Minecraft is still a popular game these days. The simplicity of its graphics had an appeal on gamers of all ages and there are many hundreds of thousands of players worldwide, most of them playing on online servers. But did you know you can create your own Minecraft server using RedHat Enterprise Linux 8? Here is a how to teaching you exactly how to do it.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to install Java
- How to download and run a Minecraft server
- How to create a user for the Minecraft server
- How to open the Minecraft port
Software Requirements and Conventions Used
| Category | Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used |
|---|---|
| System | RedHat Enterprise Linux 8.0 |
| Software | Java |
| Software | Minecraft server JAR file |
| Other | Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command. |
| Conventions |
# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user |
Let’s install a few things first
The game runs on Java and the Minecraft server also requires Java to run. So we will install Java in RHEL 8 using the Terminal window:
$ sudo dnf install java-1.8.0-openjdk-headless.x86_64
It is safer to create a new user just for the Minecraft server. We will call this user mcsvr:
$ sudo adduser mcsvr
Now we need to create a password for this user:
$ sudo passwd mcsvr
When prompted, enter a password for the server user you have just created. If iptables is not yet installed we will install it with
$ sudo dnf install iptables
Log in as the mcsvr user you created above by using
$ su mcsvr
and change the active directory to the mcsvr user’s home folder:
$ cd ~
Configuring the Minecraft server
Download the latest Minecraft server JAR file with
$ wget -c https://launcher.mojang.com/v1/objects/f1a0073671057f01aa843443fef34330281333ce/server.jar
and make this file executable with
$ chmod +x server.jar
You can now launch the Minecraft server for the first time using
$ java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar server.jar nogui
The first time you run the server it will create an eula.txt file that needs to be modified. Edit this file so that the
eula=false
line reads
eula=true
This will let the Minecraft server know that you agree to the End-User License Agreement and you will thus be able to run the server again, this time successfully.
Allowing access to the server
By default, the Minecraft server runs on port 25565. We need to open this port so that you and your friends will be able to connect to the server. Do this with the help of iptables. Become root:
$ su -
and open the 25565 port with
# iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 25565 --syn -j ACCEPT
To be able to keep this port open after a reboot we need to make these changes permanent:
# iptables-save > /etc/sysconfig/iptables
Conclusion
Now that everything is done you can go back to the mcsvr user and launch the Minecraft server again:
# su mcsvr $ cd ~ $ java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar server.jar nogui
The nogui parameter tells the server to run in command-line mode. The -Xmx1024M and -Xms1024M parameters tell the server to use 1GB of RAM – the minimum amount recommended by the developers of the game. All you have to do now is to launch the game with your friends and use 127.0.0.1 as a server address to connect to the running Minecraft server you have just created.