Minecraft is once again exploding in popularity. Thanks to Twitch streamers and YouTube creators boosting gaming trends, more than 169 million people played Minecraft between May and June 2024.
Some of us are now looking to take our love of the game to another level. If you want to play online with friends or gain greater control over mods and plugins, the next step is to set up your own Minecraft server, which will allow you to decide who joins your server, set your own rules, and modify the gameplay settings to maximise your enjoyment. The good news is that it’s quick and probably easier than you think – especially if you use a Fasthosts VPS!
In this article, we’ll discuss why you should host your own Minecraft server on a VPS (or virtual private server), the benefits of a VPS for private game server hosting, and how you can create a Minecraft server on a Windows VPS or Linux VPS by following our helpful step-by-step Minecraft server setup.
Here’s how to get started…
What is a Minecraft server?
A Minecraft server is a player-owned or business-owned multiplayer gaming experience within Minecraft. On a Minecraft server, you can check out community creations, play minigames (like battle royale!), compete and collaborate with friends, or just hang out!
As a sandbox game, Minecraft is all about interacting with the in-game world and creating your own enjoyment, so it makes sense to tailor this experience to your own preferences as much as possible. This is why some more creative players choose to host and manage their own server, where they can invite friends or customise to their heart’s content.
Creating a private gaming server on Minecraft will require a bit of effort (which we’ll outline below), but it will allow you to avoid the downsides of online multiplayer gaming and put your gameplay preferences first. You’ll be able to choose who can access your server and modify the settings and gameplay mechanics to create the perfect game for you and your friends.
What is a Minecraft VPS and why should you use one?
If you’re interested in setting up your own Minecraft server, the first step is to choose how to host your new server. The type of hosting you choose will have a big impact on the scale of your server and how smoothly it runs.
For hosting a private gaming server, we would usually recommend a VPS hosting plan over dedicated or shared hosting. Dedicated servers will give you the most power, storage and flexibility, but the high price tag is a deterrent for some people. At the other end of the scale, a shared hosting plan is much cheaper but probably won’t give you the power you need to run a lag-free Minecraft server for you and your friends. As a happy compromise, VPS hosting can give you the best features for your budget, as you’ll get dedicated resources for your Minecraft server without having to pay for an entire physical server by yourself.
What is a VPS?
With a VPS, a physical server is divided into multiple virtual compartments for each customer, with each customer having their own allocated resources such as bandwidth, SSD storage and RAM. This means you can have your own dedicated, secure server space without having to pay for an entire server – like you would with a dedicated hosting package.
This may sound a bit like shared web hosting since you’re on the same server as other customers, but because you have your own private resources, you won’t have to worry about other users taking up all of the resources and slowing you down.
Is a VPS good for a Minecraft server?
A VPS is the best option for your Minecraft server because you can get the power and security of a dedicated server without the high price tag. Thanks to virtualisation, which is the process of turning one physical server into multiple VPSs, you’ll also get a lot more flexibility and scalability with this type of server as you can add extra resources to your plan at any time. This isn’t possible with a physical server that has a set amount of resources.
So yes, the flexibility and power of a VPS make it fantastic for hosting Minecraft servers. As more players join your server, your VPS will continue to provide optimal performance and minimal latency. Plus, if you ever outgrow your current VPS plan, you can upgrade your VPS by adding extra resources through your control panel.
How do you create a Minecraft server?
Whether you rent a VPS or a dedicated server from a hosting provider, you’ll need to follow a specific process to start hosting a Minecraft gaming server on it. Creating a gaming server is very different from hosting a website on your VPS or dedicated server, so make sure you familiarise yourself with the instructions before getting started.
But don’t fret! To set up your own private Minecraft server, all you need is a bit of technical knowledge and some patience. Even if you’ve never hosted a gaming server before – or even had a web hosting package – you’ll be able to follow along.
Below, we’ll go through the 5 steps needed to create a Minecraft server on a Windows VPS and the 10 steps needed to create a Minecraft server on a Linux VPS. The instructions are quite different depending on your operating system, so make sure you follow the right ones.
How to create a Minecraft server on a Windows VPS
So, how do you create a Minecraft server on a Windows VPS? Just follow these simple steps:
1. Choose the right VPS package
The first thing you need to do is choose the right VPS hosting package. We’ve already discussed the benefits of VPS hosting, so now all you have to do is find a plan from a reputable web hosting provider that meets all of your needs.
Some key features to look out for include greater storage capacity, over 99% uptime, unlimited bandwidth, 24/7 support and the ability to upgrade your plan when needed. This will help you keep your server running smoothly no matter what.
Get all of these benefits and much more when you choose a VPS hosting plan from Fasthosts. We guarantee top-of-the-line performance, 99.999% uptime and full root access to customise your server however you want, so you won’t have to worry about lag or griefers ruining your Minecraft experience!
2. Install Java
Minecraft runs on Java, which means you’ll need to install it to set up your Minecraft server. Visit the Java download site and click the ‘Download Java’ button. Then, hit the green ‘I Agree to the Terms and Want to Continue’ button and click on the file in the download bar.
If you already have Java, you should check that it’s fully up to date. To do this on a Windows VPS, open a command prompt window, type ‘Java -version’, and click Enter. If Java is already installed, it should list a version number – check that this is the latest version available. If it isn’t, you’ll need to download the latest version of Java to ensure your Minecraft server setup goes smoothly.
3. Download the Minecraft server
Now you need to download the Minecraft: Java Edition server. You can find this on the Minecraft website.
Create a new folder on your server system and run the downloaded JAR file. You’ll then see an end user licence agreement (EULA). Open the eula.txt text file and replace ‘eula=false’ with “eula=true” to accept the EULA.
Finally, click on the JAR file again to create your Minecraft server.
4. Check or assign the port
Minecraft provides the TCP-Port 25565 port by default. If you’d like to change this, follow the steps below:
- Open the server.properties file with your favourite text editor.
- Modify the default port numbers following ‘server-port=’.
- If you’re on a server, you’ll need to open the port on your firewall instead.
- Once done, your server should now be accessible online.
5. Join the server
Launch Minecraft and click ‘Play Multiplayer’. Click the ‘Add Server’ button and assign the server a name and address.
Now all that’s left to do is click ‘Done’ and enjoy! You now have your very own Minecraft server on a Windows VPS.
The process above is similar for setting up a a Minecraft server on a cloud server or dedicated server.
How to create a Minecraft server on a Linux VPS
If you have a Linux VPS, the server setup process will look a little different. Let’s go through it below:
Step 1: Install additional components
Connect to your VPS via remote desktop connection or by setting up an SSH connection using PuTTy. You can learn more about this process in our article on how to connect to a VPS.
Once you’ve connected, the first step is to install the additional components needed to run a Minecraft server via the terminal.
First, update the package index of the package manager APT:
sudo apt update
Next, install the minimal OpenJDK Java runtime environment, which is required to run the Minecraft server application (Java):
sudo apt install openjdk-17-jre-headless
Once that’s complete, use the command sudo java - version to check that the installation was successful.
Step 2: Enable Minecraft’s server port
Now that the basic components for your Linux Minecraft server have been installed, it’s time to enable TCP port 25565. The server application will use this port to communicate with clients by default, so setting up a rule in your server’s firewall is essential. Enter the following command:
sudo ufw allow 25565
Step 3: Download the Minecraft server application (Java)
Visit the official Minecraft website to find the latest version of the Minecraft: Java Edition Server to download. You should see a file named ‘minecraft_server..jar’. Control-click this link and then select ‘Copy Link Address’ from the menu. Once the link is copied to your clipboard, you can use the wget command to download it on your server.
wget https://launcher.mojang.com/v1/objects/1b557e7b033b583cd9f66746b7a9ab1ec1673ced/server.jar
Step 4: Create a new folder
While you’re installing the Minecraft server, it’s important to keep your files in order so you can reach them easily. This is why you should create a new folder for your JAR file and move it there.
Use the mkdir command to create a new directory for all of your server files:
mkdir –p /Minecraft
You can then use the ‘change directory’ command (‘cd’) to navigate to this folder:
cd /Minecraft
Step 5: Running the server application for the first time
At this point, the server will stop if you close your console. To keep your players happy, you’ll want to be able to run the server at all times, even when you’ve disconnected from the session.
To solve this, you need to install Screen. Screen allows you to create a console instance that can be detached from your console and later reattached, meaning that processes can keep running in the background.
Screen can be installed with the following commands:
yum –y install screen
screen -S "Minecraft server"
You’re ready to run the Minecraft server application for the first time. Begin by launching the window manager installed earlier on with the command screen.
Then, confirm that you’d like to launch the manager by pressing the space bar. After this, you should be presented with the terminal interface you’re familiar with, ready to launch the Minecraft server. Use the following command:
sudo java -Xms1G -Xmx2G -jar server.jar nogui
The above command will launch Minecraft: Java Edition without a graphical user interface (nogui). To execute this command, 1GB of memory is granted as ‘start’ memory (Xms1G), with maximum memory usage set to 2GB (Xmx2G). Of course, you’re free to adjust these values should you see fit.
Step 6: Accept the End-User Licence Agreement (EULA)
Now, you can finally launch the JAR file. You’ll see several errors during this first launch, but don’t worry too much about this. To get everything working, you’ll need to accept the EULA.
After running the server for the first time, a file called eula.txt will be generated. Open this file and change eula=false to eula=true using a text editor to accept the EULA.
Step 7: Configure your server
Open the file with the text editor nano:
nano server.properties
Here you’ll be greeted with a simple standard configuration for your server, including options such as game difficulty level and the server port. You can adjust these settings to your liking.
For more information, check out the official Minecraft fandom wiki.
Step 8: Start your server again
Now that you’ve adjusted the settings and agreed to the EULA, it’s time to start your server again. We’re going to use the same command as last time:
sudo java -Xms1G -Xmx2G -jar server.jar nogui
This may take some time, after which you should see this message:
[Server thread/INFO]: Done (….s)! For help, type "help"
When you type the command help, you’ll see a list of possible server commands.
Step 9: Keep your server running
Once you have the Minecraft server up and running on Linux, you will of course want it to remain active when you disconnect remotely from the server.
Run the following command to display all active screen sessions:
screen -list
You will get a listing where you will also find the previously established connection of your Minecraft server including the prefixed session ID.
Now, to keep this session active even if you log off the server later, enter the following into the terminal – replacing the value XXXX with the individual ID of your screen session:
screen -r XXXX
Then, exit the screen session with the key combination [Ctrl] + [A] + [D].
Now, your server should stay up even if you log off!
Step 10: Invite your friends and play!
Your server should now be up and running. Follow the steps below to join your Minecraft world:
- Launch the Minecraft client (Java Edition)
- Select Multiplayer
- Click Direct Connection
- Enter the IP address of your Minecraft server
- Click Join Server
- Play Minecraft!
The process above is similar for setting up a a Minecraft server on a cloud server or dedicated server.
Minecraft server requirements (minimum specs)
The following server requirements are recommended to run a Minecraft server:
|
|
CPU |
RAM |
# of players |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | 1-2 cores 3.00 GHz |
2GB | 1-2 |
| Recommended | 2-4 cores 3.00 GHz |
4GB | 2-5 |
| Best | 4-6 cores 3.50 GHz |
8GB | 6+ |
