How to Create A Minecraft Server

1) Bukkit or Vanilla?

Deciding between a Bukkit server or a vanilla server can sometimes be confusing. To properly decide between the two, you have to understand the differences between having a Bukkit server, and having a Vanilla server.

Bukkit

Bukkit is a server modification, which allows the administrator of the server to utilize plugins created by the Bukkit community, to better enhanc
e their server. You can use these plugins to make it easier to run the server, and to make your server a better experience for your players.

Vanilla

Vanilla is what most people call the 'untouched' Minecraft server, a vanilla sever is one that's software has been downloaded directly from Minecraft.net. You may not utilize Bukkit plugins, if you decide to create a vanilla server, although it is still possible to use game mods.

Whether to go with the Bukkit server software, or vanilla, is totally up to you. If you want to make a quick private server, for you and a few friends to play on, vanilla will most likely be just fine. But if you're planning on creating a public server that can get griefed, spammed, etc. A bukkit server might be what you're looking for, either way, fun is guaranteed.

2a) Installing Vanilla Software

Windows 7 / Vista / XP

Before you do anything, make sure you have Java 7 installed, if you don't, you can download the latest version here.

Method A (.exe)

• Create a folder on your desktop, or wherever you would prefer. Call the folder "Minecraft_Server", or something you can remember.
  
• Go to the download page for the software, you can find it here.
  
• Click the link labelled "Minecraft_Server.exe (802 KB)", under "Multiplayer Server", to download the file.
  
• Place the file in the folder you created earlier.
  
• Open the file, it will create the worlds, and load up all the stuff it needs.

Method B (.jar)

• Create a folder on your desktop, or wherever you would prefer. Call the folder "Minecraft_Server", or something you can remember.
  
• Go to the download page for the software, you can find it here.
  
• Click the link labelled "minecraft_server.jar (621 KB)", under "Multiplayer Server", to download the file.
  
• Place the file in the folder you created earlier.
  
• Open Notepad, paste in the following:

  java -Xms1G -Xmx1G -jar minecraft_server.jar
  

• Save the file as startserver.bat, in the same folder that you created earlier.
• Double click "startserver.bat" to run the server, it should load up.

Mac OS X

• Create a folder on your desktop, or wherever you would prefer. Call the folder "Minecraft_Server", or something you can remember.
  
• Go to the download page for the software, you can find it here.
  
• Click the link labelled "minecraft_server.jar", under "Multiplayer Server", to download the file.
  
• Place the file in the folder you created earlier.
  
• Open TextEdit, click Format > Make Plain Text, then paste in this text:

  	#!/bin/bash
  	cd "$(dirname "$0")"
  	exec java -Xmx1G -Xms1G -jar minecraft_server.jar
  	

• Save this file as startserver.command, in the same folder you saved the file you downloaded earlier in.
  
• Open Terminal, you can find this by typing "Terminal" in the Spotlight search.
  
• Paste in "chmod a+x " (make sure you include the space at the end). Then, drag in the startserver.command file into the window, it should show up with the name of the file after what you've just typed. Hit enter.
  
• Open the startserver.command file, it will load up the worlds and other stuff it needs.

2b) Installing Bukkit Software

;">Installing Bukkit software is a bit different to the vanilla method, but is still relatively similar.


Windows 7 / Vista / XP
Before you do anything, make sure you have Java 7 installed, if you don't, you can download the latest version here.

• Create a folder on your desktop, or wherever you would prefer. Call the folder "Minecraft_Server", or something you can remember.
  
• Download the latest Bukkit Recommended Build, which can be found here.
  
• Rename the file to "craftbukkit.jar".
  
• Open Notepad, paste in the following:

  	@ECHO OFF
  	SET BINDIR=%~dp0
  	CD /D "%BINDIR%"
  	java -Xmx1G -Xms1G -jar craftbukkit.jar
  	PAUSE
  	

• Save the file as "startserver.bat", in the folder you created in the first step.
  
• Open "startserver.bat", to run the server, the worlds will load up and the server will load necessary components.

Mac OS X
Before you do anything, make sure you have Java 7 installed, if you don't, you can download the latest version here.

• Create a folder on your desktop, or wherever you would prefer. Call the folder "Minecraft_Server", or something you can remember.
  
• Download the latest Bukkit Recommended Build, which can be found here.
  
• Rename the file to "craftbukkit.jar".
  
• Open TextEdit, paste in the following:

  	#!/bin/bash
  	cd "$( dirname "$0" )"
  	java -Xmx1G -Xms1G -jar craftbukkit.jar
  	

• Save the file as "startserver.command", in the folder you created in the first step.
  
• Open Terminal, you can find this by typing "Terminal" in the Spotlight search.
  
• Paste in "chmod a+x " (make sure you include the space at the end). Then, drag in the startserver.command file into the window, it should show up with the name of the file after what you've just typed. Hit enter.
  
• Open the startserver.command file, it will load up the worlds and other stuff it needs

3) Increasing Available Server RAM
Increasing the RAM available to your server, will increase the speed of your server, but if you are using the computer for other things, this will slow them down, and prioritize the server. Changing the available amount of RAM for your server is fairly simple:

• Open your "startserver.bat", or "startserver.command" file in Notepad or TextEdit.
  
• Go to the part that says "-Xmx1G -Xms1G".
  
• Change both of the 1G's to the amount of RAM you want to allocate to your server. 1G is 1 Gigabyte of RAM, so, if you wanted to give your server 2 Gigabytes, you would replace '1G' with '2G', you can also insert this as Megabytes, using 'M', instead of 'G'.
  
• Save the file, and open your server up again with it, and bam, you should now be using the amount of RAM you asked for.

3) Making Yourself OP

OP (or operator) is a status on a Minecraft server that gives you special permissions to kick, ban, and give items. It is only recommended you make people you trust OP. To make somebody an OP, simply type "op ingamename" into the server console, replacing "ingamename" with their actual in-game name. For example, if you wanted to OP somebody who's game name was "steve283", you would type in: "op steve283".

If you're using Bukkit, an alternative to making people OP is using a permissions plugin. The benifit in this, is that you can allow people to have certain permissions, and disallow them from doing other things, instead of allowing OPs to do everything. If you're interested in using a permissions plugin, I would recommend using PermissionsEx, but I'm just saying that from personal experience, and everybody has different preferences. You can find PermissionsEx here.

4) Port Forwarding

Port forwarding is what allows people from outside your network to connect to your server. Port forwarding opens a specific port or set of ports to people from outside your network. To do this, you will have to log into your router, and configure the port forwarding from there. There are a lot of routers, so it may be hard to figure out how to do this for your specific router.

• Open your web browser, paste in "192.168.1.2" in the URL field. If that doesn't connect, try "192.168.1.1", "192.168.2.1", "192.168.0.1", "192.169.1.0", or "192.168.10.1".
  
• If you still can't connect, on Windows open Command Prompt, and type "ipconfig", then look for the "default gateway" part, to find your router's IP. The IPs stated in step 1 were only a few defaults, and a lot of routers are different.
  
• It should now ask you for a username and password, routers usually use "admin" as the username, and "admin", "1234", or "password", as the password. If these don't allow you to log in, Google your router model's default login details.
  
• Look for a port forwarding section, on my Billion router, it is in Advanced > Configuration > Virtual Server > Port Forwarding.
  
• If it says "application" or "label", "name", or something similar, just type in "minecraft".
  
• Where it says "protocol", select the "tcp/udp" option.
  
• Where it says "external port", "redirect port", or something similar. Put the number 25565 into all of these fields, this will open the default Minecraft port of 25565 to other networks.
  
• Where it says "Internal IP address", "Computer's IP", or something similar. Type in your computer's IP, you can find this by typing "ipconfig" into Command Prompt, and finding the "IPv4 Address" section, which will tell you your computer's internal IP.
  
• Add/confirm what you have put into the port forwarding page. It should add it to the list of port forwards.
  
• Check if your port is open by going here, and inputting the port as "25565", if it tells you your port is open, everything is good! If not, go back and try the steps again, if it still doesn't work, post what kind of router you have, and what problems you're having.

5) Bukkit Plugins

Bukkit plugins can be very useful once you get to know your way around them, and how they can help you.To install a Bukkit plugin, you need to be using the Bukkit server software. You cannot do this with a vanilla server.

First, you need to find a plugin that interests you, you can find an index of plugins here. Once you've found a plugin that you'd like to install to your server, go ahead and click the download button on the plugin's BukkitDev page. It should take you to a list of recent changes or files, click the download button again to download the latest file. It should start downloading a .jar file for you, if you have a .zip or .rar, you can extract those with 7-Zip (Windows Only). You may have some other folders with your .jar file inside the archive, you will need to place the .jar file and all folders that came with it inside your "plugins" folder, in your minecraft_server directory that you created when you installed Bukkit.

Now, start/restart your server, the plugin should load up and start working! If not, read the plugin's page to check if it has any special installation instructions, and contact the developer for further help.

Some plugins that you may find useful for your server, and that I would recommend are:

• PermissionsEx
• WorldEdit
• WorldGuard
• Hawkeye / Logblock / Guardian / BigBrother / Whatever they're using these days 
• NoCheat+

Be sure to look around in the plugins section on the Bukkit website to look for more plugins, there are quite a few that you might find useful.

6) Creating A Whitelist

A whitelist is what stops unwanted players from getting into your server, it only allows people you have on your whitelist into the server. A whitelist is not recommended if you want to have a public server, but can sometimes be useful when trying to stop griefers. To enable whitelisting, go to your minecraft_server folder, and open the server.properties file with your favourite text editor. Go to the part that says "white-list=false", and change this to "white-list=true", save the file. To add somebody to the whitelist, go to the server console, and type "whitelist add playersname", replace "playersname" with the person you wish to whitelist. For example, if you were whitelisting "bob383", you would type "whitelist add bob 383", to remove somebody from the whitelist, simply type "whitelist remove playersname".

7) Advertising Your Server

To get some more players on your server, you'll need to advertise. One of the easiest ways you can advertise your server is right here on the Minecraft Forum, in the servers section. Simply click on "Survival Servers" or "Creative Servers" depending on which your server is, then create a new topic. Your title should be able to catch the attention of players looking for a server, while trying not to make their eyes bleed. Try to talk about the features of your server, and, if you have a whitelist, post an application form people can use to apply to be whitelisted on your server. The application should be long and detailed, to make sure you're only allowing people that you need on your server. Do not accept applications that do not meet your standards, or you may have a bunch of unwanted people running around your server. Some other useful places to advertise would be PlanetMinecraft, and MinecraftServerlist.

8) Moderating Your Server

Moderating your server can be a tricky task if you have a public server, there are always people that need assistance, need to know commands, and there are others that try to cause havoc, such as griefers, and spammers. To effectively moderate your server, you'll need to know how and when to ban, kick, and tell players off for doing something wrong. If somebody is griefing, it is important that you create a place for moderators to note down when they ban them, this can be helpful when somebody is unhappy with their ban later on. It may also be a good idea to create a ban appeal section on your forum topic, or website, if you have one. This can satisfy people if they feel they have been unfairly banned, because they have the ability to protest against this ban. And if you feel that their ban was unjust, you can unban them. It's important that you know all of the moderation commands, if you have Bukkit plugins to help with banning/kicking, such as MCbans. It's also good to have a plugin to mute people, if they're spamming. An obvious way to increase your moderation productivity is to find moderators and admins to help out with your server, which will be explained in the next step.

9) Picking Staff

Finding staff that are reliable and mature can be a tedious task for a busy server owner, but never fear, there are multliple tools are your disposal that can be useful for finding people that are able to help you with your dilemma. One sure-fire way to find staff is to create a topic in the looking-for section on these forums. The application template in your post is important, you need to make sure you request necessary information from your potential future staff members, such as previous experience, age, and in-game name. Make sure you request a hefty amount of information from these users, as you need to be able to trust them. Make sure that you only accept staff applications that are presentable and include the information that you're requesting. Grammar often shows people's dedication to becoming a staff member, but is not always a determining factor, as staff members can be extremely reliable, but have bad grammar. Make sure you only pick people for staff if you trust them, you don't want somebody becoming a staff member and then going around griefing the map now do you? If you have a website for your server, you could also put an application area there, as long as you get enough traffic from your server there.

You could also watch the players on your server, and look for possible server moderators and admins, obviously, this will take longer than a simple application, but it is a good way to get some trusted staff members.