dont starve together

A while ago you could read about Vagrant for Don’t Starve Together (aka DST), this time let’s discuss about similar tool named Terraform.

As in vagrant blogpost I am playing Terraform with DST, because it’s quite good aspect and problem were you can check out tools like Terraform.

You may wondering what do you have with those all games ? Games for me were *THIS* thing that I started programming, it all has begun from Helbreath, were as a 13 years old I wanted to create my own server so I had to compile C++ source code, it was challenging for somebody with zero knowledge of C++, so that’s why I still love doing private server and giving back to gamers community.

Terraform is a tool that allows you to describe your infrastructure as a code, it means that you can write json-like description and it tells to terraform what it has to do to spin up required parts of infrastructure to achieve fully working environment. This tool is ideal for any kind of cloud provider it supports, Amazon, AWS, DigitalOcean

I have created terraform configuration for DST. Main place where my infrastructure described is vm-dontstarve.tf

This block describes that we going to use AWS provider, with access_key, secret_key and specific region. ${var.aws_access_key} and ${var.aws_secret_key} this is how you define variables.

provider "aws" {
    access_key = "${var.aws_access_key}"
    secret_key = "${var.aws_secret_key}"
    region = "eu-west-1"
}

provider "aws" {

access_key = "${var.aws_access_key}"

secret_key = "${var.aws_secret_key}"

region = "eu-west-1"

}

In this part, we can see block that has information about AWS instance, what AMI to use (image of OS), what type of instance, ssh key name, your custom security group and additionally how to connect with our VM during provisioning step.

resource "aws_instance" "dontstarve" {
    ami = "ami-cb4986bc"
    instance_type = "t1.micro"
    key_name = "dontstarve"
    security_groups = ["${aws_security_group.dontstarve_port.name}"]

    connection {
        user = "ubuntu"
        key_file = "~/Downloads/dontstarve.pem"
    }
}

resource "aws_instance" "dontstarve" {

ami = "ami-cb4986bc"

instance_type = "t1.micro"

key_name = "dontstarve"

security_groups = ["${aws_security_group.dontstarve_port.name}"]

connection {

user = "ubuntu"

key_file = "~/Downloads/dontstarve.pem"

}

Here we describe provisioning step, we can copy file, execute remote command, or execute command locally.

provisioner "remote-exec" {
      inline = "mkdir -p ~/tmp/provisioning"
    }

    provisioner "file" {
        source = "./provisioning/provision_user.sh"
        destination = "~/tmp/provisioning/provision_user.sh"
    }

    provisioner "file" {
        source = "./provisioning/provision_dontstarve.sh"
        destination = "~/tmp/provisioning/provision_dontstarve.sh"
    }

    provisioner "remote-exec" {
        inline = [
          "chmod +x ~/tmp/provisioning/provision_user.sh",
          "~/tmp/provisioning/provision_user.sh"
        ]
    }

    provisioner "file" {
        source = "./config/server_token.txt"
        destination = "/home/steam/.klei/DoNotStarveTogether/server_token.txt"
    }

    provisioner "file" {
        source = "./config/settings.ini"
        destination = "/home/steam/.klei/DoNotStarveTogether/settings.ini"
    }

    provisioner "remote-exec" {
        inline = [
          "chmod +x ~/tmp/provisioning/provision_dontstarve.sh",
          "~/tmp/provisioning/provision_dontstarve.sh"
        ]
    }

provisioner "remote-exec" {

inline = "mkdir -p ~/tmp/provisioning"

}

provisioner "file" {

source = "./provisioning/provision_user.sh"

destination = "~/tmp/provisioning/provision_user.sh"

}

provisioner "file" {

source = "./provisioning/provision_dontstarve.sh"

destination = "~/tmp/provisioning/provision_dontstarve.sh"

}

provisioner "remote-exec" {

inline = [

"chmod +x ~/tmp/provisioning/provision_user.sh",

"~/tmp/provisioning/provision_user.sh"

]

}

provisioner "file" {

source = "./config/server_token.txt"

destination = "/home/steam/.klei/DoNotStarveTogether/server_token.txt"

}

provisioner "file" {

source = "./config/settings.ini"

destination = "/home/steam/.klei/DoNotStarveTogether/settings.ini"

}

provisioner "remote-exec" {

inline = [

"chmod +x ~/tmp/provisioning/provision_dontstarve.sh",

"~/tmp/provisioning/provision_dontstarve.sh"

]

}

Next one aws_security_group block, which describe your topology of ports and connections between your machines. DST requires port 10999 UDP protocol as incoming traffic so we have to add ingrees rule, in “egress” we specify that we allow to any outside traffic on any port and protocol.

resource "aws_security_group" "dontstarve_port" {
  name = "dontstarve_port"
  description = "Allow communicate with dontstarve"

  ingress {
      from_port = 10999
      to_port = 10999
      protocol = "udp"
      cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
  }

  egress {
      from_port = 0
      to_port = 0
      protocol = "-1"
      cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
  }
}

resource "aws_security_group" "dontstarve_port" {

name = "dontstarve_port"

description = "Allow communicate with dontstarve"

ingress {

from_port = 10999

to_port = 10999

protocol = "udp"

cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]

}

egress {

from_port = 0

to_port = 0

protocol = "-1"

cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]

}

Last security rule (ingress) open SSH connection over 22 port, require to connect with our machine and to do provisioning.

ingress {
      from_port = 22
      to_port = 22
      protocol = "tcp"
      cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
}

ingress {

from_port = 22

to_port = 22

protocol = "tcp"

cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]

}

For a long time I was wondering if tools like Vagrant, Terraform could be helpful in game development especially to maintain server infrastructure, and in my opinion they are! Soon I will blog more about hashicorp products and their usage in game development.

I had few approaches into Vagrant but every time I was recreating what somebody have done already which was quite frustrating because I couldn’t share what I have done and achieved. This time I came across with one problem that can be solved by using Vagrant and it’s a field where it wasn’t used before so it was also good time for me to do everything by my own.

First thing first, what is Vagrant and why I used it with Azure for Don’t Starve Together Server (aka DST). Vagrant is quite old tool, first time I’ve heard about this, it was at Paul’s session probably BuildStuff 2013. Basically this tool allows you to create configuration of your VM as a code, so it can be replicable on every VM provider or even at Cloud providers such as azure, aws. I chose vagrant and azure because I wanted to do easy and one command way to spin up don’t starve together server on cloud.

Vagrant-dontstarve, repository with complete tutorial how to get started, most difficult part is certification, yea a know…MS screwed it up totally…I hope so that one day it will be simplified.

Basically repository contain two main files, Vagrantfile and script.sh.

Vagrantfile is a file where it keeps whole configuration about your : VM image, provider, provisioner, network and more. Here is a configuration for azure, additionally provisioning is global and can be applied to others providers.

Vagrant.configure('2') do |config|
    config.vm.box = 'azure'
    config.vm.provider :azure do |azure, override|
        override.vm.synced_folder ".", "/vagrant", disabled: true
        azure.mgmt_certificate = 'Path PEM Certificate from step 2.2 (To Fill out)'
        azure.mgmt_endpoint = 'https://management.core.windows.net'
        azure.subscription_id = 'Azure Subscription Id (To Fill out)'

        azure.vm_image = 'b39f27a8b8c64d52b05eac6a62ebad85__Ubuntu-14_04-LTS-amd64-server-20140416.1-en-us-30GB'
        azure.vm_user = 'VM User (To Fill out)' # defaults to 'vagrant' if not provided
        azure.vm_password = 'VM User Password (To Fill out)' # min 8 characters. should contain a lower case letter, an uppercase letter, a number and a special character

        azure.vm_name = 'VM Name (To Fill out)' # max 15 characters. contains letters, number and hyphens. can start with letters and can end with letters and numbers
        azure.cloud_service_name = '' # same as vm_name. leave blank to auto-generate
        # azure.deployment_name = '' # defaults to cloud_service_name
        azure.vm_location = 'West Europe' # e.g., West US
      #azure.private_key_file = 'C:\Users\PSawicz\myPrivateKey'
      azure.certificate_file = 'SSL PFX Certificate Generated 2.1 (To Fill out)'

      # Provide the following values if creating a *Nix VM
      azure.ssh_port = '22'
      azure.tcp_endpoints = '3389:53389' # opens the Remote Desktop internal port that listens on public port 53389. Without this, you cannot RDP to a Windows VM.
    end

    config.ssh.username = 'VM User (To Fill out)' # the one used to create the VM
    config.ssh.password = 'VM User Password (To Fill out)' # the one used to create the VM
    config.vm.provision "file", source: "./configs/server_token.txt", destination: "/home/azureuser/.klei/DoNotStarveTogether/server_token.txt"
    config.vm.provision "file", source: "./configs/settings.ini", destination: "/home/azureuser/.klei/DoNotStarveTogether/settings.ini"
    config.vm.provision "shell", path: "script.sh"
end

Vagrant.configure('2') do |config|

config.vm.box = 'azure'

config.vm.provider :azure do |azure, override|

override.vm.synced_folder ".", "/vagrant", disabled: true

azure.mgmt_certificate = 'Path PEM Certificate from step 2.2 (To Fill out)'

azure.mgmt_endpoint = 'https://management.core.windows.net'

azure.subscription_id = 'Azure Subscription Id (To Fill out)'

azure.vm_image = 'b39f27a8b8c64d52b05eac6a62ebad85__Ubuntu-14_04-LTS-amd64-server-20140416.1-en-us-30GB'

azure.vm_user = 'VM User (To Fill out)' # defaults to 'vagrant' if not provided

azure.vm_password = 'VM User Password (To Fill out)' # min 8 characters. should contain a lower case letter, an uppercase letter, a number and a special character

azure.vm_name = 'VM Name (To Fill out)' # max 15 characters. contains letters, number and hyphens. can start with letters and can end with letters and numbers

azure.cloud_service_name = '' # same as vm_name. leave blank to auto-generate

# azure.deployment_name = '' # defaults to cloud_service_name

azure.vm_location = 'West Europe' # e.g., West US

#azure.private_key_file = 'C:\Users\PSawicz\myPrivateKey'

azure.certificate_file = 'SSL PFX Certificate Generated 2.1 (To Fill out)'

# Provide the following values if creating a *Nix VM

azure.ssh_port = '22'

azure.tcp_endpoints = '3389:53389' # opens the Remote Desktop internal port that listens on public port 53389. Without this, you cannot RDP to a Windows VM.

end

config.ssh.username = 'VM User (To Fill out)' # the one used to create the VM

config.ssh.password = 'VM User Password (To Fill out)' # the one used to create the VM

config.vm.provision "file", source: "./configs/server_token.txt", destination: "/home/azureuser/.klei/DoNotStarveTogether/server_token.txt"

config.vm.provision "file", source: "./configs/settings.ini", destination: "/home/azureuser/.klei/DoNotStarveTogether/settings.ini"

config.vm.provision "shell", path: "script.sh"

end

In the other hand script.sh is a simple bash script that contain instruction for a provisioning step, at this step you are trying to get your machine to certain state, it can set up privileges for users, install applications, configure them. At fallowing piece of code it tries to add architecture, then install all requires libs for SteamCMD.

echo "Starting provisioning"
echo "Setting up i386 architecture"
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 -y
echo "i386 architecture installed"
echo "Installing required packages"
sudo apt-get update -y
if [ $(dpkg-query -W -f='${Status}' lib32gcc1 2>/dev/null | grep -c "ok installed") -eq 0 ];
then
  sudo apt-get install lib32gcc1 -y
fi
if [ $(dpkg-query -W -f='${Status}' lib32stdc++6 2>/dev/null | grep -c "ok installed") -eq 0 ];
then
  sudo apt-get install lib32stdc++6 -y 
fi
if [ $(dpkg-query -W -f='${Status}' libcurl4-gnutls-dev:i386 2>/dev/null | grep -c "ok installed") -eq 0 ];
then
  sudo apt-get install libcurl4-gnutls-dev:i386 -y
fi

echo "Starting provisioning"

echo "Setting up i386 architecture"

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 -y

echo "i386 architecture installed"

echo "Installing required packages"

sudo apt-get update -y

if [ $(dpkg-query -W -f='${Status}' lib32gcc1 2>/dev/null | grep -c "ok installed") -eq 0 ];

then

sudo apt-get install lib32gcc1 -y

if [ $(dpkg-query -W -f='${Status}' lib32stdc++6 2>/dev/null | grep -c "ok installed") -eq 0 ];

then

sudo apt-get install lib32stdc++6 -y

if [ $(dpkg-query -W -f='${Status}' libcurl4-gnutls-dev:i386 2>/dev/null | grep -c "ok installed") -eq 0 ];

then

sudo apt-get install libcurl4-gnutls-dev:i386 -y

Right now it’s configured only for one provider – Azure, but in few next days I would like to cover VirtualBox and AWS. There one issue that cannot be automated yet, DST requires to open 10999 UDP port, which now unfortunately vagrant-azure doesn’t support, but I hope so that I will make PR soon, I do have to find some time and get ruby environment to work 😉

Happy playing!

Pawel

Pawel Sawicz .NET Blog

Pawel Sawicz.NET technical blog, sometimes other stuff

Terraform in game development – Don’t Starve Together

Don’t Starve Together and Vagrant