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Configure core dumps

Learn how to enable core dumps to help diagnose server crashes.
Read time 2 minutesLast updated 2 months ago
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We are winding down our direct support for the Unity Multiplay Game Server Hosting Service. Unity will support the Multiplay Game Server Hosting Service through March 31, 2026. To ensure continuity for live titles, we are licensing our Multiplay Game Server Hosting software to Rocket Science Group. Learn more about them here.
Enable crash debugging and analysis using Multiplay Hosting core dumps and Google Cloud Storage. A core dump is a debugging file that contains a process's address space (memory) when it terminates unexpectedly. This file provides a snapshot of what happened when a process crashed. To generate core dumps for your game server, you must configure the feature at the fleet level to specify where to store the core dump file.

Core dump archive contents

When a crash occurs, Multiplay Hosting saves a core dump as an archive to your configured Google Cloud Storage (GCS) bucket. This archive provides a comprehensive snapshot of the server's state and contains the following files:
  • Core dump file: The raw memory dump of the process when it terminated.
  • stdout
    log: The standard output log from your game server process.
  • stderr
    log: The standard error log from your game server process.
  • metadata.json
    : A file containing key details about the server instance and crash event.
The 
metadata.json
file helps identify and debug the crash. This file's structure is as follows: 
{    "PID": $$PID$$,    "Started": "$$Started$$",    "ServerID": $$ServerID$$,    "ProfileID": $$ProfileID$$,    "AccountServiceID": $$AccountServiceID$$,    "GameID": $$GameID$$,    "ModID": $$ModID$$,    "Name": "$$Name$$",    "IP": "$$IP$$",    "GameVersionIdentifier": "$$GameVersionIdentifier$$",    "MaxDown": $$MaxDown$$,    "MemBase": $$MemBase$$,    "CPUBase": $$CPUBase$$,    "DumpMemory": true,    "DumpCPU": true,    "DumpQuery": true,    "QueryType": "sqp"}

Prerequisites

To configure core dumps for your game server, you must have an existing Google Cloud Storage (GCS) bucket. Refer to Create buckets (Google) for more information.

Unity Dashboard configuration

To configure core dumps:
  1. In the Unity Dashboard, open Multiplay Hosting.
  2. Select Fleets.
  3. Select the fleet for which you want to configure core dumps.
  4. Select Core Dump Storage.
  5. Select Configure core dump storage.
  6. In the Configure core dump storage dialog:
    1. Set Storage service to Google Cloud.
    2. Write the bucket name exactly as it appears in your GCS account.
    3. Add the service account client ID.
    4. Add the service account private key.
  7. Select Finish.
Note
You can find the service account client ID and private key within your GCS bucket's .json key file. In the key file, the client ID is marked as 
client_id
, and the private key is the full contents of 
private_key
, excluding the quotation marks. Refer to Create a service account key (Google) for information about creating keys.
If this fleet causes your game server to crash, the core dump file appears in this GCS bucket.
Note
Unity Gaming Services (UGS) does not manage retention policies for your core dump files. You are responsible for configuring these policies directly within your Google Cloud project. Use GCS features like Object Lifecycle Management to automatically manage or delete old core dumps to control storage costs.