How to Setup a Minecraft Server on Ubuntu

Minecraft Server Prerequisites

To have Minecraft on your Linux PC, you need:

Minimum 5GB RAM
Dedicated game server
Intel core-based CPUs
Access to the Command Line

Install the packages to create the mcrcon tool:

$ sudo apt update

$ sudo apt install git build-essential

Steps of Installing Minecraft Server on Linux Ubuntu

Follow the steps given below to have a smooth Minecraft install on your Linux PC.

Install JRE

The latest versions of Minecraft require Java 17+ to run.

For Minecraft, one needs to use headless JRE, because Minecraft isn’t compatible with a graphical user interface.

So, OpenJRE 17 package will be installed by:

$  sudo apt install openjdk-17-jre-headless

And verify the installation through:

$ java -version

Install Minecraft on Linux Ubuntu

Create three new directories by writing the code below:

$ mkdir Minecraft-Server

Navigate to this folder now – by typing

$ cd Minecraft-Server

Then – create (3) new subfolders, in that folder.

$ mkdir {backups,tools,server}

So what’re these directories for?

The backups will take a server backup.
The tools will keep the backup script and the mcrcon client.
The server directory stores the Minecraft server and the related details.

Download and Compile mcrcon

RCON protocol lets you execute commands when you’re connected to your Minecraft server on Linux Ubuntu.

And mcrcon is a C-based RCON client.

From GitHub, download the source code and create the mcrcon binary.

To do this, navigate to the tools and clone Tiiffi/mcrcon using this command:

$ cd tools && git clone https://github.com/Tiiffi/mcrcon.git

After that, switch back to your repository directory:

$ cd mcrcon

Compile the mcrcon utility via:

$ gcc -std=gnu11 -pedantic -Wall -Wextra -O2 -s -o mcrcon mcrcon.c

And then test it by:

$ ./mcrcon -h

Download the Minecraft Server on Linux Ubuntu

Minecraft server mods like Spigot or Craftbukkit let you add plugins on your Minecraft server. You can also customize the server settings.

Here we’re installing Mojang’s vanilla Minecraft server.

You can download the Java archive file (JAR) of the Minecraft server from this page manually – or do via WGET command. To get latest download link – visit the link above and do Copy Link on the minecraft_server.jar URL.

Navigate to your server folder:

cd ~/Minecraft-Server/server

Then download the server.jar:

$ wget https://piston-data.mojang.com/v1/objects/84194a2f286ef7c14ed7ce0090dba59902951553/server.jar -P

Configure Minecraft Server

Remain in /server folder from above step. Type the following command to startup the server for the first time.

$ java -Xmx1024M -Xms512M -jar server.jar nogui

Minecraft server will perform some operations and will create server.properties and eula.txt.

Agree to the EULA to run the server. For this, open the eula.txt and change eula=false to eula=true:

$ nano ~/Minecraft-Server/server/eula.txt

Then close that file and save by typing CTRL+O and pressing Enter

Now, edit the server.properties to enable rcon and set a suitable rcon password.

Open your text editor by typing:

$ nano ~/Minecraft-Server/server/server.properties

Update the values in the following manner – if something is in italics you will create / type your own option.

rcon.port=25575

rcon.password=strong-password

enable-rcon=true

Not Required – but you can also modify your server settings, the following is what I change:

motd=Change this to whatever you want your Message of the Day to Be.

difficulty=hard

Build Systemd Unit File

Minecraft can be run as a service only after creating a Systemd unit file.

Create a file called minecraft.service in /etc/systemd/system/ :

$ sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/minecraft.service

Paste the configuration as follows – please note – anything in italics will need to be modified to your user or directory. If you follow my guide and your username is mcadmin – you can copy paste as normal.

[Unit]

Description=Minecraft Server

After=network.target

[Service]

User=mcadmin

Nice=1

KillMode=none

SuccessExitStatus=0 1

ProtectHome=false

ProtectSystem=full

PrivateDevices=true

NoNewPrivileges=true

WorkingDirectory=/home/mcadmin/Minecraft-Server/server

ExecStart=/usr/bin/java -Xmx1024M -Xms512M -jar server.jar nogui

ExecStop=/home/mcadmin/Minecraft-Server/tools/mcrcon/mcrcon -H 127.0.0.1 -P 25575 -p strong-password stop

[Install]

WantedBy=multi-user.target

Modify Xms and Xmx flags as per your server resources.

The Xms flag defines the initial memory allocation, while the Xmx defines the maximum memory allocation for a JVM (Java Virtual Machine)

You need to use the correct rcon password and port. Always keep this in mind.

Execute the command below to begin with the Minecraft server.

$ sudo systemctl start minecraft

Check the Minecraft service status with:

$ sudo systemctl status minecraft

Finally, the command below will enable the Minecraft service at boot time:

$ sudo systemctl enable minecraft

Adjust the Firewall

Open port 25565 to access the Minecraft server from other than your local network while the server has a firewall.

Allow traffic on the port 25565 by:

$ sudo ufw allow 25565/tcp

Configure Backups

We’ll create an automatic backup using shell script and cronjob.

Create the following file in your text editor:

$ nano ~/Minecraft-Server/tools/backup.sh

Then paste the configuration given below (replace the paths in MCRON_PATH, BACKUP_PATH, and MC_PATH with your specific paths)

#!/bin/bash

MCRCON_PATH="/usr/local/bin"
BACKUP_PATH="/home/opc/mc_backup"
MC_PATH="/home/opc/minecraft"

IP="127.0.0.1"
PORT="25575"
PASS="[password]"

function rcon {
    $MCRCON_PATH/mcrcon -H $IP -P $PORT -p $PASS "$1"
}

rcon "save-off"
rcon "save-all"
tar -cvpzf $BACKUP_PATH/server-$(date +%F_%R).tar.gz $MC_PATH
rcon "save-on"
## Delete older backups
find $BACKUP_PATH -type f -mtime +7 -name '*.gz' -delete

Run the following command to save the file and make your script executable.

$ chmod +x ~/Minecraft-Server/tools/backup.sh

Then, create a cron job by typing:

$ crontab -e

0 23 * * * ~/Minecraft-Server/tools/backup.sh

The second line will make the backup script run every day at 23:00.

Access Minecraft Console

Use the mcrcon utility to get hold of the console of Minecraft.

The syntax is given below:

$ /opt/minecraft/tools/mcrcon/mcrcon -H 127.0.0.1 -P 25575 -p strong-password -t

The rcon port mustn’t be blocked while accessing the Console.

The Conclusion

And that’s the end of this tutorial. You’ve installed the Minecraft server on Linux Ubuntu successfully. Set up a backup on a regular basis.