Server fragmentation happens when multiple machines in a fleet have some—but not all—game servers allocated. When allocations are spread across fleet machines in this manner, it artificially keeps more machines online than necessary for the number of allocated game servers. This can result in inflated machine costs, because it prevents the reactive scaling system from scaling down machines.
To avoid server fragmentation, the allocator allocates all game servers on one machine (if the allocation spread is set to 1) with the preferred configuration and fleet region before allocating the game servers on the next machine. The machine in a fleet region with the preferred set of configurations to which Clanforge is currently allocating is the hot machine.
By using all the game servers on a machine before moving on to the next one, Clanforge can shut down the excess machines that aren't currently necessary for hosting game sessions.
