Minecraft Game Server – Java Edition

Deploy Minecraft, an online game made up of mineable blocks, to customize the rules when hosting your own Minecraft server.

1. Deploy Minecraft

Estimated deployment time: 5–10 minutes

Follow the deployment instructions from the Get started section to configure the app, deploy it, and verify software installation.

For information on the app-specific configurations, see the Configuration options section.

Base distribution and plan

Supported distribution: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Recommended plans: Choose the appropriate plan based on the amount of traffic you expect to see on your server.
- For a group of 1–15 players, use an instance with 2GB of RAM.
- For a group of up to 30 players, use an instance with 4GB of RAM.

Configuration options

Configure the required options to deploy your instance. For additional customization, add advanced options.

The table maps the Cloud Manager UI fields to their corresponding API/CLI keys (stackscript_data) required for automated deployments.

StackScript ID: 401709

UI field	API/CLI key	Description
Required options
Limited sudo user	`user_name`	Your preferred username for the limited sudo user entered without any capital letters, spaces, or special characters. When adding a limited sudo user, the user is created with a strong generated password for your new Linode instance, and the account is assigned to the `sudo` group, which provides elevated permissions when running commands with the `sudo` prefix. Note: For easier and more secure access with the sudo user, add an account SSH key for the Cloud Manager user during deployment and select that user as an `authorized_user`. Their SSH pubkey will be assigned to both the root and limited sudo users.
Email address used for SOA DNS record	`soa_email_address`	An email address for the SOA DNS record if you'd like to use DNS for this instance.
Advanced options
Disable root access over SSH	`disable_root`	Applies to a limited sudo user. To block the root user from logging in over SSH, select Yes. Defaults to No. Note: When you disable the root user from logging in over SSH and don't provide a valid Account SSH Key assigned to the `authorized_user`, you can still switch to the root user. To do that, log in as root via the Lish console and run `cat /home/$USERNAME/.credentials` to view the generated password for the limited sudo user.
Linode API token	`token_password`	Applies to a custom domain. The Linode API token if you want to use Linode's DNS Manager to manage DNS records for your custom domain. Follow Manage personal access tokens to get your token on your account with `Read/Write` access to `Domains`. If you provide the token along with the subdomain and domain, the installation attempts to create DNS records via the Linode API. If you don't provide the token, you need to manually configure your DNS records through your DNS provider and point them to the IP address of the new instance.
Subdomain	`subdomain`	Applies to a custom domain. The subdomain you want to use, like `blog` for `blog.example.com`. Use it only if you specify a Domain.
Domain	`domain`	Applies to a custom domain. The domain name you want to use, like `example.com`. Use it only if you specify a Linode API token.
Optional data exporter Add-ons	`add_ons`	An option to include add-ons for your deployment. Possible values are: none (default) node_exporter mysqld_exporter newrelic opentelemetry_collector alloy

Notes:

After the app deployment completes, the password for your limited sudo user is generated and stored in the .credentials file in the home directory, along with application-specific passwords. Log in to your instance as root through the Lish console or SSH, then run cat /home/$USERNAME/.credentials to view its contents.

You can automatically configure a custom domain (optional) during deployment. To do that:

First, configure your domain to use Linode’s name servers via your registrar. See Configure your domain's authoritative name servers for details.

Once you complete that, specify the Linode API token, subdomain, and domain for the app in Cloud Manager or via API/CLI/Terraform.

Use API, CLI, or Terraform

In addition to deploying the app to a new Linode instance via Cloud Manager, you can also use the Linode API, CLI, or Terraform. When running the operation, you need to provide the StackScript ID, supported Linux distribution, and app-specific fields along with the standard Linode deployment configurations.

Note: Generate a personal access token to authenticate your API, CLI, or Terraform requests.

curl --location 'https://api.linode.com/v4/linode/instances' \
    --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    --header 'Accept: application/json' \
    --header 'Authorization: Bearer abc123def456hij789klm' \
    --data-raw '{
        "region": "us-east",
        "type": "g6-standard-2",
        "image": "linode/ubuntu24.04",
        "label": "my-minecraft-one-click-app",
        "root_pass": "@C0mpl3x#P@ssw0rd",
        "stackscript_id": 401709,
        "stackscript_data": {
            "user_name": "jsmith",
            "soa_email_address": "jsmith@example.com"
        }
    }'

linode-cli linodes create \
    --region us-east \
    --type g6-standard-2 \
    --label my-minecraft-one-click-app \
    --image llinode/ubuntu24.04 \
    --root_pass @C0mpl3x#P@ssw0rd \
    --stackscript_id 401709 \
    --stackscript_data '{"user_name":"jsmith", "soa_email_address":"jsmith@example.com"}'

resource "linode_instance" "my-linode" {
    region         = "us-east"
    type           = "g6-standard-2"
    label          = "my-minecraft-one-click-app"
    image          = "linode/ubuntu24.04"
    root_pass      = "@C0mpl3x#P@ssw0rd"
    stackscript_id = 401709
    stackscript_data = {
        "user_name"         = "jsmith"
        "soa_email_address" = "jsmith@example.com"
    }
}

2. Customize the app

After installation, you can change your Minecraft options by customizing the system files. You can customize the following:

Minecraft Service. Manage your Minecraft server's service by logging in to the linuxgsm system user and running systemctl --user status mcserver. The service file is located in your linuxgsm user's home directory, /home/linuxgsm/.config/systemd/user/mcserver.service.
Minecraft Configuration File. Update the Minecraft configuration options in the file located in your home directory, /home/linuxgsm/serverfiles/server.properties.

3. Access Minecraft Server

Once you've deployed your app in Cloud Manager and fully installed it, access your new Minecraft Server and start using it.

Open the Minecraft Launcher on your local machine and launch Minecraft: Java Edition.

If you don't yet have Minecraft, obtain a license and install it. See the Minecraft Java Edition store page for details on purchasing it.
Once Minecraft is running, select the Multiplayer option.
Within the Multiplayer options, select Add Server.
Create a name for your server and enter the IPv4 address of your Linode instance.

For information on viewing IP addresses and rDNS, see the Manage IP addresses on a Linode guide.
Click Done to add the server.
After the status indicators of the server become green and the player count is visible, join the server by selecting it and clicking Join Server.

Note: If you see a red X or the word old over the status bars, your Linode instance may not have finished installing Minecraft. Double-check your IPv4 address, wait a few minutes, and then hit Refresh.

Additional resources

For more information about the installed packages, see their official documentation.

Minecraft Wiki

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Note that we can't vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted resources.