How To Install Minecraft Server on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install a Minecraft server on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Minecraft is one of the most popular games of all time. It is a sandbox video game where players explore infinite worlds and build different structures from simple houses to towering skyscrapers.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the Minecraft Server on an Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa server.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Ubuntu 20.04, 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install Minecraft Server on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa

Step 1. First, make sure that all your system packages are up-to-date by running the following apt commands in the terminal.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install git build-essential

Step 2. Installing Java Runtime Environment.

Minecraft server setup requires Java to be installed on your system. Run the following command to install the headless OpenJRE 11 package:

sudo apt install openjdk-11-jre-headless

Verify the installation:

java -version

Step 3. Installing Minecraft Server on Ubuntu 20.04.

First, create a new user for Minecraft to run as:

sudo useradd -m -r -d /opt/minecraft minecraft

Before starting with the installation process, create a Minecraft directory:

sudo mkdir /opt/minecraft/survival
sudo chown -R minecraft /opt/minecraft/survival/

Now download the java Minecraft server and install your own Minecraft server:

sudo wget -O /opt/minecraft/survival/minecraft_server.jar https://launcher.mojang.com/v1/objects/bb2b6b1aefcd70dfd1892149ac3a215f6c636b07/server.jar

Then, accept Minecraft’s terms and conditions:

sudo bash -c "echo eula=true > /opt/minecraft/survival/eula.txt"

Step 4. Creating Systemd Unit File.

Instead of manually starting the Minecraft server, we will create a Systemd unit file and run Minecraft as a service:

nano /etc/systemd/system/minecraft@.service

[Unit]
Description=Minecraft Server: %i
After=network.target

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/opt/minecraft/%i

User=minecraft
Group=minecraft

Restart=always

ExecStart=/usr/bin/screen -DmS mc-%i /usr/bin/java -Xmx4G -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui

ExecStop=/usr/bin/screen -p 0 -S mc-%i -X eval 'stuff "say SERVER SHUTTING DOWN IN 5 SECONDS. SAVING ALL MAPS..."5'
ExecStop=/bin/sleep 5
ExecStop=/usr/bin/screen -p 0 -S mc-%i -X eval 'stuff "save-all"5'
ExecStop=/usr/bin/screen -p 0 -S mc-%i -X eval 'stuff "stop"5'


[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save the file and reload the systemd manager configuration:

sudo systemctl start minecraft@survival
sudo systemctl status minecraft@survival

Step 5. Adjusting Firewall.

Ubuntu ships with a firewall configuration tool called UFW. If the firewall is enabled on your system, and you want to access the Minecraft server from the outside of your local network, you need to open port 25565:

sudo ufw allow 25565/tcp

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Minecraft. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the Minecraft server on your Ubuntu 20.04 LTS system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official Minecraft website.