Create an Amazon GameLift Servers managed container fleet - Amazon GameLift Servers

Create an Amazon GameLift Servers managed container fleet

Create an Amazon GameLift Servers managed container fleet to deploy and host your containerized game server in the AWS Cloud. When you create a container fleet, specify container group definitions that specify one or more container images (at least one that includes your game server build) and configuration settings.

When you create a new managed container fleet resource, you immediately initiate the first phase of fleet creation. Managed fleet creation passes through several phases as Amazon GameLift Servers provisions an EC2 instance, installs a runtime environment, deploys your container groups onto the instance, and begins launching game server processes. Depending on the runtime environment your game server build requires, Amazon GameLift Servers deploys the latest version of the Amazon Machine Image (AMI) at the time of fleet creation (and all future instances in the fleet will use the same version). You can monitor a fleet's status in the console or using the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI). When a fleet is ready to host game sessions, the status changes to ACTIVE. For help with fleet creation issues, see Debug Amazon GameLift Servers fleet issues.

You can opt to create an empty container fleet and and then add or update the fleet's container group definitions later. If you create a fleet without a container group definition, the fleet will not reach active status.

Note

As a best practice, we recommend replacing your fleets every 30 days to maintain a secure and up-to-date runtime environment for your hosted game servers. This requires creating a new fleet and migrating player traffic to it. For more guidance, see Security best practices for Amazon GameLift Servers.

Use the Amazon GameLift Servers console or the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) to create a container fleet.

Console

In the Amazon GameLift Servers console, select the AWS Region where you want to create the fleet. The container group definitions must be in the same region where you want to create the fleet.

Open the console’s left navigation bar and choose Managed containers: Fleets. On the Fleets page, choose Create container fleet.

Step 1: Define managed container fleet details

  1. In the Container fleet details section, enter a fleet description.

  2. Specify an IAM role for the fleet. This role has permissions that Amazon GameLift Servers must have to manage the container fleet on your behalf. For help creating the required service role, see Set up an IAM service role for Amazon GameLift Servers.

  3. Choose a Log configuration option. The CloudWatch option is selected by default. Provide the required information based on your selected option.

  4. Add container groups to the fleet. This is an optional step. You can choose to create a fleet without a container group with a plan to add them later. A fleet without any container groups won't deploy any fleet instances and can't host any games yet, but the fleet resource is created.

    • Select a game server container group definition. Optionally specify the version of the definition that you want to deploy. If you don’t specify the version number, Amazon GameLift Servers automatically uses the latest version.

    • Optionally add a per-instance container group definition and version. If you don’t specify the version number, Amazon GameLift Servers automatically uses the latest version.

  5. In the Additional details, you can set some optional customizations. None of these settings are required to create the container fleet.

Step 2: Define instance details

  1. In Instance deployment, select one or more remote locations to deploy instances to. The home Region is automatically selected (this is the Region that you're creating the fleet in). If you select additional locations, fleet instances are also deployed in these locations.

    Important

    To use Regions that aren't enabled by default, enable them in your AWS account.

    • Fleets with Regions that aren't enabled that you created before February 28, 2022 are unaffected.

    • To create new multi-location fleets or to update existing multi-location fleets, first enable any Regions that you choose to use.

    For more information about Regions that aren't enabled by default and how to enable them, see Managing AWS Regions in the AWS General Reference.

  2. Select an Instance configuration for the fleet. The console automatically calculates the minimum vCPU and memory required (based on the total limits you set for each container group). It filters the complete list of available instance types base on resource requirements and the locations you entered. You can add additional filters as needed.

    For more information about choosing an instance type, see Configure a container fleet. The size of the instance type you choose will impact how game server container groups are packed onto each fleet instance. Depending on your choice, consider reviewing your setting for desired game server container groups per instance.

Step 4: Review and create

  • Review your fleet configuration settings.

    You can update the fleet's metadata and configuration at any time, regardless of fleet status. For more information, see Update an Amazon GameLift Servers fleet configuration. You can update fleet capacity after the fleet has reached ACTIVE status. For more information, see Scaling game hosting capacity with Amazon GameLift Servers. You can also add or remove remote locations.

    When you're finished reviewing, choose Create.

    If your request is successful, the console displays the detail page for the new fleet resource. Initially the status is NEW, as Amazon GameLift Servers starts the fleet creation process. You can track the new fleet's status on the Fleets page. A fleet is ready to host game sessions when it reaches status ACTIVE.

AWS CLI

To create a container fleet with the AWS CLI, open a command line window and use the create-container-fleet command. For more information about this command, see create-container-fleet in the AWS CLI Command Reference.

The example create-container-fleet request shown below creates a new container fleet with the following characteristics:

  • The ContainerGroupsConfiguration specifies a game server container group definition only: MyAdventureGameContainerGroup. The number of game server container groups that will be deployed to each fleet instance is calculated by Amazon GameLift Servers.

  • The fleet uses c5.large On-Demand instances by default.

  • By default, the fleet opens a set of connection ports and inbound permissions ports as calculated by Amazon GameLift Servers. It deploys container groups to the following locations: 

aws gamelift create-container-fleet \
    --fleet-role-arn arn:aws:iam::MyAccount:role/MyContainersRole \
    --game-server-container-group-definition-name "rn:aws:gamelift:us-west-2:111122223333:containergroupdefinition/MyAdventureGameContainerGroup:2" \

If the create-fleet request is successful, Amazon GameLift Servers returns a set of fleet attributes that includes the configuration settings you requested and a new container fleet ID. Amazon GameLift Servers then sets the fleet status and location statuses to New and initiates the fleet activation process. You can track the fleet's status and view other fleet information using these CLI commands:

You can change the fleet's capacity and other configuration settings as needed using these commands: