MinecraftServer - Skynet Wiki

Minecraft server config

Server is running on walle-vm08 under user "minecraft". Main server files in /home/minecraft/Minecraft/. Related files in /home/minecraft/. Server should always be running in screen session "minecraft" if the init.d script is used (see below). The JVM is installed under /home/minecraft/java/ with a ram limit set at 5200MB. This should be enough to handle 40 players, cpu permitting.

Bukkit

Bukkit makes it very easy to install plugins - just drop a .jar file into ~/Minecraft/plugins/. List of plugins is at http://dev.bukkit.org/. Beware as some plugins conflict with others. Poorly written ones can lag or crash the server.

As of 2012/2/14 the server is running CraftBukkit recommended build 1.1-R3. The following plugins are installed:

Essentials-Pre2.8.2.2 ( http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/essentials/)
EssentialsXMPP & GeoIP (disabled due to outbound firewall limitations)
WorldGuard (2 zones so far: "spawn" is 50x50xHeight centred on 0,0 with restricted build permissions. "nopvp" is 500x500xHeight also centred on 0,0)
WorldEdit (used to support WorldGuard for area protection)
GroupManager (permissions manager)
ChopTree (wood blocks in a tree drop down when chopped)
BedTime (inactive players don't count against night sleeping, also gives users a /bed command to see who's awake)

init.d script

/etc/init.d/minecraft is a symlink to /home/minecraft/minecraft-init/minecraft. It's based on http://github.com/Ahtenus/minecraft-init. Should bring up the server on reboot (tested). Needed screen from apt.

arguments:

start
stop
update (updates minecraft and bukkit, seems to work though no updates have arrived yet)
overview skynet (generates map of "skynet" world in ~/map but takes the server offline during render and took several minutes when I tested it)
help
rest of functions are untested, hope to test ramdisk soon

crontab

This crontab is suggested by the init.d script:

02  05  *   *   *   /etc/init.d/minecraft backup 
55  04  *   *   *   /etc/init.d/minecraft log-roll
*/30    *   *   *   *   /etc/init.d/minecraft to-disk

nginx web server setup

nginx seems to have sane defaults and is quite straightforward to configure:

apt-get install nginx
vi /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default and changed server name to minecraft.skynet.ie
For some reason /var/www wasn't created by the apt install so I had to mkdir /var/www; chown www-data /var/www; chgrp www-data /var/www
Copy web files into /var/www (note "/images/" is mapped to another location in the filesystem in the default config)
Created /var/www/map/ with owner/group "minecraft", so Overviewer can render its map in place.

Overviewer

Generates the map files for web serving. https://github.com/overviewer/Minecraft-Overviewer. Needed python, python-numpy, python-imaging, python-dev and gcc from apt to run. There is a simple shell script at /home/minecraft/overviewer/render1.sh to copy the "skynet" world file and render it into /var/www/map/

TODO

Set up a permissions group for moderators with the ability to section off protected zones for users constructions. Ideally there would be no "ops", to remove the temptation to spawn items as it can alter the balance of the game. I have personally spawned two roast chickens so far and it is a slippery slope.