Wanted to setup a Minecraft Server for family and friends.

Setup Basic Centos 6 Linux Server.

Install needed packages.

# yum install screen java-1.6.0-openjdk nano

Create User and set password.

# useradd minecraft

# passwd minecraft (Set password)

Download minecraft in the minecraft directory and make it executable.

# sudo su - minecraft

Check on this website for current download. https://minecraft.net/download

$ wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/Minecraft.Download/versions/1.8.3/minecraft_server.1.8.3.jar

$ mv minecraft_server.1.8.3.jar minecraft_server.jar

$ chmod +x minecraft_server.jar

Start screen and minecraft

$ screen -x (If you receive an error try script /dev/null)

How much memory do you have on server. With 2G VPS I put 1.5G of memory for Minecraft.

$ java -Xmx1536M -Xms1536M -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui

Since I wanted this to be a private server, I setup some users. Since you are already at the console from the above command.

/whitelist add username (hit enter and add your users)

To exit console

/quit (Server should stop and now you can start server with # service minecraft start as the root user)

ctrl-a d (This will just exit the screen console.)

Script for setting Minecraft Server

Create file /etc/init.d/minecraft and enter information below.

#!/bin/bash
# /etc/init.d/minecraft
# version 0.3.9 2012-08-13 (YYYY-MM-DD)

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: minecraft
# Required-Start: $local_fs $remote_fs screen-cleanup
# Required-Stop: $local_fs $remote_fs
# Should-Start: $network
# Should-Stop: $network
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Minecraft server
# Description: Starts the minecraft server
### END INIT INFO

#Settings
SERVICE='minecraft_server.jar'
OPTIONS='nogui'
USERNAME='minecraft'
WORLD='world'
MCPATH='/home/minecraft/minecraft'
BACKUPPATH='/media/remote.share/minecraft.backup'
MAXHEAP=2048
MINHEAP=1024
HISTORY=1024
CPU_COUNT=1
INVOCATION="java -Xmx${MAXHEAP}M -Xms${MINHEAP}M -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC \
-XX:+CMSIncrementalPacing -XX:ParallelGCThreads=$CPU_COUNT -XX:+AggressiveOpts \
-jar $SERVICE $OPTIONS"

ME=`whoami`
as_user() {
if [ $ME == $USERNAME ] ; then
bash -c "$1"
else
su - $USERNAME -c "$1"
fi
}

mc_start() {
if pgrep -u $USERNAME -f $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
echo "$SERVICE is already running!"
else
echo "Starting $SERVICE..."
cd $MCPATH
as_user "cd $MCPATH && screen -h $HISTORY -dmS minecraft $INVOCATION"
sleep 7
if pgrep -u $USERNAME -f $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
echo "$SERVICE is now running."
else
echo "Error! Could not start $SERVICE!"
fi
fi
}

mc_saveoff() {
if pgrep -u $USERNAME -f $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
echo "$SERVICE is running... suspending saves"
as_user "screen -p 0 -S minecraft -X eval 'stuff \"say SERVER BACKUP STARTING. Server going readonly...\"\015'"
as_user "screen -p 0 -S minecraft -X eval 'stuff \"save-off\"\015'"
as_user "screen -p 0 -S minecraft -X eval 'stuff \"save-all\"\015'"
sync
sleep 10
else
echo "$SERVICE is not running. Not suspending saves."
fi
}

mc_saveon() {
if pgrep -u $USERNAME -f $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
echo "$SERVICE is running... re-enabling saves"
as_user "screen -p 0 -S minecraft -X eval 'stuff \"save-on\"\015'"
as_user "screen -p 0 -S minecraft -X eval 'stuff \"say SERVER BACKUP ENDED. Server going read-write...\"\015'"
else
echo "$SERVICE is not running. Not resuming saves."
fi
}

mc_stop() {
if pgrep -u $USERNAME -f $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
echo "Stopping $SERVICE"
as_user "screen -p 0 -S minecraft -X eval 'stuff \"say SERVER SHUTTING DOWN IN 10 SECONDS. Saving map...\"\015'"
as_user "screen -p 0 -S minecraft -X eval 'stuff \"save-all\"\015'"
sleep 10
as_user "screen -p 0 -S minecraft -X eval 'stuff \"stop\"\015'"
sleep 7
else
echo "$SERVICE was not running."
fi
if pgrep -u $USERNAME -f $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
echo "Error! $SERVICE could not be stopped."
else
echo "$SERVICE is stopped."
fi
}

mc_update() {
if pgrep -u $USERNAME -f $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
echo "$SERVICE is running! Will not start update."
else
as_user "cd $MCPATH && wget -q -O $MCPATH/versions http://s3.amazonaws.com/Minecraft.Download/versions/versions.json"
snap=`awk -v linenum=3 'NR == linenum {print; exit}' "$MCPATH/versions"`
snapVersion=`echo $snap | awk -F'\"' '{print $4}'`
re=`awk -v linenum=4 'NR == linenum {print; exit}' "$MCPATH/versions"`
reVersion=`echo $re | awk -F'\"' '{print $4}'`
as_user "rm $MCPATH/versions"
if [ "$1" == "snapshot" ]; then
MC_SERVER_URL=http://s3.amazonaws.com/Minecraft.Download/versions/$snapVersion/minecraft_server.$snapVersion.jar
else
MC_SERVER_URL=http://s3.amazonaws.com/Minecraft.Download/versions/$reVersion/minecraft_server.$reVersion.jar
fi
as_user "cd $MCPATH && wget -q -O $MCPATH/minecraft_server.jar.update $MC_SERVER_URL"
if [ -f $MCPATH/minecraft_server.jar.update ]
then
if `diff $MCPATH/$SERVICE $MCPATH/minecraft_server.jar.update >/dev/null`
then
echo "You are already running the latest version of $SERVICE."
else
as_user "mv $MCPATH/minecraft_server.jar.update $MCPATH/$SERVICE"
echo "Minecraft successfully updated."
fi
else
echo "Minecraft update could not be downloaded."
fi
fi
}

mc_backup() {
mc_saveoff

NOW=`date "+%Y-%m-%d_%Hh%M"`
BACKUP_FILE="$BACKUPPATH/${WORLD}_${NOW}.tar"
echo "Backing up minecraft world..."
#as_user "cd $MCPATH && cp -r $WORLD $BACKUPPATH/${WORLD}_`date "+%Y.%m.%d_%H.%M"`"
as_user "tar -C \"$MCPATH\" -cf \"$BACKUP_FILE\" $WORLD"

echo "Backing up $SERVICE"
as_user "tar -C \"$MCPATH\" -rf \"$BACKUP_FILE\" $SERVICE"
#as_user "cp \"$MCPATH/$SERVICE\" \"$BACKUPPATH/minecraft_server_${NOW}.jar\""

mc_saveon

echo "Compressing backup..."
as_user "gzip -f \"$BACKUP_FILE\""
echo "Done."
}

mc_command() {
command="$1";
if pgrep -u $USERNAME -f $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
pre_log_len=`wc -l "$MCPATH/logs/latest.log" | awk '{print $1}'`
echo "$SERVICE is running... executing command"
as_user "screen -p 0 -S minecraft -X eval 'stuff \"$command\"\015'"
sleep .1 # assumes that the command will run and print to the log file in less than .1 seconds
# print output
tail -n $[`wc -l "$MCPATH/logs/latest.log" | awk '{print $1}'`-$pre_log_len] "$MCPATH/logs/latest.log"
fi
}

#Start-Stop here
case "$1" in
start)
mc_start
;;
stop)
mc_stop
;;
restart)
mc_stop
mc_start
;;
update)
mc_stop
mc_backup
mc_update $2
mc_start
;;
backup)
mc_backup
;;
status)
if pgrep -u $USERNAME -f $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
echo "$SERVICE is running."
else
echo "$SERVICE is not running."
fi
;;
command)
if [ $# -gt 1 ]; then
shift
mc_command "$*"
else
echo "Must specify server command (try 'help'?)"
fi
;;

*)
echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|update|backup|status|restart|command \"server command\"}"
exit 1
;;
esac

exit 0

Make minecraft script executable.

# chmod a+x /etc/init.d/minecraft

Add to init system

# chkconfig add minecraft

Setup so when you reboot server the service starts.

# chkconfig minecraft on

You should now have a working Minecraft Server.

Of course I will play around with this server I will update this post as needed.

References:

http://wilson18.com/topic/41-how-to-create-a-minecraft-server-on-a-centos-65-vpsdedicated-server/

http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Tutorials/Server_startup_script