Update a game server build for Amazon GameLift managed hosting - Amazon GameLift
Automate your game build updates

Update a game server build for Amazon GameLift managed hosting

When you deploy your game server build for Amazon GameLift managed EC2 hosting, you upload your game server software and create an Amazon GameLift build resource. After you've created a Amazon GameLift build, you can update the build's metadata, but you can't update the build files themselves. To deploy updates to your game server, upload the updated files and create a new Amazon GameLift build using the AWS CLI commandupload-build command. Alternatively you can use the create-build command to upload a new build from an Amazon S3 bucket that you control. Then deploy the new build by creating a new fleet for it.

You can update a build's metadata, including the name and description. For these tasks, use the Amazon GameLift console or the update-build AWS CLI command.

Automate your game build updates

Follow these tips to help automate and streamline the process of updating game server builds for Amazon GameLift managed fleets:

  • Use game session queues and swap out fleets as needed. When sending game session requests to Amazon GameLift, specify a game session queue instead of a specific fleet. With queues, you can add fleets with a new build and remove old fleets as needed. For more information, see Managing game session placement with Amazon GameLift queues.

  • Use aliases to transfer players to a new game build. When sending game session requests to Amazon GameLift, specify a fleet alias instead of a fleet ID. For more information, see Create an Amazon GameLift alias.

  • Set up for iterative development. During game development, explore options for setting up a hosted test environment that supports rapid iterative development. See Set up for iterative development with Amazon GameLift Anywhere.

Try out these resources from the Amazon GameLift Toolkit on Github:

Fast build update tool (for development only)

This tool helps you modify game server builds that are already deployed on computes in a managed EC2 fleet, saving you time during fast development iteration. The tool has several options; you can replace the entire game build or change specific files, and you can manage how to restart game server processes after the updates. You can also use it to update all computes in a fleet or target individual computes.

Visit the Amazon GameLift Toolkit repo in Github to get the fast build update tool in Github and learn more about how to use it.

Production deployment sample script

This script illustrates how you can automate the process of updating game server builds that are deployed on managed EC2 fleets in production. To use this script, your Amazon GameLift hosting solution must use aliases to abstract fleet IDs. The sample script handles the following basic steps: upload an updated build, create a new build and deploy to a new fleet, redirect player traffic from an existing fleet to the new fleet, and delete the old fleet. Customize the sample script to meet your specific deployment requirements.

Visit the Amazon GameLift Toolkit repo in Github to get the production deployment sample script in Github and learn more about how to use it.