Scalable Gaming with AWS - GDC 2014

AWS Gaming Solutions | GDC 2014

Scalable Gaming with AWS Or, How to go from 1,000 to 1,000,000 users without starting over Nate Wiger @nateware | Principal Gaming Solutions Architect


What's In It For Me?

•  Why AWS for Games? •  Core Game Backend •  Scaling Data with DynamoDB •  Low-Latency Multiplayer with C3 •  Mobile Push Notifications


Gratuitous Logo Slide


Traditional: Rigid AWS: Elastic

Servers

Demand

Capacity

Excess Capacity Wasted $$

Demand

Unmet Demand Upset Players

Missed Revenue

Pay As You Scale


Pay As You Scale


10 Regions

51 CloudFront POPs

Continuous Expansion

Global Is Good


Game Backend Concepts

•  Think in terms of API's •  Get friends, leaderboard •  HTTP+JSON •  Binary asset data •  Mobile push •  Multiplayer servers


Core Game Backend

ELB

S3

•  Choose Region •  Elastic Load Balancer •  Two Availability Zones •  EC2 for App •  RDS Database

•  Multi-AZ •  S3 for Game Data

•  Assets •  UGC •  Analytics

Region


Scale It Way Out

ELB

S3

•  Auto Scaling Group •  Capacity on Demand •  Respond to Users

EC2 EC2 EC2

Region


Scale It Way Out

ELB

S3


•  ElastiCache •  Memcache •  Redis EC2 EC2 EC2

Region


Scale It Way Out

CloudFront CDN

ELB

S3

EC2 EC2 EC2

Region


•  ElastiCache •  Memcache •  Redis

•  CloudFront CDN •  DLC, Assets •  Game Saves •  UGC


Big picture slide


Elastic Beanstalk •  Managed Container •  Git Push or Zip Upload •  ELB, EC2, RDS •  Web Dashboard •  Same Performance •  So Yeah, Use It


Hill Of Beans

ELB

S3

•  Beanstalk Manages •  ELB •  EC2 •  Auto Scaling •  Monitoring •  RDS

•  Add Other Services •  S3 •  CloudFront •  ElastiCache •  SNS

EC2

Elastic Beanstalk Container

EC2

CloudFront CDN


More CLI bell

cd MyGameAPI eb init eb start vi app.rb require 'sinatra' get '/hello.json' do {message: "Hello World!"} End git commit –m "app updates" app.rb git aws.push

•  Initialize everything •  Write code •  Commit to git •  Push to Beanstalk •  Coffee / Beer •  Repeat


Region

Writing Is Painful

Availability Zone A

Availability Zone B

S3

EC2

•  Games are Write Heavy •  Caching of Limited Use •  Key Value Key Value •  Binary Structures •  Database = Bottleneck

ELB

EC2

CloudFront CDN


Sharding (Not Fun)

Availability Zone A

C2


DynamoDB

Availability Zone A

Availability Zone B

S3

•  NoSQL Data Store •  Fully-Managed •  Highly Available •  PUT/GET Keys •  Secondary Indexes •  Provisioned Throughput •  Auto Scaling

EC2 EC2

ELB

CloudFront CDN

Elastic Beanstalk Container


Leaderboard in DynamoDB

•  Hash key = Primary key •  Range key = Sub key •  Others attributes are

unstructured, unindexed •  So… How to sort based

on Top Score?


Leaderboard with Secondary Indexes

•  Create a secondary index! •  Set hash key to Game Level •  Set range key to Top Score •  Can now query by Level,

Sorted by Top Score •  Handles any (sane) gaming

use case


Python Leaderboard

table = Table('scores', schema=[ HashKey('user'), RangeKey('level') ], throughput={ 'read': 5, 'write': 15 }, global_indexes=[ GlobalAllIndex('highscore', parts=[ HashKey('level'), RangeKey('score', data_type=NUMBER) ], throughput={ 'read': 5, 'write': 15 } ) ])

new_score = Item(table, data={ 'user': user, 'level': level, 'score': score }) new_score.save() topscores = table.query(index='highscore') for ts in topscores: print(ts['user'], ts['score'])


Big picture slide


G2 Instance

•  NVIDIA Kepler GPU •  Game Streaming •  Rendering Assets •  Build Servers •  AppStream!


C3 Instance

•  High packets per second •  Very low latency, jitter •  Intel Ivy Bridge CPU •  SSD's •  Built for games •  15 cents / hour


Enhanced Networking (SR-IOV)

Before: Hypervisor

After: Hardware


Multiplayer Game Servers

EC2 EC2 EC2

Region

•  Beanstalk App •  Core Session •  Matchmaking

•  Public Server Tier •  Direct Client Socket •  Scale on Players

•  CloudFront CDN •  DLC, Assets •  Game Saves •  UGC

EC2



①  Login via Beanstalk ②  Request Matchmaking ③  Get Game Server IP

EC2 EC2 EC2

Region

EC2



①  Login via Beanstalk ②  Request Matchmaking ③  Get Game Server IP ④  Connect to Server ⑤  Pull Down Assets ⑥  Other Players Join

EC2 EC2 EC2

Region

EC2



①  Login via Beanstalk ②  Request Matchmaking ③  Get Game Server IP ④  Connect to Server ⑤  Pull Down Assets ⑥  Other Players Join ⑦  Game Ends ⑧  Update Stats

EC2 EC2 EC2

Region

EC2


Multi-Region Game Servers

E2

Region

EC2

Region


Big picture slide


Messages and Queues

ELB

S3

•  Simple Notification Service •  HTTP •  SMS •  Mobile Push

EC2 EC2 EC2

Region


Messages and Queues

ELB


•  CloudWatch •  Monitoring •  Alerts

EC2 EC2 EC2

Region

EC2

PUB


Messages and Queues

ELB

EC2 EC2 EC2

Region

EC2 EC2



•  SQS •  Background Tasks •  Avatar Resizing •  Score Processing


Messages and Queues

ELB

EC2 EC2 EC2

Region

EC2 EC2



•  SQS •  Background Tasks •  Avatar Resizing •  Score Processing

PUB


Wrap It Up Already

•  Start Simple With Beanstalk •  Go Directly to DynamoDB, Do Not Pass Go •  CloudFront + S3 for Download and Upload •  Add Multiplayer - Hybrid •  Use the EC2 C3 Instance •  SQS to Decouple and Scale


Cheers – Nate Wiger @nateware

Scalable Gaming with AWS - GDC 2014

Technology

Transcript of Scalable Gaming with AWS - GDC 2014