Deployment and hosting of an online game server with Google Cloud Platform

Abstract

This thesis aimed to utilize the knowledge of system administrator and networking to create and configure a private online game server on the cloud. The general concepts of cloud computing and different aspect of Google Cloud as a platform: history, features, virtual machine types and pricing are introduced in the thesis. For the practical part of the thesis, CS:GO was the selected game based on the requests from players. Because the instance used Linux as the main operating system, it required a computer processor with at least one core running at over 2 GHz of frequency, along with at least 1 GB of memory, 30 GB of minimum disk space and network with more than 5 Mbps of bandwidth to handle input and output among 10-12 players at the same time. Next, a standard N1 machine which met the above requirements was selected on Google Cloud as the instance to host the game server. A private SSH key was created and used in PuTTY to establish a remote session to the instance. Through a PuTTY terminal window, LinuxGSM and its CS:GO dedicated server components were installed in order. With Notepad and FileZilla Client, several configuration files in both server and game directories could be accessed and edited to meet the requirements from players. Third-party plugins such as Metamod and SourceMod were added to enable game modifications and administrative commands on the server, while PUG setup plugin provided suitable settings for 5-on-5 matches. Finally, automated tasks were scheduled to ensure that the game server was able to be up to date and run constantly.

After finishing the deployment and configuration, several settings related to Metamod, SourceMod and PUG setup were reviewed. While 10 players and 1 observer were in the server, the hardware performance of the N1 instance was monitored and recorded for over an hour. The presented results showed that configurations operated as expected.

The goal of the thesis, which was to create and host an online game server on a cloud platform, has been achieved. However, the game server can be developed further with additional functions and improvement of quality in the future. In general, cloud servers have been proven increasingly appealing to users because of their capabilities.