Game servers

Note: The content on this page pertains to Managed Game Server Hosting (Clanforge). If you’re using Game Server Hosting (Multiplay), refer to the Game Server Hosting (Multiplay) documentation.

Game servers are running instances of game image binaries that players can join for a game session or match. There are multiple components that make up what Game Server Hosting considers a game server, including:

The server slot is a slice of resources (such as CPU time and RAM) on a machine that’s loosely reserved for an individual game server instance. A game server instance is a running instance of a game server process. The game image is all the files that the machine operating system needs to run the game server process. The configuration files are files that contain configuration information and settings that the game server process reads. These files tell the game server process things such as the startup parameters to use, the current allocation UUID, and which game image to use. Game Server Hosting manages game server configurations through profiles and mods.

Game Server Hosting hosts multiple game servers on each machine in a fleet. The exact number of game servers on each machine is determined during the integration process, and can be anywhere from two to over 100. Game Server Hosting calculates the optimal number of game servers by considering the CPU usage of each game server and the resources available on the machine specification of a fleet. Refer to Cost optimization.