VPS Deployment

VPS Deployment

Deploy MC Presence to a cloud VPS running Ubuntu or Debian. This works with any provider: DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Linode, AWS EC2, Vultr, etc.

Requirements

• A VPS with at least 512 MB RAM and 1 CPU
• Ubuntu 22.04+ or Debian 12+ (other Linux distros work too — adapt package commands)
• SSH access
• A domain name (optional, for HTTPS)

Option A: Docker on VPS (Recommended)

The simplest approach — install Docker and follow the Docker Deployment guide.

# Install Docker
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
# Log out and back in, then follow the Docker guide

Option B: Node.js on VPS

1. Install Node.js

# Using NodeSource (recommended)
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Verify
node --version
npm --version

2. Create a user (optional but recommended)

sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash mcpresence
sudo su - mcpresence

3. Clone and install

git clone https://github.com/RedZephon/Minecraft-Present-Bot.git
cd Minecraft-Present-Bot
npm install
cp .env.example .env

4. Configure

Edit .env with your settings:

nano .env

Set at minimum:

MC_HOST=play.yourserver.com
MC_PORT=25565
WEB_PORT=3100

5. Set up as a systemd service

Create the service file:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/mc-presence.service

Paste:

[Unit]
Description=MC Presence Bot
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=mcpresence
WorkingDirectory=/home/mcpresence/Minecraft-Present-Bot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node server.js
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10
Environment=NODE_ENV=production

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable mc-presence
sudo systemctl start mc-presence

Check status:

sudo systemctl status mc-presence
sudo journalctl -u mc-presence -f  # live logs

6. Open firewall

sudo ufw allow 3100/tcp

Access the dashboard at http://your-vps-ip:3100.

Setting Up HTTPS with Nginx (Optional)

If you want to access the dashboard over HTTPS with a domain name:

1. Install Nginx and Certbot

sudo apt install nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx

2. Create Nginx config

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/mc-presence

Paste:

server {
    server_name mc.yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3100;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

The Upgrade and Connection headers are important — they enable WebSocket connections for Socket.io.

3. Enable and get SSL

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/mc-presence /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d mc.yourdomain.com

Your dashboard is now at https://mc.yourdomain.com.

Updating on VPS

cd Minecraft-Present-Bot
git pull
npm install
sudo systemctl restart mc-presence

Security Notes

• The dashboard has no built-in authentication. If your VPS is public, use Nginx with basic auth or a VPN to restrict access.
• Never expose port 3100 directly on a public VPS without some form of access control.
• Your Anthropic API key and Microsoft tokens are stored on the server — treat the VPS as a sensitive system.

Adding basic auth with Nginx

sudo apt install apache2-utils
sudo htpasswd -c /etc/nginx/.htpasswd yourusername

Add to your Nginx config inside the location block:

auth_basic "MC Presence";
auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/.htpasswd;

Then sudo systemctl reload nginx.