So, you want to run a minecraft server. YAY!
The joy of running a server is that you have a sandbox for all kinds of cool things. You can have a more fully fledged economy, zone off places for people to have houses, change how the map generates, get a Google-Map style interface for your world, change monsters, add new adventures, and SO many more things.
This guide is focused on getting you up and running with a Java server. With that server youâll be able to have friends login to from both versions of minecraft with a little help from plugins.
This guide is focused on the âbig pictureâ. I wonât provide a complete walkthrough of every step but instead aim to introduce you to the pieces and then point you to where you can go to get the exact step-by-step.
Two versions of minecraft?
There are two versions of minecraft youâll have to worry about- Java and Bedrock. Java was the original version and is meant to be play on PCs. Bedrock is the âmodernâ version that plays on phones, consoles, and computers.
Things youâll need
- A place to run a server (around $40/year): minecraft is happiest when it gets a whole machine. This could be VM somewhere in the cloud (Iâve been using Racknerd which has deals which never expire which make it pretty affordable). Youâll need somewhere between 1gb-4gb of memory depending on how many mods and tools you want to install. Iâm running with 3gb and it feels like I have just-enough. The OS should be debian or ubuntu. Other OSâs of course work but lots of community support seems to be tailored to debian or ubuntu.
- A domain name (around $40/year): You might be able to eak by without one but it makes everything SO much easier and nicer. Youâll want to be able to point at your server management software, have an easy domain for folks to connect to your server from within minecraft, and maybe have a nice way for them to get to addons like maps. I use hover to manage my domains but thatâs just preference. The thing you mostly need is a way to manage DNS.
- A copy of Minecraft Java (and maybe one for each player) ($30): Youâll need at least one copy of Java minecraft so you can login and to it and check that everything is ok. After it works you donât have to run the Java version although you might want to because it supports mods and addons that Bedrock does not.
- A bunch of patience and tea: Getting things to work just-right takes time and patience. Youâll probably need to take a break at points and have some tea/a walk. I had a coworker who said âComputers are great because they always do things for a reasonâ sometimes, though, that reason can be hard to figure out.
Server management software
Server management software isnât strictly necessary. Itâs absolutely possible to just run minecraftâs server directly or directly use a minecraft docker container. But what server management software gives you (or panels as they are called in minecraft hostring) is an easy way to know whatâs up with your server, a way for others who are technical but not ssh-into-a-box technical to manage things, a way to try out and play with different versions of minecraft, and maybe most importantly, a way to backup your minecraft world regularly.
Iâve used and had good luck with these panels:
- AMP ($10)
- Pterodactyl (Free)
AMP
AMP is a paid piece of software. Itâs not very expensive at $10. Youâre really pay for ease-of-install and a place you can go to ask questions and support.
On the whole AMP is great! It does 90% of the hard work for you and gets you onto playing with minecraft.
Pterodactyl
Pterodactyl is both no-fun to spell and no-fun to install. Itâs built for installations that scale up really big and need multiple servers so it separates out the computers that are running the minecraft servers (wings) and the computer that is running the main control jobs (panel). Itâs totally possible to set this all up by hand by goodness I wouldnât recommnend it (I spent 2 days trying to get everything just-so before tossing in the towel). Instead Iâd recommend bird which is a bash script that does 70% of the work of setting up your panel for you.
Which Should I use?
Hereâs my recommendation- if you just want to get on with it and get playing with minecraft and addons and mods then pay the money and install AMP. It has some weirdness but it gets going fast and unless youâre excited about playing with server software then this gets you onto the next step.
I would recommend Pterodactyl after you have some experience and want to get into it with servers. Itâs worth mentioning that here, in early 2025, Pterodactyl is involved with some open source drama and there are are a variety of forks that might be the next big thing (Jexactyl, and Pelican look like contenders)
Setting up your server
What version of minecraft should I use?
Modâing your minecraft server
Connecting bedrock
Handling different client versions
Special Interest: Mapping
Minecraft has some basic mapping abilities built in. But letâs say you love mapping (hi, you are my people). There are addons that make mapping SO cool! You can have a realtime google-map of the world with realtime player location, signs, current time of day, 3D looking at the world and more. SO COOL.
Is it cheating?
I mostly play with my partner and this is a question we immediately asked. Are we cheating ourselves out of exploring and enjoying the world? While youâll have to find the answer for yourself hereâs where we settled: No itâs not cheating but we put limits on ourselves. We only use a âsurfaceâ map so the caves are still mysteries. For us it helps us find the interesting things on the map that we might have missed and makes us more excited to go adventuring!
World Map
This is the reason I wanted to run a minecraft server. There are several pieces of mapping software but two that Iâve used and liked are:
- Dynmap
- BlueMap
Dynmap has been around longer and seems to work with more versions of minecraft. I get the feeling that itâs the âold faithfulâ of mapping software. If you just want a map and you want to get on with it, this is the one that I would recommend. Thereâs lots and lots of documentation.
After youâve got it installed you might be disappointed that your map is just a big black blob and nothing much seems to happen. To get things started youâll need to kick off a full render of everything that is known about your world. On one of your client with OP permission youâll need to run: /dynmap fullrender to get things going.