Running both Exiled Lands and Isle of Siptah from one Conan Exiles dedicated server machine
A common community ask: "I'm running an Exiled Lands server with my group and we want to add Isle of Siptah too — without spinning up a second machine. How does this actually work and what about character transfers?" The Funcom Dedicated Server Manager doesn't expose a "cluster" option the way some other survival games do, but you can still run both maps on one box. This page walks through the practical setup and the gotchas that bite most admins.
The core concept
Conan Exiles' dedicated server binary loads one map at a time. To serve both maps from the same machine, you run two separate server processes — one configured for Exiled Lands, one for Isle of Siptah — each with its own:
- Install directory (or shared install + separate save folders)
- Port set
- Config files
- Save database
The two processes don't communicate. To move characters between maps you use the in-game Character Transfer feature, which writes a transfer file to disk that the destination server can import.
Setup option A: separate install directories
The cleanest option. Install the dedicated server twice via SteamCMD into two different directories:
# Exiled Lands instance
steamcmd.exe +force_install_dir "C:\ConanExiledLands" +login anonymous +app_update 443030 validate +quit
# Isle of Siptah instance
steamcmd.exe +force_install_dir "C:\ConanSiptah" +login anonymous +app_update 443030 validate +quit
Each install is ~40GB after Enhanced, so 80GB total. Updates need to happen twice but the two installs can be on different schedules if you want to stagger update risk. See the every-update-breaks-server article for staggering strategy.
Setup option B: one install, two save folders
If disk space is tight, you can share the binary install and only separate the save directories. This requires launching the server with explicit save-path arguments. Each instance still needs its own port set.
# Launch Exiled Lands instance
ConanSandboxServer.exe -log -server -ConanSavePath="C:\ConanSaves\ExiledLands" -Port=7777 -QueryPort=27015
# Launch Isle of Siptah instance
ConanSandboxServer.exe -log -server -ConanSavePath="C:\ConanSaves\Siptah" -Port=7779 -QueryPort=27017
Caveat: not all server settings respect ConanSavePath. Some plugins write to the binary install's directory regardless. If you use mods, option A is safer.
Configuring the maps
In each instance's ConanSandbox/Saved/Config/WindowsServer/Engine.ini (or LinuxServer if you're on Linux), set the map:
For the Exiled Lands instance:
[/Script/Engine.GameMapsSettings]
ServerDefaultMap=/Game/Maps/ConanSandbox/ConanSandbox
For the Isle of Siptah instance:
[/Script/Engine.GameMapsSettings]
ServerDefaultMap=/Game/DLC_EXT/DLC_Siptah/Maps/DLC_Isle_of_Siptah/DLC_Isle_of_Siptah
See the map switch article for the exact path and the LogLoad: Failed to enter error if you get it wrong.
Port assignments — the source of half the problems
Each Conan Exiles server instance needs three UDP ports + one TCP for RCON. Default port set:
| Port | Purpose | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Game | Client traffic | 7777/UDP |
| QueryPort | Steam server browser | 27015/UDP |
| SourceQueryPort | Source query protocol | 27016/UDP |
| RCON | Remote admin | 25575/TCP |
For two instances, shift the second by some predictable offset. A common pattern:
| Instance | Game | QueryPort | SourceQueryPort | RCON |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exiled Lands | 7777 | 27015 | 27016 | 25575 |
| Isle of Siptah | 7779 | 27017 | 27018 | 25576 |
If both instances bind to the same port, the second one fails to start with a "could not bind socket" error. The log line is easy to miss because the server still creates the log file before crashing.
Enabling character transfer between the two instances
Character Transfer is a game feature that lets a player export their character (level, inventory, recipes) from one server and import it into another. It works between two of your own dedicated servers if both have the feature enabled.
On both instances, edit ServerSettings.ini:
[ServerSettings]
ServerCommunity=PrivateGroup
EnableCharacterTransfer=True
CharacterTransferLevel=0
CharacterTransferLevel=0 means any level can transfer. Set to 60 if you only want endgame characters to be allowed.
In-game flow: player goes to Main Menu → Character → Transfer. Source server writes a .fbc transfer file to ConanSandbox/Saved/CharacterExports/ on the source server's disk. The player then connects to the destination server and uses Main Menu → Character → Import. Destination server reads the transfer file from a location accessible to it.
If both servers are on the same machine, you can simply share the CharacterExports folder via filesystem links so transfers move automatically. If they're on different machines, the player downloads the file from the source server's web interface and uploads it to the destination.
What does NOT transfer between maps
- Buildings. Each map's terrain is different; structures stay where they were built.
- Thralls and pets. Captured NPCs stay on the source map. Players who care about specific thralls need to recapture on the new map.
- Storage containers and chests. All stationary inventory stays on the source map.
- Clan membership. Clans are per-server. A player transferring to a new server starts solo and re-joins their clan there.
What does transfer: character level, attribute and skill point allocation, recipes learned, hotbar layout, inventory items currently on the character at the moment of export.
Managing both instances day-to-day
A few quality-of-life choices that make running two instances less work than running two separate machines:
- Coordinated update windows. When Funcom patches, update both instances back-to-back during a single maintenance window rather than scheduling separately.
- Unified backup script. Single cron job that backs up both
ConanSandbox/Saved/directories to the same backup destination. - Server browser tagging. Use distinct
ServerNamein each ServerSettings.ini — "MyGroup — Exiled Lands" and "MyGroup — Siptah" — so players see them as related but separate. - Discord channels. One channel per map. Cross-server announcements in a shared channel.
Hardware sizing for two instances
Two Conan Exiles instances on one machine roughly doubles the CPU and RAM footprint. Plan for:
- ~6-10GB RAM per instance idle; 12-20GB under load
- 1-2 CPU cores per instance under load (Conan is single-threaded for the main game tick but spawns helper threads for world processing)
- ~40GB disk per instance (separate installs) or ~50GB total (shared install with separate saves)
For 10-20 players per instance on a 2-instance setup, target a server with at least 8 cores, 32GB RAM, NVMe SSD storage. See the server requirements article for more detail.
Related articles
- Switching a single server to Isle of Siptah
- Followers missing after character transfer
- Isle of Siptah server setup
- Server requirements and sizing
For a managed Conan Exiles setup that handles two-map clusters with shared character transfers, see Supercraft plans.