How to Make a Minecraft Server – The Complete Tutorial

In this tutorial, we will show you how to make a Minecraft server on various platforms. This way, you’ll have more freedom to play the game with your own sets of rules. Let’s go!

Why You Should Make Your Own Minecraft Server

With more than 66 million players, Minecraft is one of the most popular video games in the world.

The game offers unlimited possibilities to create a virtual world, and you can fill it with your favorite objects. What’s cool, you can take such experience to a whole new level by making your own Minecraft server.

By having a private server, you’ll have bigger control over the gameplay. You can invite many users, create the rules, install any mods, and much more!

Unfortunately, many people think that building a private Minecraft server is difficult and expensive. But, the truth is, you only need a little bit of knowledge about the command-line interface. What’s more, you can set up the server on your Linux, Windows, or macOS computer, so there’s no need to buy a new machine.

If everything is ready, it’s time to learn how to make a Minecraft server!

How to Make a Minecraft Server on Linux

In this section, you will learn how to make a Minecraft server on a machine that runs on Ubuntu or CentOS.

Before we start, ensure that you have a root SSH access to your machine. If you are using Hostinger’s VPS plan, the login credentials are in the Servers tab of hPanel.

The process of creating a Minecraft server on these two operating systems is quite similar, but there are a few differences you’ll notice when installing the required packages.

Step 1: Installing Java and Screen

The minimum operating system requirements for the following tutorial are Ubuntu 16.04 and CentOS 7.

1. Connect to your server via SSH. Open the built-in terminal shell (PuTTY for Windows users) and type the following command:

   ssh username@ipaddress

   Don’t forget to change both values with your real username and server IP address. When prompted, enter your username and password.

2. A Minecraft server requires Java. Therefore, check whether it’s installed on your system by executing this command:

   java -version

   Proceed to Step 2 if you already have Java installed. However, if Java is not found, follow the next step.

3. Run these two commands to download the latest software packages and install Java:
   • On Ubuntu:

     sudo apt-get update
     sudo apt-get install default-jdk

   • On CentOS:

     sudo yum update
     sudo yum install java -y

4. Once Java installation is complete, you can install Screen:
   • On Ubuntu:

     sudo apt-get install screen

   • On CentOS:

     sudo yum install screen -y

Step 2: Installing and Running Minecraft Server on Linux

Now that Java and Screen are ready, we can begin installing a Minecraft server.

1. Create a new directory where you will store all your Minecraft files. This step is optional, but we highly recommend it so you can keep your system organized. To do this, type:

   mkdir minecraft

2. Move to the newly created directory by entering:

   cd minecraft

3. Before we can download the requires files, install wget:
   • On Ubuntu:

     sudo apt-get install wget

   • On CentOS:

     sudo yum install wget -y

4. Use wget command to download Minecraft server files:

   wget https://launcher.mojang.com/v1/objects/3dc3d84a581f14691199cf6831b71ed1296a9fdf/server.jar -O minecraft_server.1.14.4.jar

   In this example, the latest version is 1.14.4. You should visit this link to check if a newer version is available for download.

5. Run the Minecraft server file by entering this command:

   java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar minecraft_server.1.14.4.jar nogui

   At this point, the server program will not start yet. Instead, it will create an EULA (end-user license agreement) file that we need to accept first.

6. To accept Minecraft’s EULA, open eula.txt file with Nano text editor:

   sudo nano eula.txt

   Here’s the result:
   

7. You can see that the default value is false. Change it to true, like this:
   Save the file by typing CTRL + X, and then press Y.
8. Activate Screen so the server can run in the background:

   screen -S "Minecraft server 1"

   You can change the name based on your preferences.

Good job! You have successfully installed your custom Minecraft server on Ubuntu or CentOS.

Step 3: Running Minecraft Server

Now, we are going to run the Minecraft server for real this time. Type the following command again:

java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui

The minimum requirement to run the server is 1024MB (1 GB) of RAM. That’s why we enter 1024M after the -Xmx and -Xms options. If you want to allocate more RAM, you can change the value to 2048M or above, given that your server offers such specifications.

Here’s what you should see after executing the command:

The server is now running in the background. To leave Screen, press CTRL + A, then D.

You can re-open the Screen window by typing this command:

screen -r

Should you need to customize the server’s settings, open the server’s properties file with Nano:

nano ~/minecraft/server.properties

Nonetheless, we suggest that you stick with the default configuration to prevent any issues.

How to Make a Minecraft Server on Windows

You can also set up a Minecraft server on your Windows PC. What’s great, the steps are easier than the previous one.

1. Open the command prompt and check the Java version on your computer:

   java -version

   If it matches the latest version on the official website, you can continue to the next step. In case it’s unavailable or outdated, download the installer.
   

2. Download the setup software (.jar file) from the official server page.
   
3. Create a new folder for the Minecraft server and move the .jar file to that folder.
4. Double-click the setup program to create a eula.txt file.
   5. Open the EULA file and change the value from false to true.
   
5. Run the Minecraft server by double-clicking the .jar file. To do this, you might need to allow the program through the firewall.
   

Alternatively, you can open the command prompt and navigate to the dedicated Minecraft folder. For example:

cd Download/Minecraft

Then, execute this command:

java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar minecraft_server.1.14.4.jar nogui

If you see a similar screen, it means your Minecraft server has successfully started:

How to Make a Minecraft Server on macOS

Lastly, let’s see how we can make a Minecraft server on macOS:

1. Note that Java is included by default on newer versions of macOS. You can double-check by entering this command on your Terminal:

   java -version

   If it’s not available, you may download and install a legacy version of Java from the Apple website.

2. Create a dedicated folder for your Minecraft server. Then, download the setup program and put it in that folder.
3. Open TextEdit and set the format to plain text (Format -> Make Plain Text). Paste the following line:

   #!/bin/bash
   cd "$(dirname "$0")"
   exec java -Xms1024M -Xmx1024M -jar minecraft_server.1.14.4.jar nogui

   Save this file as startmc.command in the same directory where the Minecraft server file resides.

4. To make startmc.command file work, the execute permission is needed. To do so, open Terminal and head to your Minecraft folder. For instance:

   cd Desktop/MinecraftServer

   Grant the required permission with this command:

   chmod a+x startmc.command

5. If the steps are done correctly, you should be able to start your Minecraft server by double-clicking the startmc.command file. It will open a new Terminal window: The window might show you a missing file/directory warning. Don’t worry, this is completely normal when you run a Minecraft server for the first time.

Conclusion

If you want to make Minecraft more exciting, you should consider making a private Minecraft server. You’re guaranteed to have much more freedom and fun when playing this game.

Thankfully, in this article, you have learned how to make a Minecraft server on Linux (Ubuntu and CentOS), Windows, and macOS.  What’s great, the steps are easy to follow and won’t cost you much money.

Now let’s try it yourself and have fun!