Self-Hosted Deployment on Kubernetes
Deploy Unity Asset Manager on your own Kubernetes cluster, in your datacenter or on a managed service such as Amazon EKS or Azure AKS
Read time 3 minutesLast updated 6 hours ago
Deploy Unity Asset Manager on your own Kubernetes cluster, in your datacenter or on a managed service such as Amazon EKS or Azure AKS. Your IT organization or a solutions integrator implements and operates the deployment with the shdctl command-line tool; Unity doesn't provide a managed deployment service. The release package includes reference infrastructure for Amazon EKS and Azure AKS ( and ) that you can adapt.
aws-baseline-exampleazure-baseline-exampleHosting in your own datacenter
Hosting in your own datacenter is best for organizations that operate internal infrastructure platforms, work with experienced IT delivery partners, and want greater control over hosting. Compared with a managed Kubernetes service, it typically requires a higher upfront infrastructure investment and may offer lower recurring infrastructure costs over time, depending on your operating model and existing IT capabilities.
Your own datacenter is best suited to your organization in these cases:
- You already operate internal infrastructure platforms
- You have data residency or hosting-control requirements
- You want greater control over the underlying environment
- You work with experienced IT delivery partners
- You expect relatively stable, predictable usage patterns over time
If you want lower operational overhead, faster scaling, and a more managed service model, run the cluster on a managed Kubernetes service instead.
Note
Self-Hosted Deployment gives you control over hosting location and data residency, but it isn't a fully air-gapped environment. The platform gets software, container images, and releases from Unity's registry. The cluster either pulls them directly, or a connected host mirrors them into your own registry. Plan for a network path to Unity's registry.
Your responsibilities
You, your IT organization, or your solutions integrator provide and operate the following core infrastructure services that keep the platform reliable in production:
- Compute capacity
- Kubernetes
- Storage systems
- Networking and firewalling
- Load balancing and ingress
- Database hosting
- Monitoring and logging
- Backup and disaster recovery
- Security and secrets management
On a managed Kubernetes service, your cloud provider delivers many of these capabilities. In your own datacenter, you provide and operate them all.
Benefits and considerations of your own datacenter
Benefits
Hosting in your own datacenter offers the following benefits:
- Greater control over infrastructure and hosting location
- Alignment with your internal IT, security, or compliance standards
- Potential long-term infrastructure savings for stable workloads
- Use of existing datacenter investments
Considerations
You need to consider the following operational and infrastructure requirements before you choose to host in your own datacenter:
- You operate more infrastructure directly
- Scaling depends on hardware procurement and installation cycles
- You design and maintain high availability, backup, and disaster recovery in your environment
- You may need additional operational tooling for monitoring, storage, secrets management, and messaging
- You integrate your identity provider (IdP) or single sign-on (SSO) with the platform's bundled Keycloak
Delivery model
Your IT organization or solutions integrator implements and operates the deployment. Unity provides the following:
- The Unity Asset Manager application and its container images
- The shdctl command-line tool and the versioned release packages
- Helm charts and deployment templates
- Supported architecture and deployment documentation
- Coordination support during planning and implementation phases
Your IT organization or solutions integrator owns the following activities:
- Hardware procurement and installation
- Datacenter setup
- Networking and firewall configuration
- Kubernetes platform deployment
- Storage and backup configuration
- Security hardening
- Patching and operational monitoring
Important
Unity doesn't provide a managed deployment service for Self-Hosted Deployment. Your IT organization or solutions integrator must implement, operate, and maintain the deployment.