docker-minecraft-server/minecraft-server

This docker image provides a Minecraft Server that will automatically download the latest stable, latest snapshot, or any specific version.

To simply use the latest stable version, run

docker run -d -p 25565:25565 itzg/minecraft-server

where the default server port, 25565, will be exposed on your host machine. If you want to serve up multiple Minecraft servers or just use an alternate port, change the host-side port mapping such as

docker run -p 25566:25565 ...

will serve your Minecraft server on your host's port 25566 since the -p syntax is host-port:container-port.

Speaking of multiple servers, it's handy to give your containers explicit names using --name, such as

docker run -d -p 25565:25565 --name minecraft-default itzg/minecraft-server

With that you can easily view the logs, stop, or re-start the container:

docker logs -f minecraft-default
    ( Ctrl-C to exit logs action )
    
docker stop minecraft-default

docker start minecraft-default

EULA Support

Mojang now requires accepting the Minecraft EULA. To accept add

    -e EULA=TRUE

such as

    docker run -e EULA=TRUE -d -p 25565:25565 itzg/minecraft-server                                                         

Attaching data directory to host filesystem

In order to persist the Minecraft data, which you probably want to do for a real server setup, use the -v argument to map a directory on your host machine to the container's /data directory, such as:

docker run -d -v /path/on/host:/data ...                         

When attached in this way you can stop the server, edit the configuration under your attached /path/on/host and start the server again with docker start CONTAINERID to pick up the new configuration.

Versions

To use a different Minecraft version, pass the VERSION environment variable, which can have the value

• LATEST
• SNAPSHOT
• (or a specific version, such as "1.7.9")

For example, to use the latest snapshot:

docker run -d -e VERSION=SNAPSHOT ...                                                                                       

or a specific version:

docker run -d -e VERSION=1.7.9 ...                                                                                          

Server configuration

You can either switch between world saves or run multiple containers with different saves by using the LEVEL option, where the default is "world":

docker run -d -e LEVEL=bonus ...

NOTE: if running multiple containers be sure to either specify a different -v host directory for each LEVEL in use or don't use -v and the container's filesystem will keep things encapsulated.

The message of the day, shown below each server entry in the UI, can be changed with the MOTD environment variable, such as

docker run -d -e 'MOTD=My Server' ...                                                            

If you leave it off, the last used or default message will be used. The example shows how to specify a server message of the day that contains spaces by putting quotes around the whole thing.

To add more "op" (aka adminstrator) users to your Minecraft server, pass the Minecraft usernames separated by commas via the OPS environment variable, such as

docker run -d -e OPS=user1,user2 ...                                                                                                     

The Java memory limit can be adjusted using the JVM_OPTS environment variable, where the default is the setting shown in the example (max and min at 1024 MB):

docker run -e 'JVM_OPTS=-Xmx1024M -Xms1024M' ...