How to Set Up a Minecraft Server on Dedicated Hardware

A Minecraft server is one of the few game workloads where single-thread CPU speed still decides performance, so renting a full dedicated box and configuring it properly beats any shared host for vanilla, modded, and large multiplayer servers. This walkthrough covers the full path: picking an OS, installing Java, downloading and configuring the server, running it as a service that survives crashes, opening the right ports, and sizing the hardware to your player count.

Before you start: what you need

A dedicated server with at least 4 cores and 8 GB of RAM (more below).
Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 LTS — the safest choice for Minecraft hosting.
Java 21 for Minecraft 1.20.5+ (Temurin or OpenJDK builds both work).
A static IPv4 address; your provider assigns one with the box.
An SSH client; everything here happens from the command line.

Step 1 — create a dedicated user and install Java

Run the server as an unprivileged user, never root. Create a minecraft user, then install Java 21:

sudo adduser minecraft
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y openjdk-21-jre-headless
java -version

Confirm the output reports Java 21. Older Java versions will refuse to start current server jars, and newer preview builds can introduce GC regressions, so pin the LTS release.

Step 2 — download the server jar

Download the official server jar from Mojang’s version manifest rather than random mirrors. For the latest release the URL pattern is:

wget https://piston-data.mojang.com/v1/objects/<hash>/server.jar

The hash changes per version — fetch it from the manifest at piston-meta.mojang.com (version_manifest_v2.json) or use a helper script that resolves it automatically. Create a world directory, accept the EULA in eula.txt (eula=true), and do a first run to generate server.properties:

mkdir /opt/minecraft && cd /opt/minecraft
java -Xmx2G -jar server.jar nogui   # first run generates files, then exits

Step 3 — memory flags and start script

Java edition is garbage-collection bound, so JVM flags matter more than raw RAM. A solid start script for an 8–12 GB server:

java -Xms4G -Xmx8G -XX:+UseG1GC -XX:+ParallelRefProcEnabled \
     -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=200 -XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions \
     -XX:+DisableExplicitGC -jar server.jar nogui

Aikar’s flags are the community standard for 1.17+. Set Xmx to roughly half the machine’s RAM for a single server and leave headroom for the OS, world pre-generation, and backups. On a box with 32 GB you can comfortably run two or three servers by splitting the memory and pinning each to its own core set.

Step 4 — run it as a systemd service

A systemd unit gives you automatic restarts on crash and clean start/stop on boot. Create /etc/systemd/system/minecraft.service with the start script as ExecStart, set Restart=on-failure, and run systemctl enable minecraft. This is the difference between a server that is down at 3 a.m. and one your players never notice failing.

Step 5 — firewall and ports

Java edition uses TCP 25565 (plus UDP for the newer transfer/query features); Bedrock dedicated servers use UDP 19132. On Ubuntu, allow only what you need:

sudo ufw allow 25565/tcp
sudo ufw allow 19132/udp

If you run multiple servers on one box, give each its own port and bind them to different cores — a dedicated machine is exactly where multi-instance setups make sense.

Sizing by player count

These baselines assume vanilla or lightly modded Java edition with default view-distance. Modded packs multiply every number in the RAM column.

Players	CPU	RAM	Notes
Up to 10	2–4 cores (high clock)	4–6 GB	view-distance 8
Up to 25	4–6 cores	8–12 GB	pre-generate the world
Up to 50	6–8 cores	16–24 GB	tune simulation-distance
100+ / modded	8+ cores	32 GB+	separate proxy or multi-instance

Step 6 — pre-generate the world and tune

Chunk generation is the single biggest source of lag on a new server. Pre-generate a radius around spawn (plugins like Chunky make this a one-command job), then set view-distance and simulation-distance in server.properties to values your CPU can sustain. Watch the GC logs: if pauses exceed 200 ms regularly, raise Xmx or reduce view-distance.

Step 7 — backups

Copy the world folder on a schedule — a cron job with tar plus an off-server destination beats any plugin. Stop-and-copy is safest: with the systemd service, a short stop, rsync, and start loop keeps the world consistent without corrupted region files.

Bottom line

A Minecraft server on dedicated hardware is a solved problem: unprivileged user, current Java, tuned JVM flags, systemd supervision, correct ports, and pre-generated chunks. Do those five things and the hardware will outlast your player base’s interest. If you are still choosing a provider, compare dedicated server plans in our provider table and pick one with a current-generation CPU — single-thread speed is the spec that matters most for Minecraft.

Need dedicated hardware that can run this workload without breaking a sweat? InterServer’s dedicated server lineup offers current-generation CPUs, NVMe storage, and always-on DDoS protection — check InterServer dedicated servers here.