Server readiness
Note: The content on this page pertains to Game Server Hosting (Multiplay) available on the Unity Cloud Dashboard. If you’re using Game Server Hosting (Clanforge), refer to the Game Server Hosting (Clanforge) documentation.
Game servers aren't always ready to start hosting a match or have players connect when the processes start up. They likely have an initialization process to run through for loading assets or connecting to external services.
Game server readiness is a feature that allows game servers to let Game Server Hosting know, and by extension, the matchmaker or service that controls player connections, when they're prepared to accept players and when they're no longer ready to accept players through the Game Server SDK. The exact process for this is dependent on whether you are using the Game Server Hosting SDK for Unity or the Game Server Hosting SDK for Unreal Engine.
The feature enables a game server to complete its start-up logic before players try to connect. Without this feature, a game server with a long start-up time can reject players trying to connect, resulting in a bad experience.
The Game Server Hosting allocations system only considers a game server to fulfill an allocation when it’s online and has announced itself as ready.
Game server readiness is an attribute associated with a build configuration. To establish the readiness, it must be configured during the creation of a build configuration.
Tip: Game server readiness can also function as an indication of server health. You can implement health checks at start-up and only flag a server as ready if it passes all health checks. This way, you ensure that Game Server Hosting doesn’t use a potentially unhealthy server to fulfill an allocation.
The following flow chart illustrates where server readiness comes into the allocation flow.
