Managed Clusters

Learn about Managed Clusters and get started quickly with custom backend solutions.

✔️ Introduction

Managed Clusters make hosting self-managed game services and game backend easy and fast. You prepare the service image and we provide a high-availability, resilient cloud environment to run them:

• player authentication,

• data storage - accounts, progression, inventory, rewards, etc.,

• social services - chat, clans, leaderboards, tournaments, etc.,

• custom matchmaking - using Advanced Matchmaker, Nakama, or others,

• serverless compute - managed functions as a service (alt. cloudscript, lambda),

• and more.

See Getting Started for your first steps with Matchmaker, game integration, and detailed examples.

Private clusters ensure your services have dedicated compute to serve your players 24/7.

We currently offer 3 private cluster tiers to cater to everybody’s needs:

Tier	Hobbyist Tier	Studio Tier	Enterprise Tier
Best Suited For	enthusiasts, solo developers	commercial releases	high-traffic launches
Resources	1 vCPU + 2GB RAM	6 vCPU + 12GB RAM	18 vCPU + 48GB RAM
Redundancy	1x virtual node	3x virtual nodes	3x virtual nodes
Price (hourly)	$0.0312	$0.146	$0.548
Price (30 days)	$22.464	$105.12	$394.56

Our cluster machines use AMD/Intel CPUs with clock speed 2.4 - 3.2 GHz. Reach out on Community Discord to coordinate load tests and to ensure your server has sufficient resources available.

🛠️ Developer Tools

If you see an opportunity for improvement, please let us know in our Community Discord.

We hope you will enjoy a smooth experience. 🚀

Docker

To help make your server reliable, we use Docker - virtualization software to ensuring that all of your server code dependencies down to the operating system level are going to be always exactly the same, no matter how or where the server is launched.

We recommend watching "Never install locally" (video). Docker is often confused with Dockerhub image registry. You do NOT need to use Dockerhub along with Docker. Think of Docker as a universal programming engine and Dockerhub as it’s App Store.

Kubernetes (K8s)

Kubernetes, also known as K8s, is an open source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications (Docker Images). It groups containers that make up an application into logical units for easy management and discovery.

Edgegap Managed Clusters provide a Kubernetes API for administration purposes.

K8s Lens

With over 1 million users, K8s Lens is the most popular Kubernetes IDE in the world. Connect to clusters, explore, gain insights, learn and take an action when needed. Lens provides all the information from your workloads and resources in real-time, always in the right context.

Edgegap Cluster Kubernetes API can be used through Lens or other Kubernetes IDEs.

Helm Package Manager

Helm is the best way to find, share, and use software built for Kubernetes. Helm helps you manage Kubernetes applications - Helm Charts help you define, install, and upgrade even the most complex Kubernetes application. Charts are easy to create, version, share, and publish - so start using Helm and stop the copy-and-paste.

Installing Helm CLI provides developers with a simple interface to manage their cluster packages.

🚀 Getting Started

☑️ Registered for your free Edgegap account and upgrade to pay as you go tier to unlock Clusters.

☑️ Navigate to Managed Clusters page.

☑️ Click on Create Cluster first, then input:

• Label for your cluster to find it later easily,

• Cluster Size - see ✔️ Introduction.

We strongly recommend creating separate clusters for your dev & production environments.

☑️ Review estimated cost and click Create Cluster to start your new cluster.

☑️ Once the cluster is ready, click Kubeconfig to download your configuration and credentials for connecting and administrating your new cluster.

☑️ Move your kubeconfig file for kubectl to find it.

☑️ Lens users: import your kubeconfig file.

☑️ Test your cluster connection with command kubectl get nodes :

kubectl get nodes
NAME                            STATUS   ROLES    AGE    VERSION
lke334087-533013-294dcfe70000   Ready    <none>   10m   v1.31.0
lke334087-533013-4e69edc10000   Ready    <none>   10m   v1.31.0
lke334087-533013-50bf39880000   Ready    <none>   10m   v1.31.0

🙌 Congratulations, you’ve completed Managed Cluster setup! You may now install your services.

👷 Advanced Matchmaker

See #getting-started-with-clusters before configuring your services.

Follow these steps to host your OpenMatch on a Managed Cluster.

☑️ Install a Certificate Manager to support usage of HTTPS requests from game clients:

helm repo add jetstack https://charts.jetstack.io --force-update;
helm upgrade --install cert-manager jetstack/cert-manager \
  --namespace cert-manager --create-namespace \
  --version v1.16.1 --set crds.enabled=true;

☑️ Lens: verify installation in Services / Network section, cert-manager should be running.

☑️ Write a Cluster Issuer file, remember to replace <YOUR_EMAIL> below:

apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
kind: ClusterIssuer
metadata:
  name: letsencrypt-staging
  namespace: cert-manager
spec:
  acme:
    server: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    email: 
    privateKeySecretRef:
      name: 
    solvers:
    - http01:
        ingress:
          class: nginx
          

Use letsencrypt-prod for your production cluster privateKeySecretRef.

☑️ Create a Cluster Issuer in command line:

kubectl create -f <FILE_PATH>/issuer.yaml

☑️ Lens: verify installation in Custom Resources section / cert-manager.io - cluster issuer created.

☑️ Install the nginx Ingress for receiving client requests and passing them to services in cluster:

helm repo add ingress-nginx https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx
helm upgrade --install ingress-nginx ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx \
  --namespace ingress-nginx --create-namespace

☑️ Lens: verify installation in Services / Network section, nginx should be running.

☑️ Create a DNS record type A in your DNS provider (e.g. Cloudflare), note the URL for later. Your external IP for the DNS record can be found in Lens under Services / ingress-nginx-controller .

☑️ Verify your DNS is set up correctly by performing a lookup using DNSchecker.

☑️ Create file named values.yaml with contents (use your own values):

isProductionEnvironment: false

director:
  credential:
    registry: <YOUR_DIRECTOR_REGISTRY>
    username: <YOUR_DIRECTOR_REGISTRY_USERNAME>
    password: <YOUR_DIRECTOR_REGISTRY_PASSWORD>
  image: <DIRECTOR_IMAGE>
  env: {
    "KEY": "VALUE"
  }

mmf:
  credential:
    registry: <MATCHMAKER_FUNCTION_REGISTRY>
    username: <MATCHMAKER_FUNCTION_REGISTRY_USERNAME>
    password: <MATCHMAKER_FUNCTION_REGISTRY_PASSWORD>
  image: <MATCHMAKER_FUNCTION_IMAGE>
  env: {
    "KEY": "VALUE"
  }

frontend:
  credential:
    registry: <FRONTEND_REGISTRY>
    username: <FRONTEND_REGISTRY_USERNAME>
    password: <FRONTEND_REGISTRY_PASSWORD>
  externalHostName: <YOUR_CLOUDFLARE_HOST_NAME> # e.g. exemple.test.com
  image: <FRONTEND_IMAGE>
  env: {
    "KEY": "VALUE"
  }

# Global configurations that are visible to all subcharts
global:
  kubernetes:
    resources:
      requests:
        memory: 100Mi
        cpu: 100m
      limits:
        memory: 100Mi
        cpu: 100m

Replace <VALUES> above with your own values in the file above.

☑️ Add Edgegap repository to your list of repositories:

helm repo add edgegap-public https://registry.edgegap.com/chartrepo/edgegap-public

☑️ Deploy advanced matchmaker helm chart:

helm upgrade --install \
  --namespace matchmaker --create-namespace -f <FILE_PATH>/values.yaml \
  --version 1.0.1 <RELEASE_NAME> edgegap-public/open-match-edgegap

🙌 Congratulations, you’ve completed Advanced Matchmaker setup!

Service Updates

Follow these steps to update your service hosted in the Managed Cluster:

☑️ Update your value.yaml file with new files.

☑️ Update your helm chart using this command:

helm upgrade --reuse-values \
  --namespace matchmaker -f <FILE_PATH>/values.yaml \
  --version 1.0.1 <RELEASE_NAME> edgegap-public/open-match-edgegap

☑️ Reload your changes by closing the updated pods (director, mmf, frontend), causing the new helm chart to be used after we automatically restart the pods.

This update will cause a short downtime while the pods restart.

🙌 Congratulations, you’ve completed Advanced Matchmaker update!

Continuous Deployment

Automate updating your services by adding this shell script to your deployment pipeline:

#!/bin/bash

RELEASE_NAME="<RELEASE_NAME>"
NAMESPACE="matchmaker"  # Change this if you changed the namespace.

helm upgrade --reuse-values -f <FILE_PATH>/value.yaml --namespace $NAMESPACE --version 1.0.1 $RELEASE_NAME edgegap-public/open-match-edgegap

echo "Installing redis-tools"
apt-get update
apt-get install -y redis-tools

DIRECTOR_DEPLOYMENT_NAME="$RELEASE_NAME-director"
MMF_DEPLOYMENT_NAME="$RELEASE_NAME-mmf"
CUSTOM_FRONTEND_DEPLOYMENT_NAME="$RELEASE_NAME-custom-frontend"
REDIS_HOST="$RELEASE_NAME-redis-master"

declare -A replicas

# For each deployment (director, mmf, custom-frontend) stop the pods
for deployment in $DIRECTOR_DEPLOYMENT_NAME $MMF_DEPLOYMENT_NAME $CUSTOM_FRONTEND_DEPLOYMENT_NAME
do
  echo "Stopping pods for deployment: $deployment"
  replicas[$deployment]=$(kubectl get deployment $deployment -o=jsonpath='{.spec.replicas}' --namespace $NAMESPACE)
  kubectl scale deployment/$deployment --replicas=0 --namespace $NAMESPACE
done

# Wait until the pods are terminated
for deployment in $DIRECTOR_DEPLOYMENT_NAME $MMF_DEPLOYMENT_NAME $CUSTOM_FRONTEND_DEPLOYMENT_NAME
do

  echo "Waiting for pods to be terminated for deployment: $deployment"
  kubectl wait --for=delete pod -l app=$deployment --timeout=60s --namespace $NAMESPACE

  # Check if the wait command was successful. If not, exit the script
  if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    echo "Failed to wait for pods to be terminated for deployment: $deployment"
    exit 1
  fi
done

# Clean up redis database
echo "Cleaning up redis database"
redis-cli -h $REDIS_HOST flushall

# For each deployment (director, mmf, custom-frontend) rescale the pods to their original count
for deployment in $DIRECTOR_DEPLOYMENT_NAME $MMF_DEPLOYMENT_NAME $CUSTOM_FRONTEND_DEPLOYMENT_NAME
do
  echo "Rescaling pods to ${replicas[$deployment]} for deployment: $deployment"
  kubectl scale deployment/$deployment --replicas=${replicas[$deployment]} --namespace $NAMESPACE
done

This update will cause a short downtime while the pods restart.

Letsencrypt Certificate Validation (C#)

For some clients, the recommended Letsencrypt certificate validation may fail with error:

Curl error 60: Cert verify failed. Certificate has expired. UnityTls error code: 7

Updating your operating system may resolve issues with outdated root certificate authority.

As a last resort, game clients may implement a custom certificate handler function:

```csharp
public class CustomCertificateHandler : CertificateHandler
{
  private readonly string EXPECTED_CERT = "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----<key>-----END CERTIFICATE-----\r\n";
  protected override bool ValidateCertificate(byte[] certificateData)
  {
    X509Certificate2 certificate = new X509Certificate2(certificateData);
    X509Certificate2 expectedCert = new X509Certificate2(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(EXPECTED_CERT));

    using (SHA256 sha256 = SHA256.Create())
    {
      Debug.Log("certificate.Thumbprint: " + certificate.Thumbprint);
      Debug.Log("expectedCert.Thumbprint: " + expectedCert.Thumbprint);

      return certificate.Thumbprint == expectedCert.Thumbprint;
    }
  }
}
```

Usage:

UnityWebRequest request = UnityWebRequest.Get(...);
request.certificateHandler = new BypassCertificateHandler();
request.SendWebRequest();
request.certificateHandler.Dispose();

We recommend storing the EXPECTED_CERT value in your own file storage, and retrieving it on runtime, so you can update it without releasing a game client update.

📦 Nakama by Heroic Labs

See #getting-started-with-clusters before configuring your services.

Follow these steps to host your own Nakama Game Backend on Managed Clusters:

☑️ Install a Certificate Manager to support usage of HTTPS requests from game clients:

helm repo add jetstack https://charts.jetstack.io --force-update;
helm upgrade --install cert-manager jetstack/cert-manager \
  --namespace cert-manager --create-namespace \
  --version v1.16.1 --set crds.enabled=true;

☑️ Lens: verify installation in Services / Network section, cert-manager should be running.

☑️ Write a Cluster Issuer file, remember to replace <YOUR_EMAIL> below:

apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
kind: ClusterIssuer
metadata:
  name: letsencrypt-staging
  namespace: cert-manager
spec:
  acme:
    server: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    email: 
    privateKeySecretRef:
      name: 
    solvers:
    - http01:
        ingress:
          class: nginx
          

Use letsencrypt-prod for your production cluster privateKeySecretRef.

☑️ Create a Cluster Issuer in command line:

kubectl create -f <FILE_PATH>/issuer.yaml

☑️ Lens: verify installation in Custom Resources section / cert-manager.io - cluster issuer created.

☑️ Install the nginx Ingress for receiving client requests and passing them to services in cluster:

helm repo add ingress-nginx https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx
helm upgrade --install ingress-nginx ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx \
  --namespace ingress-nginx --create-namespace

☑️ Lens: verify installation in Services / Network section, nginx should be running.

☑️ Create a DNS record type A in your DNS provider (e.g. Cloudflare), note the URL for later. Your external IP for the DNS record can be found in Lens under Services / ingress-nginx-controller .

☑️ Verify your DNS is set up correctly by performing a lookup using DNSchecker.

☑️ Create file named values.yaml with contents (use your own values):

isProductionEnvironment: true

# The external hostname for the Nakama server - DNS record from last step
externalHostName: 

nakama:
  # The version of Nakama to deploy.
  # See https://hub.docker.com/r/heroiclabs/nakama/tags for available versions.
  version: 3.26.0
  # Username and password for the Nakama console
  username: 
  password: 

Replace <VALUES> above with your own values in the file above.

☑️ Deploy Nakama helm chart:

helm upgrade --install \
  --namespace nakama --create-namespace -f <FILE_PATH>/values.yaml \
  --version 1.0.0 <RELEASE_NAME> oci://registry-1.docker.io/edgegap/heroiclabs-nakama

☑️ Lens: verify installation in Workloads / Deployments section, nakama should be running.

✅ Connect to your Nakama Console with URL and credentials from values.yaml file.

🙌 Congratulations, you’ve completed self-hosted Nakama Game Backend setup!

Service Updates

Follow these steps to update your service hosted in the Managed Cluster:

☑️ Update your value.yaml file with new files.

☑️ Update your helm chart using this command:

helm upgrade --reuse-values \
  --namespace nakama -f <FILE_PATH>/values.yaml \
  --version 1.0.0 <RELEASE_NAME> oci://registry-1.docker.io/edgegap/heroiclabs-nakama

☑️ Reload your changes by closing the updated pods, causing the new helm chart to be used after we automatically restart the pods.

This update will cause a short downtime while the pods restart.

🙌 Congratulations, you’ve completed Advanced Matchmaker update!

🟢 Operations and Observability

Cluster Tier Changes

Prepare for success and optimize after launch, so you don’t block your players on release day.

Changing cluster size is currently not possible on running clusters. See blue/green deployment for more.

Support and Future Updates

Your success is our priority. If you'd like to send custom requests, ask for missing critical features , or express any thoughts, please reach out in our Community Discord.