Minecraft Server in Docker

This page documents how I configured my very first cloud server instance in the Developer Akademie DevSecOps Course.

TOC

Github Tip

URL: https://github.com/Gosia2024/minecraft_server

Table of Contents

1. Description
2. Quickstart
3. Usage
4. Configuration
5. Persistence
6. Testing
7. Security Notes
8. License

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Description

This repository provides a ready-to-use production-grade Minecraft Java Edition server running inside a Docker container.
It uses docker-compose to simplify setup and supports persistent data storage so that your game world and configurations are preserved across restarts.

Main contents:

• Dockerfile for building the Minecraft server image
• docker-compose.yml for container orchestration
• .env file for environment variable configuration
• server.properties for Minecraft server settings

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Quickstart

Prerequisites

• Docker installed
• Docker Compose installed
• Java Edition Minecraft client for testing (optional)

Set up environment variables

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env with your desired settings before starting the server.

Start the server

git clone git@github.com:Gosia2024/minecraft_server.git

cd minecraft_server

docker compose up -d

The server will be available on port 8888 of your host/VPS IP.

Usage

Environment variables

Configure your environment variables by copying .env.example to .env and modifying as needed.

To apply changes after editing .env:

docker compose down

docker compose up -d

Editing server.properties

You can directly modify server.properties outside the container by editing it in the mounted volume and restarting the container.

Configuration

Variable	Description	Default
SERVER_PORT	Port the server listens on	8888
ONLINE_MODE	Enforces Mojang account authentication	true
MAX_PLAYERS	Maximum number of players	20
DIFFICULTY	Game difficulty (peaceful, easy, normal, hard)	normal
GAMEMODE	Game mode (survival, creative, etc.)	survival
MOTD	Message of the day	My Production MC Server
ENABLE_COMMAND_BLOCK	Enable command blocks	false
PVP	Enable PvP	true

Persistence

Game world data and configuration are stored in a Docker volume.
This ensures:

• Worlds are not lost after server/container restarts.
• Configuration changes persist across deployments.

Example volume mapping (from docker-compose.yml):

volumes:
  - mc_data:/app/world

Testing

Option 1: Using mcstatus

Install mcstatus:

pip install mcstatus

Test connection:

python -m mcstatus <VPS-IP>:8888 status

Option 2: Using Minecraft Java Client

• Launch Minecraft Java Edition.
• Select Multiplayer.
• Add a server with the address:

<VPS-IP>:8888

• Join and start playing.

Security Notes

• Do not store passwords, tokens, or private keys in the repository.

• Use .env files for sensitive configurations and exclude them from Git (.gitignore).

• Do not commit your VPS IP address to the repository.

• Environment variables follow the convention: UPPER_CASE_WITH_UNDERSCORE.

• Always reference variables in scripts with ${VAR_NAME} syntax.

License

This project is for educational purposes. Check Minecraft's EULA before running the server publicly.