VPS & Dedicated Hosting: Installing Minecraft

Want to host your own Minecraft server? Installing Minecraft on a VPS or dedicated server is a great way to have more control and flexibility. This guide will walk you through how to install Minecraft on a VPS or Dedicated Server so you can get your server up and running in no time.

Install Minecraft

To install the default or vanilla Minecraft server, please do the following:

1. Open an SSH client and log in.
2. Create the folder that you want to install Minecraft to. mkdir minecraft
   This can be anywhere in the file structure, but it is usually best to put it in the home directory.
3. Change to the Minecraft directory. cd minecraft
4. It is recommended at this point you verify you have Java installed. To do this, run the following command: java -version
   If Java is not installed, please see Installing Java to learn how to install Java.
5. Download the Minecraft JAR file. curl -O https://launcher.mojang.com/v1/objects/a16d67e5807f57fc4e550299cf20226194497dc2/server.jar
   It is recommended that you check MineCraft's download page for the latest version.
6. Now open the port that you will have Minecraft listen on. sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 25565 -j ACCEPT sudo service iptables save sudo service iptables restart
   If you would like to use a port other than the default 25565, you will need to run the server once to create server.properties file as needed to change the port.
7. To run Minecraft when you are not connected to your server, you need Screen installed sudo yum install screen
8. Start the Minecraft Server. screen java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar server.jar nogui

You can exit SSH or use ctrl+a+d to exit the screen session. This will not close it down. To open the screen session, you can type screen -r. If you have more than one Screen session running, then you would need to know the instance number, which typing screen -list will provide for you.

For more information on Minecraft, please visit Minecraft.net.

Summary

That's it! You now know how to install Minecraft on a VPS or a dedicated server. Now, you already have your very own Minecraft server. Make sure that your server software is up to date, and fine-tune your server settings for maximum gameplay. Play Minecraft and have fun!