Hosting a Minecraft Server on Linux

Key steps we’ll cover in this guide:

1. Installing Java
2. Installing the Minecraft server
3. Launching the server

Install Java

Install Java on AWS Linux

sudo rpm --import https://yum.corretto.aws/corretto.key
sudo curl -L -o /etc/yum.repos.d/corretto.repo https://yum.corretto.aws/corretto.repo
sudo yum install -y java-17-amazon-corretto-devel

Install Java on Ubuntu

Update the repository to ensure you download the latest version of OpenJDK

sudo apt update

Install the latest Java Development Kit

sudo apt install default-jdk

Install Java on CentOS

Start by updating the package repository

sudo yum update

Install the Java Development Kit with

sudo yum install java-11-openjdk-devel

Verify Java is installed by running:

java -version

The output should respond with the version of OpenJDK installed on the system.

Installing the Minecraft server

The steps to install and launch the server are much the same as any other install — download the file, put it somewhere permanent and run it. We’ll do that through the command line.

We’ll also create a dedicated user for the server on the instance

sudo adduser minecraft

After the user is created, we’ll make directories and download the latest version of the Minecraft server into them, then provide access to the “minecraft” user.

sudo mkdir /opt/minecraft/
sudo mkdir /opt/minecraft/server/
cd /opt/minecraft/server
wget https://piston-data.mojang.com/v1/objects/f69c284232d7c7580bd89a5a4931c3581eae1378/server.jar
sudo chown -R minecraft:minecraft /opt/minecraft/

The URL for the latest version of the server can be found on the official Minecraft server page. Minecraft has now been downloaded on the machine and is almost ready to run.

Launching the Minecraft Server

A little trick with running the Minecraft server for the first time is that you have to run it once, edit a eula.txt file to agree with the license and then start it again before it will run. The next steps show how to do this using vi.

We’ll swap to the user and move to the server directory.

sudo su minecraft
cd /opt/minecraft/server/

Run the following command to start the server. If you are using a different Minecraft server filename, update the command accordingly.

java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar server.jar nogui

The command will error and say you need to agree to the eula. Do so by running the following command

vi eula.txt

Navigate to the “eula=false” statement, press i and edit it to say “eula=true”. Press escape and type :x to save and exit. Any Minecraft server specific settings can be modified in a similar way using vi in the server.properties file.

Start the server again using the same command as above. Minecraft server is running and will be available to log in after world generation is complete.

Install Screen

Screen is a console application that keeps your server running when you’re not connected.

Install Screen on Ubuntu with:

sudo apt install screen

To install Screen on CentOS, run:

sudo yum install screen

Run Screen

Start a Screen session using the screen command and add the -S option to name the session:

screen -S "Minecraft server"

Run Your Minecraft Server

Start the Minecraft server by running the java command to execute the jar file

java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar server.jar nogui

Wait for the system to finish executing. You should get a message when the process is done, at this point the Minecraft server is up and running.

You can now detach from the Minecraft screen by pressing Ctrl+a+d.

To reattach to the screen, press Ctrl+r.