Test run AMS local server - Dedicated servers with AccelByte Multiplayer Servers (AMS) - (Unity module)

Last updated on June 12, 2024

About​

For testing your AccelByte Multiplayer Servers (AMS) server locally, AccelByte has provided a simulator called AMS Simulator. This simulator simulates the dedicated server (DS) management and monitoring processes that are done by the Watchdog of AMS. With this AMS Simulator, you are going to validate the AMS implementation without uploading the server build to AMS.

Package Windows dedicated server​

To run the game server, you need to build the project targeted for the Dedicated Server platform. Here, you will see how to package a Windows server build to test the server locally.

  1. Open Byte Wars in Unity.

  2. Go to File > Build Settings. Choose Dedicated Server as the platform and click the Switch Platform button.

    Unity Build Settings for Windows Dedicated Server Unity Byte Wars dedicated servers with AMS

  3. Enable the Development Build to be able to see the server logs and click Build.

  4. Choose a folder to save the package build and click Select folder.

  5. Wait for your server to finish packaging.

Test run the dedicated server locally​

This section will test your packaged game server locally to check whether it is able to handle the state changes within the lifecycle of AMS.

  1. Log in to the AccelByte Gaming Services (AGS) Admin Portal and go to your game namespace dashboard.

  2. Go to AccelByte Multiplayer Servers > Download Resource. Locate and download the AMS Simulator for Windows. The amssim.exe file should be downloaded.

    note

    If you don't see Download Resource and instead see Setup AMS Account, you will need to set up your AMS account. To do this, you can follow the How-to guides for creating and linking AMS accounts.

  3. Before you run the AMS Simulator, you need to set up a new IAM client for the simulator named ByteWars-AMSSim. To create it, you can follow the same steps when you set up the server and AMS CLI IAM, but this time you need to use the configuration below.

    When creating the AMS Simulator IAM client, choose the Create from Template option for the Create Options field. Then, choose the Dedicated Server Tools option for the Select Template field. This IAM client template has the necessary permissions for using AMS Simulator.

  4. After downloading AMS Simulator and creating the IAM client, open Windows PowerShell and run the AMS Simulator executable using the following command to generate a config file:

    .\amssim.exe generate-config

  5. You will be able to see the config.json in the same path as the AMS Simulator executable. Open the file using a text editor and fill out the configuration with the information below. Replace the ClientID and the ClientSecret with the information of the ByteWars-AMSSim IAM client you created. Also, replace other placeholder values based on your game namespace and AGS environment.

    {
        "WatchdogPort": 5555,
        "AGSEnvironmentURL": "<game_namespace_id>.gamingservices.accelbyte.io",
        "AGSNamespace": "<game_namespace_id>",
        "IAM": {
            "ClientID": "<ams_sim_iam_client_id>",
            "ClientSecret": "<ams_sim_iam_client_secret>"
        },
        "LocalDSHost": "127.0.0.1",
        "LocalDSPort": 7777,
        "ClaimKeys": [],
        "ServerName": "Your Local Server Name"
    }
    info
    • WatchdogPort is the port the app is going to use to connect to your dedicated server.
    • AGSEnvironmentURL is the URL of the environment you want to register your local dedicated server to, without http://.
    • IAM is the ClientID and ClientSecret that were used to authenticate your AMS Simulator that you created in previous steps.
    • LocalDSHost and LocalDSPort are the IP and port, respectively, of the machine that runs the local dedicated server, so your play tester knows where to connect.
    • ClaimKeys provides the list of claim keys that the session service uses to claim your local dedicated server. By default, the ServerName is registered as one of the claim keys.
    • ServerName is the name you want to call your local dedicated server. By default, it is registered as one of the claim keys and automatically generated using your computer name, which you can change as preferred.
    tip
    • To find your game namespace ID, go to your Admin Portal and navigate to the Namespace page where your game namespaces are listed. Then, locate your game namespace under the GAMES section and click on the gear icon. On the new page, locate the Namespace ID property and there you can find your game namespace ID value.

  6. Once the configuration is complete, run the AMS Simulator executable.

    .\amssim.exe run

    Here is the output of AMS Simulator. Notice that it provides an example ID format for your local dedicated server. This example is ds_018c1f42-5eb6-7ca3-9650-a732ed75ce6a. Copy it, as you will need it in the next step.

    AMS simulator url  ws://0.0.0.0:5555/watchdog
    AMS simulator session id:  01hfaxxvfqhe9gkk2zesfx0b66.
    AMS simulator session log path: session\01hfaxxvfqhe9gkk2zesfx0b66.log

    Ready to accept local DS

    Start the local DS with a valid DS ID that conforms to uuid standards
    An example that can be copied and pasted is:

    ds_018c1f42-5eb6-7ca3-9650-a732ed75ce6a

    ==================================Command list=================================================
        help                          show the command list again
        info                          show AMS simulator info
        ds
            status                    show status of the ds
            ready                     explicitly set ds into ready state.
            claim                     claim the ds for a game session.
            drain                     drain the ds
        exit, quit                    exit ams simulator
    =============================================================================================

  7. Run the game server executable using the commands below in Windows PowerShell. Notice that it uses the ds_018c1f42-5eb6-7ca3-9650-a732ed75ce6a from the previous step as its local dedicated server ID. Also, adjust the path to point to the ByteWars.exe of your server build.

    .\ByteWars.exe -log -OverrideSDKConfig "{'DsId': 'ds_018c1f42-5eb6-7ca3-9650-a732ed75ce6a'}" -watchdog_url="ws://localhost:5555/watchdog"
    info
    • -log will show game server's log.
    • -OverrideSDKConfig is required to launch the local AMS dedicated server.
    • -dsid is the dedicated server identification that will be used by the game server to initialize AMS configuration. You can use the example ID given by AMS Simulator. This example is ds_018c1f42-5eb6-7ca3-9650-a732ed75ce6a. Note that this launch parameter will be filled in automatically on the AMS side when this dedicated server is launched in AMS.
    • -watchdog_url is the URL and the port that will be used to connect the game server to AMS. This example uses ws://localhost:5555/watchdog as the value as this is the default IP and port for AMS Simulator. You can change the configuration for AMS Simulator in config.json. Note that this launch parameter will be filled automatically on the AMS side when the dedicated server is launched in AMS.

  8. Once your game server runs, a "DS Connected" message will appear in your AMS Simulator Windows PowerShell tab to notify you that your local dedicated server has connected to AMS.

    amssim> DS Connected

  9. Check the dedicated server status using AMS Simulator by executing ds status. If the game server successfully registers, it will display the log below. Notice that the DS State has changed to Ready.

    ds status

    AMS Simulator will show the following log:

    amssim> ds status
    ID: xxxxx
    Connected at: 2023-XX-XX 10:00:00
    Last Heartbeat: 2023-XX-XX 10:00:00
    DS State: Ready
    info

    You can also check the local dedicated sever status from the Admin Portal by navigating to the side bar menu of the dashboard and selecting AccelByte Multiplayer Servers > Local Server.

  10. You can also use the command below to simulate a game session claiming a dedicated server. Notice the DS State now has changed to InSession.

    ds claim

    AMS Simulator will show the following log:

    amssim> ds status
    ID: xxxxx
    Connected at: 2023-XX-XX 10:00:00
    Last Heartbeat: 2023-XX-XX 10:00:00
    DS State: InSession

  11. You can also check if the game server is able to handle a drain state by executing ds drain. If you see the log lines below, your server successfully handles drain states. Notice that the DS State has changed to Draining.

    ds drain

    AMS Simulator will show the following log:

    amssim> ds status
    no connected dedicated server

  12. To quit AMS Simulator, execute the following command:

    quit
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