Build, configure, manage and secure your server

[?] In this project I will grant information about how I independently built, configured, managed and secured my server

The guide covers the Minecraft game server, but it may be useful in other cases when running a server

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Timeline of my own Minecraft server over the years

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Building a server PC and searching for best hardware

Selecting the right components for a Minecraft server PC is crucial for delivering a smooth and enjoyable gaming experience to players. Here's why it's essential to pick the best parts and prioritize a CPU with high GHz and ample RAM

1. The most important part of our build will be our CPU:

• Minecraft servers require real-time processing power to handle player interactions, world generation, various game mechanics, plugins and scripts. A powerful CPU with a high clock speed (GHz) ensures that the server can respond quickly to player actions, minimizing lag and delays. Before buying one from the internet I was reserching a lot of the internet. One of the best things you should look for are older CPUs with high clock speed that needs a cheap motherboard if you have low budget. But if you have unlimited money to spend on your server PC you can get one of the newest AMD Ryzen CPU and that should work perfectly.

• If you are looking for a budget build you need around $150 for CPU for a smooth server experience. Here are best CPUs for every price range:

Intel CPUs with high clock speed:
➤ i9-11900K ($400-$500)
➤ i7-11700K ($300-$400)
➤ i5-11600K ($200-$300)
➤ i3-10100 ($100-$150)

AMD CPUs with high clock speed:
➤ Ryzen 9 7950X ($550-$650)
➤ Ryzen 9 5900X ($350-$450)
➤ Ryzen 7 5800X ($200-$300)
➤ Ryzen 5 5600X ($100-$150)

• CPUs in a price range of $100-$300 should work fine with servers for 5-30 players if the server is well optimized. For a larger servers you should look for a better CPU in a price range of $300+ and don't forget to include RAM, SSD, motherboard and computer power supply costs.

2. Second most important thing for our server will be RAM:

• Minecraft server require a lot of RAM if you are looking to hold more than 5 players and load a lot of chunks for your server. You can lower that amount by using some kind of unloading chunks plugins that will unload unused chunks after player leaves them. That will grant you more free memory to work with.

• Let's talk numbers that are always diferent if you will look for them on other forums. As someone that worked with servers and I draw big attention to performance. Here are a little calculation you can do when you are looking for best RAM usage:

• (max players * 100) + ((plugins + scripts) * 50) + (world size in GB * 50) = RAM in MBs
  

You should always round up. If your are looking for a server with 20 players, 50 scripts and a world size of 30GB you will do: (20 * 100) + (50 * 50) + (30 * 50) = 6000MB, 6000MB = ~6GB of RAM so you should buy 8GB RAM if you are looking to be safe.

3. Last but not least is our memory disk:

• When you are looking for your Minecraft server memory disk you should always look for a fast write and read disk. If you can afford M.2 disk you should look for one but any other SATA SSD disk should work fine. Always check the storage size and don't let your files override more than 75% of the size because it can cause lags and falsly saved files.

4. In addition:

• You can buy yourself a power supply that consume little electricity and a good case that circulatates for better temperatures.

• The cost of running your server 24/7 depends on your power supply, usage and electricity costs in your area. On average my server cost me about $5 per month.

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Selecting best OS for your server PC

There are a lot of operating systems for hosting server like that but I will keep it simple

1. I always used the defualt Ubuntu Server w/o graphical UI and it worked perfectly fine all the time:

• Instalation of Ubuntu Server is really simple. If you need help just search how to install Ubuntu Server on your PC on youtube.

2. Important commands for your server and how to use Ubuntu:

➤ File System Commands:
ls: List files and directories in the current directory.
cd: Change the current directory.
pwd: Print the current working directory.
touch: Create an empty file.
mkdir: Create a new directory.
cp: Copy files or directories.
mv: Move or rename files or directories.
rm: Remove files or directories.
cat: Display the contents of a file.
more or less: Display the contents of a file one screen at a time.
nano or vim: Text editors for editing files in the terminal.

➤ System Information:
uname: Display system information.
top or htop: Monitor system resource usage.
df: Display disk space usage.
free: Display system memory usage.
lscpu: Display CPU information.

➤ User and Permissions:
whoami: Show the current user.
passwd: Change user password.
sudo: Execute commands with superuser (administrative) privileges.
chown: Change file or directory ownership.
chmod: Change file or directory permissions.

➤ Package Management:
apt-get or apt: Package manager for installing, updating, and managing software packages.
dpkg: Package manager for handling individual package files.
snap: Package manager for installing snaps (containerized applications).

➤ Networking:
ifconfig or ip: Display network interface information.
ping: Send ICMP echo requests to test network connectivity.
ssh: Securely connect to remote servers.
wget or curl: Download files from the internet.
netstat or ss: Display network statistics.
traceroute: Trace the route packets take to reach a host.

➤ Process Management:
ps: List running processes.
kill or killall: Terminate processes.
bg and fg: Manage background and foreground processes.

➤ Archiving and Compression:
tar: Create and extract tar archives.
gzip, bzip2, xz: Compress and decompress files.

➤ File Searching and Manipulation:
find: Search for files and directories.
grep: Search for patterns in text files.
locate: Quickly find files based on a database.

➤ File Transfer:
scp: Securely copy files between hosts.
rsync: Synchronize files and directories between systems.

➤ Text Processing:
sed: Stream editor for text manipulation.
awk: Text processing tool for data extraction and reporting.

➤ Shell Scripting:
bash or other shells: Run shell scripts and command-line automation.

➤ System Administration:
systemctl: Control and manage systemd services.
journalctl: View system logs.
ufw: Uncomplicated Firewall for managing firewall rules.

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Setting up your server for public network

This is probably the hardest part of building your network. In most cases you have to pay for a fixed IP address. To do that you have to contant your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and ask for static public IP address for your network. In my case it was about $5/month of cost for that type of IP address

1. Set up a static IP address for your server PC (in Ubuntu Server w/o graphical view):

• Check your interface name by typing 'ip a'

Network name is in red circle. Write it down or copy the name of it.

• Edit the network configuration file by typing 'cd /etc/netplan/' than type 'ls' to list file in that directory

The .yaml file should pop out.

• Edit that file with 'sudo nano "file name"'

Edit the file as shown. Don't forget the number of spaces before every line.
Replace with your interface name like "eth0" or other name that you check before.
Set dhcp to "no". Set your desired static IP address and remember it. Set your gateway address to your router address.
If you encounter a problem you can always look for more advanced tutorial on how to set it up.

• After editing network file use Ctrl + O than Enter, next press Ctrl + X to exit out of nano editor.

• To set all the things that we edited use 'sudo netplan apply' and 'sudo systemctl restart network-manager' to restart your network.

2. Set up port forwarding in your network router:

• Log in to your router. Common router IP addresses include 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1. Consult your router's manual or documentation for the correct IP address and login credentials

• Locate the port forwarding section in your router settings. This may be called "Port Forwarding," "Port Mapping," or something similar, depending on your router's brand and model.
  Add a port forwarding rule for the Minecraft server. Specify the following information:
  ➤ External Port: The port number you want to use for incoming connections (e.g., 25565 for default Minecraft).
  ➤ Internal IP Address: The static internal IP address of your Minecraft server that you set up earlier in .yaml file of your server
  ➤ Internal Port: The same port number as the external port (e.g., 25565).
  ➤ Protocol: Select "TCP".

• Save configuration and restart your router.

3. Allow Minecraft ports to be open for other people to connect to your server:

• Use 'sudo ufw allow 25565/tcp' and 'sudo ufw allow 25565/udp' to set your Minecraft ports to open.

• To check if you correctly allowed ports type 'sudo ufw status'. This should show allowed ports on your server.

• If you have any problems try turning off and on your ufw by using 'sudo ufw disable' and 'sudo ufw enable'.

4. Check your public IP:

• Search for "what is my ip" in your browser. Well done - that's your server public IP!

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Create remote control of your server via your personal PC with SSH and FTP

Now we will allow SSH and FTP to connect to our server. This will help with managing your server from your personal PC. You will use your main PC to upload, edit and manage your Ubuntu Server

1. Allow SSH (SSH is primarily used for remote access to systems and for securely executing commands on remote computers):

• Use sudo 'ufw allow 22/tcp' to allow port 22 (SSH port) to be open.

2. Allow FTP (purpose of FTP is to transfer files between computers. Users can upload (put) files from their local system to a remote server or download (get) files from a remote server to their local system):

• Use sudo 'ufw allow 21/tcp' to allow port 21 (FTP port) to be open.

• Use 'sudo apt-get install vsftpd' to install vsftpd package.

• Edit vsftpd file with 'sudo nano /etc/vsftpd.conf'.

• Change all lines to the same values: write_enable=YES
  local_umask=022
  anonymous_enable=NO

• Restart the service with 'sudo systemctl restart vsftpd'.

• You may want to create users for your stuff members to edit server. To allow them to use only the server directory use: sudo useradd -m -d "path to the directory" -s /bin/bash "username" (change path and username)
  sudo passwd "username" (change username)

3. How to use SSH and FTP programs:

• You can download PuTTy and FileZilla to your main personal computer and use them as connection to your running Ubuntu Server.

• You will use PuTTy for using commands on your Ubuntu Server. Use the IP of your Ubuntu Server and port 22 to connect.

• You will use FileZilla to manage your files nad use FTP. Use the IP of your Ubuntu Server and port 21 to connect.

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Create Minecraft directory with your server and how to start the server

Use simple commands to create your server directory and start the server

1. Create directory in your home directory:

• Use cd '/home' than use 'mkdir server' to create "server" directory in your home directory.

• Use 'cd /home/server' to enter server directory.

2. Download server engine:

• As always there are a lot of speculations and what to use and what to avoid. As for me the paper engine worked the best. You can download your Minecraft server version from papermc.io and upload it to the servers folder via FTP FileZilla that we configurated earlier.

3. Start the server with simple command and use screen to keep it running after logging out:

• Download screen service for your Ubuntu with 'sudo apt-get install screen' to keep the server running on screen.

• Use 'screen -S minecraft' - this will create screen named "minecraft"

• Now start the server "inside your sreen" by using 'java -Xmx2G -Xms2G -jar "name of file".jar nogui' to start the server. Remember to change name of file to your's and change the Xmx2G and Xms2G values to the value of your RAM in your server that we discusted eariler. For example if you have 8GB of RAM and your engine is called paper.jar you will use: 'java -Xmx8G -Xms8G -jar paper.jar nogui'. That will start your server with 8GB of RAM.

• After you started your server you can "detach" from the screen by pressing Ctrl + A followed with D to detach.

• If you need to reattach use 'screen -r minecraft' or change the name of minecraft to your screen's name.

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Setting your own domain for your server

Domain is a human-readable web address used to identify and access resources on the internet. For example, "www.example.com" is a domain name

1. Purchase a domain:

• At the beginning you will need to buy yourself a domain. First costs of domain are little (usually really cheap for the first year)

• You can buy your domain name on GoDaddy, Namecheap or many other websites with domains.

2. Configurate your domain panel on the website where you bought your domain:

• Create DNS records to point your domain to the IP address of your Minecraft server. You will need to create an "A" (Address) record or a "CNAME" (Canonical Name) record if A doesn't work for you.

• Use type A and in the value put your Ubuntu Server's IP

• If there is a port needed make sure you use your port that we created earlier in a files (25565 for default Minecraft port)

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Managing your server (my own experience)

Things that will help you manage your server correctly

1. Having a good staff members:

• Create your own plan for managing the server. Use people that know what to do and want to help you.

• Make special roles for administration members. As for me there were 6 roles. Starting with Test Chat Moderator up to Owner.

You can use other names for your roles.

• My team consist of 15 people that know each other and know what to do.

2. Having good recruitment system for your managing team:

• When we were recruiting more people for our staff we used various of questions and tried to check if the person is a right for their place.

3. Promotions for administartion member:

• After joining the team, the person had to wait a given period of time to make it to higher rank with more permissions.

• Usually the person who shows best communication skills would have been promoted higher.

• People who didn't show interest, caused trouble or didn't feel comfortable in the administrative role were demoted.

4. Having clear and effective rules is fundamental to maintaining a positive and well-managed Minecraft server, ensuring fair play, and fostering a welcoming and respectful community:

• For example our rules contained about 63 paragraphs for our gameplay, chat, fair play and other.

• Having more advanced rules and guidelines for your staff members are really important. Create separate rules for your administration workers to use while being consistant and use them everytime they need. This type of rules will make your server look more professional and advanced.

5. Having well organized Discord server can help people communicate and will make it easier to use it as third party chats.

• Use your Discord server as addition to your Minecraft server.

Have your discord server organized smart and simple.

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Securing your physical and Minecraft server

The most important thing - security

1. Server related security:

• Use SSH Keys Authentication.

• Set up easy email alerts for SSH logins for your Ubuntu Server.

• Set up Suricata or other type of IDS for your Server.

• Use file auditing to see changes done to files.

• Check ports and services that are open to be sure your server isn't vulnerable.

• If there is a possibility of using other network then your main network at home your should use it.

• Keep up with updates for operating system as it can prevent from vulnerabilities.

• Keep your password hard using symbols, numbers and capital letters. Try changing it as often as you can.

• Make backup files every 24 hours or less. You can use tools for it.

• Implement least privilages for user if you are allowing other staff members to use SSH or FTP of your server.

2. In game related security:

• Use security plugins such as:
  ➤ AuthMe (log in system if you are using non-premium system)
  ➤ BotSentry (protects server from botting)
  ➤ ExploitFixer (prevent from using exploits and more)
  

• Use security scripts such as mine:
  ➤ AntiBot (easy self-controlled script for stopping bot access)
  ➤ Verification (verifies player at frist join and prevent bots from connecting)
  ➤ IPChange (displays information for staff members if someone's IP changes)
  ➤ StaffMemberVerification (set IP connection only for your staff members so that only they can join on their accounts)
  All of these scripts are mine. You can check them there: security-scripts