Hi! I want to selfhost a minecraft server for my kid and hjs friends. I havent played minecraft in quite a few years …
Where do I start to self host one?
I am already seflhosting lost of stuff from 'Arrs to Jellyfin and Immich and more, so I am not asking on how to do it technically, but where to look for and what to host for a proper Minecraft server!
My kids and I use https://github.com/itzg/docker-minecraft-bedrock-server and I would recommend it.
Why is everyone suggesting random third party shit?
Straight from Mojang/Microsoft:
Bedrock: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/download/server/bedrock
Java: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/download/server
Follow the instructions and go.
Why is everyone suggesting random third party shit?
Cause the official stuff runs like shit
Main reason for me is Realms limits the view distance to 16 rather than 32 on Java
Because paper and others don’t run like garbage, unlike vanilla MC.
With the current Minecraft monthly updates, paper is always behind on the latest features. There are also minor problems that paper introduces with its performance improvements.
Years ago paper was critical for a good Minecraft experience, but a newer PC (newer than 6 years old) runs great on vanilla.
OK, I respect your opinion.
I’m coming from a place of administering a server and I attest to this:
- Minecraft players want their particular mods on their particular seed, they don’t see value in armadillos and whatever other nonsense MS is “releasing”.
- most of my player base has moved on to Vintage Story because Minecraft itself is stagnating like counterstrike did. And now we have the same situation CS had, where there’s a huge base of mc players who are stuck on old versions because, let’s be honest, Minecraft is stale AF under microsoft.
- just because modern hardware is better at running vanilla doesn’t mean paper won’t run even better.
I run 7th gen Intel hardware for my server cluster. Minecraft VMs run totally fine.
I’ve had zero issues running vanilla in a basic VM.
Try paper or fabric, add Aikar’s Flags (https://docs.papermc.io/paper/aikars-flags) and marvel at the high ticks!
If you’re familiar with Docker and want something with UI for easy management of configs, plugins and server console, you might like Pterodactyl Panel, Pelican Panel or Pufferpanel. The easiest one to setup is Pufferpanel. Pterodactyl is more involved but you’re flexible to host other game servers too if you want to.
Pterodactyl
Pterodactyl is the most asinine shit to ever set up, ever.
That’s what I said. It’s pretty involved. And their Discord is extremely toxic. The most toxic Discord I have ever seen from a FOSS project. But when you get it up and running, it’s great. Just pray nothing breaks.
I used all three tools. Pufferpanel was by far the easiest to setup. But it’s mostly limited to Minecraft servers.
First you need to understand the difference between Bedrock edition and Java edition. Bedrock is for consoles, phones and Windows, it’s the default version that Microsoft pushes now. It’s not compatible with Java clients or Java servers. So if you’re planning to have the kid play on Switch or something like that, it’s not going to work.
Assuming you’re clear on all that, you have a few options for Java servers, you can run a plain jane vanilla server (the one that Microsoft provides) fairly easily but it has some limitations, and it’s not the most manageable solution. Modded servers are much more capable and flexible but also can be a little more complex in some cases. Overall, I’ve found Purpur the easiest and most sustainable choice at least a few years ago when I was looking for the right choice it seemed like most people agreed this was the best option. Fabric is another great option, especially if you want to use mods! Fabric has a huge modding ecosystem, second only to Forge.
However I also need to mention that I’ve got a heavily modded Forge-based server running right now and I really didn’t find that any more difficult to set up than any of the others. Even though people usually complain about forge being “difficult” somehow. So take that for what it’s worth. I think it doesn’t really matter THAT much which server software you use unless you have specific requirements around things like mods, spawn protection, and other kinds of configuration that are probably most useful for large, public servers.
If you do want to run a bedrock server, it gets a little more complicated as you might have to break some things out of the walled garden. I haven’t had a lot of success with that but I understand it is possible.
So if you’re planning to have the kid play on Switch or something like that, it’s not going to work.
You can run Geyser (a modified Minecraft server) to let bedrock clients play on your Java server.
Download PaperMC and Java. Run it. Open the port in your FW. Reverse proxy it to a domain. Boom, done.
It’s really only downloading the executable and java, starting it and opening the required port. See the official documentation for instructions.
If you want to get more involved there are some convenient docker containers which automate some stuff:
You can actually host a bedrock server yourself with Geyser no problem
Just chiming in to include that hosting a modded Minecraft server is relatively easy as well. You use a modded version like Fabric and put the mods in the mods folder in the MC directory on your host. Users have the same mods in their mods folder and it just works normally. Some mods are server-side only
Minecraft really needs a mod system like ARK: Survival Ascended. I really hate Forge/Fabric so much because of this requirement that host/server match all their version numbers, but no mechanics to be able to do it within the client.
You can run it in a container
Just don’t expose it to the public internet.
Not saying nothing, but there’s always luanti and voxelibre.
You should only need to have Java and then download the server and open the port if they want to play vanilla mc. If they want modded then idk.
You might also want to check this out, haven’t used it myself but it looks cool if you don’t like wasting server resources: https://github.com/timvisee/lazymc
Java edition is easy to selfhost, did it as a docker stack a while ago. Apart from that, it really depends on what addons etc. your players are usually playing. Most things can be done with not too much effort, but that’s probably the thing you need to find out.
Additionally, there’s are some pretty nice free plugins for Java Minecraft server (e.g. Deluge) that allow Bedrock users to play on it too - from a PC, Xbox, PlayStation, phone, or whatever.
Bedrock edition also has a docker stack and is easy to self host. You can play bedrock edition cross platform. If your kids already have Minecraft on a switch or Xbox or something like that, they can still play on that.
As others mentioned, running a minecraft server by itself is pretty easy. If you want additional features like a Web UI, multiple servers at the same time etc. you might take a look at Crafty Controller.
