Host a Minecraft server on a VPS

To host a Minecraft Java server on a VPS, install Java 25, download the Paper server jar, accept Mojang's EULA, and run it as a systemd service on port 25565. For a handful of friends, a server with 4 GB of memory and two vCPUs is comfortable.

This guide does it properly: its own user, a service that starts at boot and comes back after a crash, sensible memory flags, and backups. Commands are for Ubuntu 24.04 and Debian 12 or 13, run as root, with the AlmaLinux and Rocky differences called out.

How big a server you need#

Minecraft runs its world on one main thread, so a fast core matters more than many of them. Memory depends on players, view distance and plugins:

• 1 to 5 players, few plugins: give Minecraft 2 to 3 GB. A 4 GB server leaves room for the system.
• 5 to 15 players, some plugins: 4 to 6 GB for Minecraft, so an 8 GB server.
• Modpacks: they want much more. Check the pack's own advice.

Never give Java all the server's memory. The system, disk cache and Java's own overhead need a gigabyte or more on top. How much RAM does your VPS need? explains how to check once it's running.

We use Paper, a fork of the official server that's much faster and runs Bukkit and Spigot plugins. Vanilla clients connect to it without any changes.

Install Java 25#

Minecraft 26.1 and later need Java 25. The simplest source that works on every distribution is Eclipse Temurin from Adoptium.

Ubuntu and Debian:

apt update
apt install -y wget gpg jq
wget -qO - https://packages.adoptium.net/artifactory/api/gpg/key/public | gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/adoptium.gpg
echo "deb https://packages.adoptium.net/artifactory/deb $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/adoptium.list
apt update
apt install -y temurin-25-jre

AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux:

cat > /etc/yum.repos.d/adoptium.repo <<'EOF'
[Adoptium]
name=Adoptium
baseurl=https://packages.adoptium.net/artifactory/rpm/rhel/$releasever/$basearch
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://packages.adoptium.net/artifactory/api/gpg/key/public
EOF
dnf install -y temurin-25-jre jq

Check it:

java -version

It should say 25. For an older Minecraft version, 1.20.5 to 1.21.x, Java 21 is the one to install instead.

Create a user and download Paper#

The server should never run as root. Give it its own user and directory:

useradd --system --create-home --home-dir /opt/minecraft --shell /usr/sbin/nologin minecraft
cd /opt/minecraft

Paper's download service tells you the newest stable build for a version. Set VERSION to the Minecraft version you want (check papermc.io/downloads for the newest one with stable builds) and put your own email in the User-Agent, which Paper asks for:

VERSION=26.3
UA="my-minecraft-server (you@example.com)"
URL=$(curl -fsSL -H "User-Agent: $UA" "https://fill.papermc.io/v3/projects/paper/versions/$VERSION/builds" \
  | jq -r 'first(.[] | select(.channel == "STABLE") | .downloads."server:default".url)')
echo "$URL"
curl -fsSL -H "User-Agent: $UA" -o paper.jar "$URL"

If echo prints null, that version has no stable build yet. Pick the one before it.

Accept the EULA and do a first run#

Minecraft won't start until you agree to Mojang's EULA. Read it, then:

echo "eula=true" > eula.txt
chown -R minecraft:minecraft /opt/minecraft

Start it once by hand to generate the world and config files:

sudo -u minecraft java -Xms2G -Xmx2G -jar paper.jar --nogui

When it says Done, make yourself an operator and add yourself to the whitelist, replacing yourname with your Minecraft name, then stop it:

op yourname
whitelist add yourname
stop

Once the server runs as a service there's no console to type into, so do this now. As an operator, you can run the same commands in the game's chat with a / in front.

Run it as a service#

Create /etc/systemd/system/minecraft.service:

[Unit]
Description=Minecraft server (Paper)
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
User=minecraft
WorkingDirectory=/opt/minecraft
ExecStart=/usr/bin/java -Xms3G -Xmx3G -XX:+UseG1GC -XX:+ParallelRefProcEnabled -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=200 -jar paper.jar --nogui
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10
SuccessExitStatus=0 143

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Set -Xms and -Xmx to the same value: 3G on a 4 GB server, 6G on an 8 GB one. On Ubuntu and Debian, Temurin may put Java somewhere else; readlink -f "$(command -v java)" shows the path, so use that in ExecStart if /usr/bin/java doesn't exist.

Start it, and have it start at boot:

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable --now minecraft
journalctl -u minecraft -f

The log shows the same output you saw on the first run.

Open the port#

Players connect on TCP 25565. With ufw:

ufw allow 25565/tcp

On AlmaLinux or Rocky, with firewalld:

firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=25565/tcp
firewall-cmd --reload

Then connect from Minecraft with your server's address, for example 203.0.113.10. If you have a domain, an A record like mc.example.com pointing at the server is easier to share.

Settings worth changing#

In /opt/minecraft/server.properties, then systemctl restart minecraft:

• white-list=true, then add players in-game with /whitelist add name. On a public IP, scanners find a new server within hours. A whitelist keeps out strangers.
• view-distance and simulation-distance: lower them (say 8 and 6) if the server struggles. They make the biggest difference to CPU and memory.
• motd: the line shown in the server list.

Backups#

The world lives in /opt/minecraft/world, world_nether and world_the_end. A copy taken while the server writes to it can be inconsistent, so the safe way is to stop, copy and start. The ; between the steps means the server starts again even if the copy fails. Run this nightly from root's crontab (crontab -e):

0 5 * * * systemctl stop minecraft; tar czf /root/mc-$(date +\%F).tgz -C /opt/minecraft world world_nether world_the_end; systemctl start minecraft

Then copy those files off the server. Backups you should run shows how, and how to delete old ones.

Updating#

Paper puts out new builds often. To update, stop the server, back up, download the new jar with the commands above, and start it:

systemctl stop minecraft
cd /opt/minecraft && cp paper.jar paper.jar.old
# download the new paper.jar as above
chown minecraft:minecraft paper.jar
systemctl start minecraft

Moving to a new Minecraft version is a one-way trip for the world. Take a backup first, and check your plugins support the new version.

When it goes wrong#

• "UnsupportedClassVersionError": Java is too old for this Paper version. Install Java 25 and check java -version.
• Players get "Connection timed out": the port isn't open. Check ss -tlnp | grep 25565 on the server, then the firewall.
• The service keeps restarting: read journalctl -u minecraft -n 100. A missing eula=true or a typo in the Java path is the usual cause.
• Lag with free memory to spare: the main thread is the limit, not memory. Lower the view distance and find the heavy plugin or farm with Paper's built-in spark profiler.

Doing it on VPSNine#

The Minecraft one-click app does everything up to the EULA for you: Java and the latest Paper in /opt/minecraft, its own user, and the systemd unit. You read the EULA, set eula=true, run systemctl enable --now minecraft, and connect.

It needs at least the Standard plan, with 4 GB of memory. For more than a handful of players or a modded server, take Extreme. The plans page has the specs.