Run a Miscreated game server in a AWS EC2 instance.
In order to successfully deploy your application you must have set-up your AWS Config and have created an IAM user with the following policies:
WARNING: The policies above are provided to ensure a successful EC2 deployment. It is recommended that you adjust these policies to meet the security requirements of your game server. They should NOT be used in a Production environment.
A Miscreated server can currently use up to 4GB of RAM when the game is fully loaded due to dynamic allocation of asset resources. Furthermore, an additional 30MB of RAM will be allocated for each concurrent player. This should be considered when selecting the AMI Instance Type since resource usage determines cost.
In order to meet the game system requirements, while also being able to run a smaller EC2 instance type (currently t3.small), as part of the build process I allocate 8GB of swap space to the host OS. Doing so allows me to reduce my hosting costs by 70%.. That said, I have created the chart below to be used as a guide in the EC2 instance selection process.
| Total users | Instance type | Volume (size/type) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 10 | t3.small |
30 GB / gp2 |
| 11 to 50 | t3.medium |
30 GB / gp2 |
| > 50 | t3.large |
30 GB / gp2 |
$ aws ec2 run-instances --image-id ami-05fa00d4c63e32376 --instance-type t3.small --region us-east-1a --block-device-mappings file://block-device-mapping.json --user-data file://user-data.sh --associate-public-ip-address
As part of the installation process an SSM Agent is added which allows you to access your server using the Amazon EC2 Console. No SSH keys, port 22 routing necessary.
$ docker exec -it <container-id> /bin/bash
The container comes with a vanilla installation of Miscreated Dedicated Server which is configured to support up to 10 players and broadcasts the server name "Miscreated". The server binds TCP/UDP ports 64090-64094 which needs to be opened using EC2 Security Groups. Furthermore, it also exposes the RCON (remote control system) which is NOT password protected and should either be disabled by removing the +http_startserver runtime option or restricted by setting http_password in your hosting.cfg file.
Due to recent changes in the network stack the following items must be addressed prior to starting the server:
- You must provide the external IP address during runtime using
-sv_bind <ip-address>or the server will fail to initialize. - You can no longer override
+sv_servernamein yourhosting.cfgfile since this will always use the runtime defined value. - If you are using Steam UGC content you must omit
-sv_bind <ip-address>from runtime options.
To update these defaults you will need to access the container and run the following command as root:
$ echo -e "HEADLESS=yes\nRUNCMD=\"Bin64_dedicated/MiscreatedServer.exe -sv_bind <ip-address> +sv_maxplayers <max-players> +sv_servername '<server-name>' +http_startserver +http_password '<password>' +map islands\"" > /usr/games/.game-server
Once updated you just need to restart the server and you're good to go.
The following command can be executed within the Docker container:
$ service game-server {start|stop|restart}
In cases where you have an existing game set-up (e.g. configuration, database, workshops) follow the steps below:
$ docker cp hosting.cfg <container-id>:/usr/games/Steam/steamapps/common/MiscreatedServer/hosting.cfg
$ docker cp miscreated.db <container-id>:/usr/games/Steam/steamapps/common/MiscreatedServer/miscreated.db
$ docker -it <container-id> /bin/chown games:games /usr/games/Steam/steamapps/common/MiscreatedServer/*
$ docker -it <container-id> /bin/chmod 666 /usr/games/Steam/steamapps/common/MiscreatedServer/miscreated.dd
$ docker -it <container-id> /usr/sbin/service game-server restart
Mirroring that of the existing game directory, files that already exist will be overwritten.
Since the performance of the game engine degrades significantly as time goes by, the game server forces a restart every 24 hours. However, due to a bug in the game engine this results with the server shutting down permanently. In order to mitigate this a cronjob has been added to the host OS that restarts the server at 0:00 UTC.
To ensure both the host OS and game server are synchronized, you will need to define schedule_shutdown_utc=0.0 in your hosting.cfg or +schedule_shutdown_utc 0.0 overriding the game server defaults. Failure to do so will result in the server shutting down until the next scheduled restart.
The most common issue you will face is with Steam UGC availability. For example, in the server.log below:
<06:52:24> [STEAM] UGC content: XXXXXXXXXX
<06:52:24> [Game Version]: RELEASE DEDICATED SERVER
<06:52:25> [STEAM] Download request made for content id: XXXXXXXXXX
<06:52:25> [STEAM] Download failed for content id: XXXXXXXXXX, code: 15
<06:52:25> [STEAM] This server will be forced to restart in 60 seconds.This is likely the result of Steam Connection Managers degradation.
If you fix a bug, or have a code you want to contribute, please send a pull-request with your changes.
This package is maintained under the Semantic Versioning guidelines.
This package is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
aws-ec2-miscreated is provided under the terms of the MIT license
AWS is a registered trademark of Amazon Web Services, Inc.