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= New to Minecraft and considering hosting a server for my kids. What do I need to know? =

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To start, I'm not looking for tech how-to advice (at least not yet). I'm sure I can build and maintain a server in the cloud using the documentation available on the internet. The issue is that I have zero experience with the game or the community and I don't have a lot of time to do the research. Hoping you all will point me in the right direction.

My goal is to create a safe online space for my sons and about 10 friends (8-10 years old) where we'd have full control of the configuration and who can join the server.

For those of you are running (or have run) a server (which I suspect is aof you):

Is it better to use a dedicated hosting company or roll my own in Azure or Amazon? In my case, time is a tighter resource than money so I'm willing to spend a little for important features.

From what I can tell, Bedrock version is compatible with more types of clients while Java is more flexible. Is there anything else I need to know about choosing which version?

What do I need to know (including suggested mods) to make sure the kids have a safe space to learn and have fun?

What do you wish you had known before starting?

Thanks in advance for sharing any insight you can share 

EDIT:

You all really came through and saved me aof time. Thank you all, even if I don't get a chance to reply to all of you.

and i would assume a dedicated host would be easier and probably cheaper then azure, but i dont have much experience with azure. if you're unsure of what hosting options there are there's a thread. httpswww.reddit.com/r/admincraft/comments/hiqj6x/subreddit_info_and_july_hosting_discussion/

You should totally get a proper Minecraft host. While doing it with AWS or whatever is certainly possible, it's very much cheaper to just buy from a proper host. For recommendations, check out the hosting discussion.

Java isof magnitude more flexible and easier to administrate. I would only recommend Bedrock of one of the involved children plays on a mobile device. Also be aware that while game consoles (Xbox, PS4 and Switch) do run Bedrock, you cannot connect to custom servers without some serious hacking.


Are the kids all friends and fairly decent people? Then you don't need much. Just a whitelist and perhaps CoreProtect, a plugin that allows you to roll back anything that goes awry. If you need to protect them from themselves ("Children are monsters" - Tom Scott), there are also plugins available for land claiming and a lot of other security features.

If there's one thing I wish I knew it would be "don't skimp on CPU." Client-side Minecraft is mostly dependent on RAM for performance, but for server-side, CPU is much more important. A good CPU and 4+ GB of RAM should be sufficient for your needs.

I was looking at Bedrock because I know a lot of the kids have different devices. That said, at least two have PCs and have an interest in it so I'm leaning toward Java now and will encourage others to join the PC group.

there are also plugins available for land claiming and a lot of other security features.

Are they any plugins I should be sure to avoid?

Do the kids already play MC? If so, find out what platform. Java is PC only, so if the kids play on iPads, Xbox, etc, then you'll likely need to host a Realm. If you want to host a Java platform for everyone, each kid would need to get their parents to shell out $30 for a license if they don't already own a copy. I don't believe you can self host a Realm, you rent it from MS directly (please correct me if I'm wrong here).

One of the problems is mixed clients. One kid has xbox, one has ps4, mine have iOS. But with online school coming this year, aof parents are buying (or building) PCs for online school so this may be a good chance to switch up.

I did look at renting a Realm from MS but I wasn't happy with it's limitations.

I’m a dad who has been running a minecraft server for my son and his friends for many years now. Here’s some things from my experience:

I’ve only ever run this on Linux. CentOS 6 and 7, and Ubuntu 18 and 20. I never ran Windows and I never installed a Linux GUI because I didn’t want to waste resources. I’ve only ever run Java edition.

I thought getting a Minecraft admin GUI would make it easier for me to administer the server so I tried McMyAdmin and AMP. It took a lot of time to get those up and running, so it wasn’t easier or faster. I was trying to learn Minecraft and McMyAdmin/AMP at the same time. I do all the Minecraft admin stuff from the Linux shell now and it’s not difficult. The only GUI stuff I use is Putty for SSH and WinSCP for transferring files.

I've never tried one of the Minecraft server hosting companies, I’ve only ever rolled my own. They seem popular though, and not expensive.

I first ran a server on an old PC at home. I didn’t like this because it is always on, fans running, taking up space.


I then tried a couple of different hosting providers. Too cheap justbut I’ve never spent a lot. Currently I have a server from OVH: 1 CPU, 6 GB RAM, about $8 USD a month iirc. The server is keeping up.

There’s not much to installing it once you have it all worked out. Deploy a Linux image, lock down SSH, basic firewall config, run the Minecraft server java jar, enable and configure whitelist, and you’ve got a Minecraft server. In reality there’s aof steps to do there, but nothing too complicated.

Paper performs way better than Vanilla. We’re running a Forge server at the moment which is noticeably more resource hungry than Paper. The server is still mostly keeping up though.

My son has 6 or 7 friends who play on the server from time to time, most around 13 or 14 years old, the youngest is 9 I think. They play nicely together: no stealing, griefing, or cheating, although we did suspect one kid of cheating with x-ray. They usually get along well and they help each other out.

I think the most who have played at the same time is like 4 or 5 players. The kids have different schedules, “screen time” limits, different interests, so they’re not all available or interested at the same time.

The kids really lose interest from time to time, and sometimes for a long time. There have been days, weeks, and months go by when no-one was playing on it, not even my son. When this happens it can feel like it was a big waste of time. I’ve deleted the whole server a couple of times when no-one was playing for over a month just to save on the hosting cost. When new interest emerges it doesn’t take me long to spin up a new server these days. Keeping a a good set of notes makes it easy to deploy.

Sometimes the server needs something different to keep the kids interested for a while, or get them interested again. To reignite interest recently, my son put together a collection of mods and we switched from Paper to Forge.

Setting up Forge with mods has taken about 20 minutes each time for each kid. We had to help them install Java, get the Forge launcher, and install the mods. We use discord to talk to each other.

I take backups but I've never had to restore.

In general I find it satisfying to run a Minecraft server, although my son actually does a lot of the running, I'm mainly the infrastructure guy.

Good luck, reply here or PM me if you want more info about something.

It's probably better to use shared hosting. It's mostly already set up for you, and is normally geared towards minecraft, so it ends up performing better. For a good host, I'd reccomend you check out the hosting discussion.


Java allows for more customization, and allows you to use plugins. You can also allow bedrock players to connect through the use of geyser, which is a bridge software, so it will still be slightly buggy, although it's quite good for what it is.(Might also be somewhat intimidating to setup, if you need any help setting it up, the admincraft discord is a good place to ask)

If you're going to run a java server, I'd highly recommend you run paper, as it performs very well, and allows you to run plugins. As for plugins, the only really essential one, is probably going to be some form of a block logging plugin. I'd recommend you check out Prism, or alternatively Core Protect. This helps so that the kids won't steal from each other, or grief each others builds, as they can be held accountable if something like that happens.

What I wish I had known before starting:

To use paper. It really helps with performance a lot, coupled with this optimization guide.When it comes to hosting, you really get what you pay for. Expect to pay around $10 a month for a highly performant server. Side Note: RAM isn't everything, the cpu is also a very important factor for server performance.

uh. The admincraft discord. There's been a decent amount of drama there lately, but most people there are very helpful if you show that you at least tried to solve your problem before asking the question. I've learned a lot just from being in there.

There's probably more, but I can't think of it right now. I'll edit it in later.

Edit: Thought of two more :)

Use google! It's very helpful and solves a lot of issues and bugs you might have when setting up your server. It also does this very quickly, although there are definitely limits as to what you can get it to tell you.

**TAKE FREQUENT BACKUPS. THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT I'd recommend a plugin like DriveBackupV2, or just downloading the contents of the server onto your own computer and uploading it somewhere else. It's so important, and it does take some effort to get it set up, but its good when a major mistake inevitably happens.

There are some proxy apps out there. I haven't tried it yet though

I'd suggest using a company called Pebble Host. They will set up the server for you. Just use the cheapest one for about a buck a month. Then, simply set it up with alist (no others can join), and add you, your kid, and his friends manually.

Once that's done, you can choose to add mods, or plugins at will.

Hey,

As for where to host it, keep in mind you're looking for a CPU strong single threaded performance (but NOT only one vCore - you still need multiple threads). This means to get good performance from somewhere like Azure or AWS will cost a lot more than a host that specialises specifically in that - httpswww.reddit.com/r/admincraft/comments/hiqj6x/ is this month's hosting thread here where you can read reviews & see more hosts. Keep in mind Azure/Aws charge hourly and most decent hosts will have anywhere from a 24 hour to 7 day refund policy, so it's always worth trying a couple of options to find what works best for you, which without being locked in.

As for hosting the server and customization, if you

*do* choose to go with bedrock, I've written a post here explaining a bit more about the state of bedrock - httpswww.reddit.com/r/admincraft/comments/hkvh3v/help_with_setting_up_a_new_minecraft_server/fwv5usq/?context=3 - essentially the bedrock ecosystem is nowhere near as large as the Java ecosystem so you have the choice between either a few options for a bedrock server, each of which has a pretty massive downside, simply running a Java server instead, or running a Java edition server and using a protocol converter (Geyser) to allow Bedrock players to join.

If you are looking for actual mods (mods = adds extra entities, extra blocks, things like an energy system, rockets, whatever) you basically need to be on Java edition. There is no notable mod ecosystem for bedrock. If you mean plugins (adds commands, things like region claims where only the owner can build in a set space, changes the existing game mechanics rather than adding new ones), you can do this with either Nukkit, or a Java Edition server + Geyser to allow bedrock players to join. Explained that more in the post I linked above.

If you have any questions about the technicalities the Admincraft discord is the best place to join, everybody there is super helpful -> httpsdiscord.gg/MZfRYb7

I just signed up for pebble yesterday and am struggling with one thing so far. I went with bedrock because of the various devices my son's friends have. Then I discovered the Xbox version cannot join private servers Is this true? Many of his friends play on Xbox as well. Perhaps I am forced to use Realms?

I am adding this hear because I think it makes a huge difference in what service makes sense.

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