Technology · Ebook

Agones: Dedicated Game Servers on Kubernetes

by Shriira Press

Agones is the CNCF platform for running, scaling, and orchestrating dedicated multiplayer game servers on Kubernetes — extending Kubernetes with game-server-aware abstractions (the GameServer lifecycle, Fleets, allocation, autoscaling) so game servers get Kubernetes' power while handling their stateful, session-based, latency-sensitive nature. This free book teaches it from the ground up: the dedicated game server problem and what Agones is, game server and multiplayer concepts, Agones's architecture (controllers, CRDs, the SDK), the GameServer (a single server and its lifecycle — Ready, Allocated, Shutdown), the Agones SDK (server integration), Fleets (pools of servers and the ready buffer), allocation (assigning a server to a match), autoscaling (keeping enough ready servers), fleet updates, multi-cluster, and operations, and using Agones in practice. Ten focused chapters with clear diagrams that make game server orchestration concrete — maintain a ready buffer so matches get a server instantly, allocate dedicated servers to matches, autoscale by readiness (not load), and update fleets without disrupting live matches — running scalable, global multiplayer infrastructure on Kubernetes.

Contents

1. 1Preface
2. 2Chapter 1 — What Agones Is
3. 3Chapter 2 — Dedicated Game Servers and Gaming Infrastructure
4. 4Chapter 3 — Agones Architecture
5. 5Chapter 4 — The GameServer
6. 6Chapter 5 — The Agones SDK
7. 7Chapter 6 — Fleets
8. 8Chapter 7 — Allocation
9. 9Chapter 8 — Autoscaling
10. 10Chapter 9 — Fleet Updates, Multi-Cluster, and Operations
11. 11Chapter 10 — Agones in Practice