Amazon GameLift Servers Windows Server 2016 FAQ

Amazon GameLift Servers will retire support for Windows Server 2016 on January 12, 2027, which is the official end of extended support date published by Microsoft. Amazon GameLift Servers customers without active fleets running Windows Server 2016 will only be able to use Windows Server 2022 as the Windows operating system to create game server builds and fleets starting December 12, 2026. Customers that already have active Windows Server 2016 fleets will be able to select Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2022 when uploading new builds and creating new fleets, until March 30, 2027. However, in order to maintain the security posture of your game servers and provide the best game play experience to your players, you must migrate your game server fleets to Windows Server 2022 by March 30, 2027.

EOS is the end stage of an OS lifecycle after which it is no longer updated or patched for any known security vulnerability by the maintainer of the operating system software. Operating systems, like any software, are updated to newer versions leaving the older versions in maintenance for some time, before finally reaching a stage where the provider no longer supports them, known as the End of Support (EOS).

No. In order to help Amazon GameLift Servers customers maintain secure game server runtime environments after end of support, we require all customers to migrate to Windows Server 2022 by March 30, 2027.

You can log in to your Amazon GameLift Servers console and look for the attribute “Operating system” under the Build Details section of the fleet. Alternatively, you can call the DescribeFleetAttributes API to retrieve the value of the OS found in the “Operating system” parameter of the response. If you see “WINDOWS_2016” in either the console view or the API response, you are currently using Windows Server 2016 in your fleets and will need to upgrade to Windows Server 2022.

If you are an existing Amazon GameLift Servers customer with active fleets running on Windows Server 2016 as of today, you can continue to create new fleets or update existing ones with Windows Server 2016 until March 30, 2027. Starting March 31, 2027, Windows Server 2016 will no longer be accepted as a valid build parameter at the time of creating new game server builds. Amazon GameLift Servers will begin scaling down and terminating any fleets that are still running on Windows Server 2016 after March 30, 2027. Hence, we highly recommend that you plan to migrate your game servers to Windows Server 2022 well in advance of March 30, 2027.

No. In order to migrate to Amazon GameLift Servers managed fleets on Windows Server 2022, you will first need to integrate your game server binary with server SDK V5 for Amazon GameLift or above. The server SDK V4 for Amazon GameLift Servers and older does not support Windows Server 2022. You can download the latest server SDK from the Getting Started Page. Refer to our detailed step-by-step guide for Migrating from Amazon GameLift Servers Server SDK V4 to SDK V5.

No. For detailed pricing options please visit https://aws.amazon.com/gamelift/pricing/

Yes. Amazon GameLift Servers will scale down and terminate any remaining active fleets running on Windows Server 2016, after March 30, 2027.