Minecraft server on a VPS: Java 21, Paper and autostart

How much RAM does a Minecraft server need?

A small Minecraft server on Paper for a few friends is fine on a VPS with 2 GB of RAM; a small community or a modpack needs 4-8 GB. Java does not get all of the server's memory: leave about 1 GB to the operating system and give the rest to the server with the -Xmx flag. Render distance (view-distance), players spread across the map and heavy mods consume the most memory. General memory guidance is in How much RAM a VPS needs.

Why does CPU clock speed matter for Minecraft?

A Minecraft world is simulated on one main thread: 20 times a second the server updates mobs, redstone and blocks, and it has 50 ms for each tick. Paper moves chunk loading and networking to other threads, but the simulation itself stays single-threaded, so one fast core does more than many slow ones. When a tick overruns 50 ms, TPS drops and players see lag and mobs teleporting. How Tihost CPUs differ in single-core speed is covered in AMD Ryzen 9 5950X vs 9950X.

Step 1. Install Java 21

Minecraft Java 1.20.5 and newer, and current Paper builds with it, require Java 21. A server needs no graphics, so install the headless variant. On Ubuntu 24.04 it is in the standard repository:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y openjdk-21-jre-headless wget
java -version

Debian 12's standard repository has no openjdk-21-jre-headless package. Install Eclipse Temurin 21 - the OpenJDK build from the Adoptium project - following the Debian instructions on their website, then check java -version. On another Ubuntu release, check for the package first: if the command below shows no install candidate, install Temurin the same way as on Debian.

apt-cache policy openjdk-21-jre-headless

Step 2. Create a dedicated user

Do not run a Minecraft server as root: a vulnerable plugin would then give access to the whole system. Create a system user minecraft with no password and no login shell, with /opt/minecraft as its home:

sudo useradd -r -m -d /opt/minecraft -s /usr/sbin/nologin minecraft

Step 3. Download the Paper server

Paper is an optimized Minecraft Java server with Bukkit and Spigot plugin support; on the same machine it handles noticeably more players than the vanilla server. Open the downloads section at papermc.io, pick the Minecraft version, copy the link to the latest build's jar file and download it as the minecraft user:

sudo -u minecraft wget -O /opt/minecraft/paper.jar "LINK_FROM_THE_PAPER_DOWNLOAD_PAGE"

Step 4. First run and eula.txt

On the first run the server creates eula.txt and stops: it will not run until you accept the Minecraft End User License Agreement (EULA). Accept it, start the server again, wait for the world to generate, make yourself an operator with op YourName and stop the server with stop:

# the first run creates eula.txt and stops
sudo -u minecraft sh -c 'cd /opt/minecraft && java -Xms1G -Xmx1G -jar paper.jar --nogui'
# accept the Minecraft licence (EULA)
sudo -u minecraft sed -i 's/eula=false/eula=true/' /opt/minecraft/eula.txt
# the second run generates the world; in the console type: op YourName, then stop
sudo -u minecraft sh -c 'cd /opt/minecraft && java -Xms1G -Xmx1G -jar paper.jar --nogui'

Server settings live in /opt/minecraft/server.properties: max-players is the player limit, view-distance and simulation-distance set render and simulation distance in chunks. Lowering those two values is the simplest way to cut CPU and memory load.

Step 5. Set memory with -Xms and -Xmx

• -Xmx is the maximum Java heap: how much memory the Minecraft server may take. Set it 1 GB below the VPS RAM, as in the table above.
• -Xms is the initial heap size. The Paper documentation recommends setting it equal to -Xmx so Java does not spend time growing the heap during play.
• Do not give Java all of the server's memory: the system needs memory too, and when it runs out the Linux kernel kills the whole Java process.

Step 6. Autostart with systemd

A systemd service starts the Minecraft server when the VPS boots and restarts it after a crash. Create /etc/systemd/system/minecraft.service (the example is a 4 GB VPS with -Xmx3G):

[Unit]
Description=Minecraft server (Paper)
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
User=minecraft
Group=minecraft
WorkingDirectory=/opt/minecraft
ExecStart=/usr/bin/java -Xms3G -Xmx3G -jar paper.jar --nogui
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now minecraft
sudo systemctl status minecraft
sudo journalctl -u minecraft -f

sudo systemctl stop minecraft shuts the server down cleanly: it saves the world before exiting. To send console commands without stopping the service, enable RCON in server.properties (enable-rcon=true and a password in rcon.password) and keep the RCON port closed to the internet.

Step 7. Open port 25565

A Minecraft Java server accepts players on port 25565/tcp. Open it in UFW - every other port stays closed:

sudo ufw allow 25565/tcp
sudo ufw status

Players now connect by the server's IP address: 25565 is the default port, so they can leave it out. To use an address like mc.example.com instead of the IP, point a domain at the VPS with an A record.

How do you back up a Minecraft world?

A Paper world is stored in three directories: world, world_nether and world_the_end. The safest way is to copy them with the server stopped, so the archive never catches the world mid-write:

sudo systemctl stop minecraft
sudo tar -czf /root/minecraft-world-$(date +%F).tar.gz -C /opt/minecraft world world_nether world_the_end
sudo systemctl start minecraft

An archive on the same server will not save you if the server itself is lost: keep copies on another machine and check that they extract. Scheduling and off-server storage are covered in VPS backups.

Which Tihost VPS to pick for Minecraft?

A 2 GB configuration is enough for a few friends; a community or mods need 4-8 GB, and you can move to a larger configuration later. Every Tihost server runs on KVM with full root access, NVMe and network-level DDoS protection, and AMD Ryzen 9 CPUs give a high per-core clock. A server is deployed in about 2 minutes after payment.