Minecraft Server 1.20+ on a Raspberry Pi using Docker

Install a Minecraft Java Server and Watchtower for automatic updates using Docker within seconds. Both will start automatically after a reboot.

In-depth article about the installation (German): https://marc.tv/minecraft-java-raspberry-pi-docker/

Quick start

Step 1: Install Raspberry Pi OS 64-Bit and enable SSH.

Step 2: Copy and then execute these commands on the shell of the Pi.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mtoensing/RaspberryPiMinecraftDocker/main/getPiMinecraftDocker.sh -o install-pi-docker-minecraft.sh 
chmod +x install-pi-docker-minecraft.sh 
./install-pi-docker-minecraft.sh

Step 3: Start Minecraft and connect

Select Mutliplayer, Add Server, Server Address and put in the hostname that is displayed at the end of the installation.

If this does not work, please check with the following command, if the containers are running:

sudo docker ps

This should list two containers: mcserver and watchtower. If this is not the case, please lock at the output of the script for errors.

Step 4 (optional): Check the log of the server:

sudo docker logs mcserver

Press Ctrl-C to exit the docker log.

Step 5 (optional): Go the command line of the server

sudo docker attach mcserver

Here you can use Minecraft commands like

op [username] 
whitelist add [username] 

Press Ctrl-P, followed by Ctrl-Q to exit.

Useful commands

Before you report a problem, check with the following command if the containers are running.

sudo docker ps

To start the container manually:

sudo docker start mcserver

Video Tutorial