin console — whoever has the token controls everything. Mode [3] (direct via IP) is unencrypted and the token can be read on the wire. Use [1] (SSH tunnel) or [2] (HTTPS). Details: docs/zugriff.md.

When the install gets stuck

Message	Cause	Fix
fatal: destination path 'PolyPanel' already exists	the folder is already there	cd polypanel && git pull instead of cloning again
./install.sh: No such file or directory after cd polypanel/polypanel	you are in the package folder PolyPanel/PolyPanel — only .py files live there	cd .. — install.sh is one level up
PolyPanel: command not found	~/.local/bin is not in PATH	as root the installer links /usr/local/bin/PolyPanel; otherwise export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" and open a new shell

Details, requirements and uninstall: INSTALL.md

Uninstall

The program only (instances, backups and settings stay):

./install.sh --uninstall

This also stops and removes the systemd units (polypanel-web, polypanel-*) so nothing points at a missing file afterwards. If the source folder is already gone:

systemctl --user disable --now polypanel-web.service polypanel-test.service
rm -f ~/.config/systemd/user/polypanel-*.service ~/.local/bin/PolyPanel
rm -rf ~/.local/share/PolyPanel

Everything — additionally config, token, backups and server files (about 24 GB):

rm -rf ~/.config/polypanel          # instances, token, mod cache
rm -rf ~/polypanel-backups          # world backups
rm -rf ~/polypanel-snapshots        # instance snapshots
rm -rf ~/arkserver             # the server files (12 GB)
rm -rf ~/.wine-arkserver       # Wine prefix

Only the last step is irreversible: worlds and configs live in ~/polypanel-backups — keep those and you can restore everything later.

SteamCMD (~/steamcmd, ~/.steam, ~/Steam) is removed by --uninstall as well.

Remove everything (instances and worlds too)

./install.sh --uninstall
rm -rf ~/arkserver-* ~/.config/ascendedpanel ~/ascendedpanel-backups ~/ascendedpanel-snapshots
rm -f /etc/systemd/system/ascendedpanel-*.service
systemctl daemon-reload

Where things live: program ~/.local/share/ascendedpanel and ~/.local/bin/ascendedpanel, settings and token ~/.config/ascendedpanel, instances with worlds ~/arkserver-<name>, SteamCMD ~/steamcmd, ~/.steam and ~/Steam.

More

Topic	File
Features — overview, screenshots, mod search, Discord notifications	docs/funktionen.md
Access — SSH tunnel, LAN, HTTPS via nginx, token	docs/zugriff.md
Operation — self-update, changelog, language	docs/betrieb.md
Internals — structure, console, stop order	docs/technik.md

What changed between versions: CHANGELOG.en.md · Install details: INSTALL.md

Help

Questions, problems or just other server admins: the Ark-ASA-ASE-Hilfe community on Discord helps with settings, mods and start-up problems. That is also the place for feedback on PolyPanel.

Licence

Free to use, all rights reserved. Downloading, installing and running it on your own servers is free of charge — including for a community. Redistribution, modification, selling it or offering it as a download/service requires written permission. Details: LICENSE.

© 2026 Ronny H.