Minecraft Bedrock Edition is the version of Minecraft that powers the iPhone / Android versions (formerly Minecraft Pocket Edition), the Xbox / PlayStation / Nintendo Switch editions and the free Windows 10 Minecraft edition.
Mojang has released a dedicated server which is considered to be in alpha testing. I have found it to be very stable and able to run on a wide variety of hardware.
This script and guide are written to help you get a robust Minecraft Bedrock dedicated server up and running in only a few minutes!
This is the standalone version. The easiest and most problem-free way to run this is using Docker (installed as simply as sudo apt install docker.io): Legendary Minecraft Bedrock Container
Sets up the official Minecraft Bedrock Server (currently in alpha testing)
Fully operational Minecraft Bedrock edition server in a couple of minutes
Ubuntu / Debian distributions supported
Sets up Minecraft as a system service with option to autostart at boot
Automatic backups when server restarts
Supports multiple instances — you can run multiple Bedrock servers on the same system
Updates automatically to the latest or user-defined version when server is started
Easy control of server with start.sh, stop.sh and restart.sh scripts
Adds logging with timestamps to “logs” directory
Optional scheduled daily restart of server using cron
Requirements
A computer with a 64 bit processor (if you are trying to use ARM read my article on the limitations). 32 bit binaries of the official server are not available so it needs to be 64 bit!
1 GB of RAM or higher
The only officially supported platform by Microsoft is Ubuntu 22.04 / 20.04 (current LTS, recommended)
Other Linux flavors supported by this script as well as long as they use systemd (for the service). The script assumes apt is installed but there are minimal dependencies so you could install these on another distro (that doesn’t have apt present) and use the script normally.
Recommended Gear
Game Editions
Minecraft: Bedrock Edition is the “Windows 10” version of Minecraft as well as the version of Minecraft on the Xbox / Playstation / Switch. The versions of Minecraft for Android and iOS are also the Bedrock edition.
All of these versions support cross-platform play with each other (but not with the Java edition).
Minecraft Bedrock Digital Code
This is the PC Minecraft for Windows 10 (Bedrock) edition of Minecraft. It is able to play cross-platform with other players on Android / iOS / Playstation / Xbox / Switch. Available as a code that is instantly activated to give you permanent access to the game!
I strongly recommend a Solid State drive (SSD) for your server. This is because Minecraft is constantly reading/storing chunks to the disk which makes I/O performance very important.
These are much cheaper than they used to be. Here’s a decent 120 GB one (higher capacity options are available) at a very low price:
Kingston A400 2.5″ SATA SSD
The Kingston A400 is reliable, widely available around the world, has low power requirements and performs very well. It’s also very affordable. This drive has been benchmarked over 1000 times at Pi Benchmarks and is the #1 most popular SSD among the community!
If you have a M.2 NVME slot in your motherboard you can go with a high end drive. This will give your server maximum performance even if a large number of players are running around on the server changing blocks and triggering disk writes.
This is the one I have in my machine. These range from 250 GB to 2 TB depending on how big your server might grow:
The Samsung 980 Pro (NVMe) is a professional grade SSD and one of the fastest in the world. The Samsung NVMe drives have been at the top of this category for a long time and are well trusted for both their performance and reliability / long life.
Almost any PC made in the last few years will be a x86_64 bit computer. If you have an older computer around that isn’t being used then it will most likely have the right CPU and amount of memory (as well as fast storage) to run a basic server.
Throwing a SSD in one of these older computers will provide an excellent server experience for small and larger player counts.
The speed of your storage will make the largest difference. Older HDDs are going to have significantly slower performance than any modern SSD even with all other hardware equal. This is because the Minecraft server is constantly reading/writing chunks of your world as well as updates to it to the disk so this tends to be the bottleneck.
Operating System
I highly recommend using Ubuntu Server to run the Minecraft dedicated server. It is available here.
At the time of writing the current version is Ubuntu Server 20.04. This is a secure and robust operating system and will leave plenty of resources available for the server to run.
The script should run on any Debian based flavor of Linux but since the Minecraft Bedrock server is compiled natively for Ubuntu I recommend sticking with it. If you have a GUI flavor of Ubuntu and a decent PC (>= 2 GB of RAM) the server will work just fine on it.
Note: People have reported in the comments that Ubuntu 16.x is no longer working with the latest official Mojang binaries. Ubuntu 18.04 is the minimum requirement for the latest versions, and 20.04 is recommended!
Installation
Log into your Linux server either using SSH or a mouse and keyboard and paste/type the following command:
The script will setup the Minecraft sever and ask you some questions on how to configure it. I’ll explain here what they mean.
The first question will be the installation path. This is the root installation path for ALL servers you will have. If you add additional servers later you should select the exact same installation path. It should always be left as the default (~).
The only exception is if you have something like a completely dedicated disk for the Minecraft server. In that case you should always use the same root path of /mnt/yourdrive or wherever the path is for every new/additional server you install.
“Start Minecraft server at startup automatically (y/n)?” – This will set the Minecraft service to start automatically when your server boots. This is a great option to set up a Minecraft server that is always available.
“Automatically restart and backup server at 4am daily (y/n)?” – This will add a cron job to the server that reboots the server every day at 4am. This is great because every time the server restarts it backs up the server and updates to the latest version. See the “Scheduled Daily Reboots” section below for information on how to customize the time or remove the reboot.
That is it for the setup script. The server will finish configuring and start!
First Run
The server will start up and start displaying output to the console.
Once you see the “Server started” line you will be able to connect from the client.
To add the server to the client open Minecraft and click “Play”. Then at the top of the screen select the “Servers” tab and click “Add Server”.
This will ask you for a Server Name and Server IP Address. For the name you can put anything and for the server IP address put the address of your Linux server. Leave the port as the default 19132. For more information on how to let people from outside your network on go to the “Port Forwarding” section below.
Now choose the server you just added in the list and connect!
Start, Stop and Restart Server
The server can be started, stopped and restarted two different ways. You can use the provided scripts in the Minecraft folder or you can use systemctl. Here are the commands:
The server backs up each time it starts. This helps you recover easily if something goes wrong. This system works best if you configured the server to restart daily since it means you will have a backup every day.
To access these backups type:
cd ~/minecraftbe/backups ls
When a backup is made the filename will be the date and time the backup was taken. If you need to restore a backup it’s very easy. Substitute the timestamp in my example to the backup you want to roll back to. Type:
cd ~/minecraftbe
./stop.sh
rm -rf worlds
tar -xf backups/2019.02.15.22.06.30.tar.gz
./start.sh
Your world has now been restored! It’s a good idea to download these backups off the server periodically just in case the server’s storage fails.
The daily reboots are scheduled using cron. It’s very easy to customize the time your server restarts.
To change the time that the server restarts type: crontab -e
This will open a window that will ask you to select a text editor (I find nano to be the easiest) and will show the cronjobs scheduled on the server. The Minecraft one will look like the following:
0 4 * * * /home/ubuntu/minecraftbe/restart.sh
Crontab’s syntax layout
There are 5 fields here. The default restart time is set to reboot at 0 minutes of the 4th hour of the day (4 AM). The other 3 fields are left as * to represent every day of every month. Make any desired changes here and press Ctrl+X to exit nano and update the cronjob.
To remove the daily reboot simply delete the line and save.
Reconfigure / Update Scripts
The scripts can always be reconfigured and updated by downloading the latest SetupMinecraft.sh and running the installer again. It will update all of the scripts in the Minecraft directory and reinstall the startup service for you.
Running SetupMinecraft.sh again will also give you a chance to reconfigure options such as the memory dedicated to the server, daily reboots, starting the server on boot, etc.
This will not overwrite your world or any other data so it is safe to run!
Port Forwarding
If everyone on your server is on the same LAN or WiFi network as you then you don’t need to do this. If you want people to connect from outside your local network then you need to set up port forwarding on your router.
The process for this is different for every router so the best thing to do is just look at your router and find the model # and put that in google with port forwarding for easy instructions on how to do it for your specific router.
You want to forward port 19132. The type of connection is both TCP and UDP. On some routers you need to do both a TCP entry and then a second entry as UDP.
Once you do this people will be able to connect to your Minecraft server through your public IP address. This is different than your local IP which is usually a 192.x.x.x or 10.x.x.x. If you don’t know what that is just go to google and type “what’s my ip” and Google will kindly tell you!
Version Override
You can revert to a previous version with the revert.sh script included in your directory like this:
james@jamesgigabyte-linux:~/minecraftbe/james$ ./revert.sh
Set previous version in version_pin.txt: bedrock-server-1.19.10.20.zip
If you have a specific version you would like to run you can also create version_pin.txt yourself like this:
The version hold can be removed by deleting version_pin.txt. This will allow it to update to the latest version again!
Wired vs. Wireless
Going with an ethernet (wired) connection is going to be faster and more reliable. There’s so much wireless traffic and other interference in the air that running your server on WiFi is not recommended.
Even if it is working great 99% of the time it can ruin your experience very quickly if the WiFi drops for a couple of seconds and you get blown up by a creeper!
All that being said, the server works fine on wireless. The script will work fine as is with a wireless connection.
Benchmarking / Testing Storage
If you’re getting poor performance you may want to run my storage benchmark with:
PC results won’t show up on the site yet (it’s meant for Raspberry Pi) but it will run on Linux just fine and give you a score. If you search for the model of your drive on Pi Benchmarks you can compare your score with others and make sure the drive is performing correctly!
Troubleshooting Note – Oracle Virtual Machines
A very common problem people have with the Oracle Virtual Machine tutorials out there that typically show you how to use a free VM is that the VM is much more difficult to configure than just about any other product / offering out there.
It is because there are several steps you need to take to open the ports on the Oracle VM. You need to both:
Set the ingress ports (TCP/UDP) in the Virtual Cloud Network (VCN) security list
*and* set the ingress ports in a Network Security Group assigned to your instance
Both of these settings are typically required before you will be able to connect to your VM instance. This is purely configuration related and has nothing to do with the script or the Minecraft server itself.
I do not recommend this platform due to the configuration difficulty but the people who have gone through the pain of configuring an Oracle VM have had good experiences with it after that point. Just keep in mind it’s going to be a rough ride through the configuration for most people.
Troubleshooting Note – Hyper-V
There is a weird bug in Hyper-V that breaks UDP connections on the Minecraft server. The fix for this is that you have to use a Generation 1 VM with the Legacy LAN network driver.
Conclusion
The Minecraft Bedrock Edition dedicated server runs much better than previous third party servers in the past that were missing critical features. The performance is very good even on low end hardware. It has never been easier to set up a Minecraft Bedrock server.
If you have any feedback or suggestions let me know in the comment section. A lot of the changes and developments in this script and guide are directly from readers.
Hi James, thanks a lot for this job. I used it to install the server on a Raspberry 4. What can I do with this msg that I got when I try to connect : “could not connect: outdated server!
If this is the version your server is running then Microsoft probably has the Microsoft Store and the dedicated server download out of sync. It never stays like this for long and it will fix itself if this is the case. I would just keep restarting the server and watch for the download on their main page to change and it should get back to the current version again.
Okay James! thanks a lot for your fast reply! so I have nothing to do but to wait ? unfortunately, it is for the birthday of my son in law, this monday to come!
Excellent, I’m so glad that ended up being it! I just remembered your earlier message and thought “oh that should definitely have been fixed by now” and thought to suggest this.
It can be a bit of a pain. In the past when I opted out I remember there was a delay of at least several hours before my Microsoft Store updated and started showing the normal version. I seem to have to recall uninstalling and reinstalling multiple times and eventually it did switch over within a few hours.
It can supposedly take a lot longer though. They have this warning on the page:
Please remember that unenrolling from Minecraft Preview or Minecraft Beta can sometimes take up to 24 hours.
Hopefully that helps!
Wiktor
1 year ago
My server does not update game version at restart anymore. Please help.
Most likely if you go to the Minecraft download site you should be getting the exact version that it says you’ll get if you click “I Agree” and hover over the download button. Right now that is:
If that is the version that it is downloading then that is correct. It always downloads the version posted on the public web site. If that is outdated then you have to wait for Microsoft to update it. There’s nothing you or I can do about that and it will resolve itself shortly if it hasn’t already.
If the version is not correct then it means your server can no longer access the internet / DNS. This is a very serious problem far beyond anything to do with this script if that is the case and I’d recommend reimaging/reinstalling most likely.
Hopefully that helps!
Ostehovelen
1 year ago
Tips for good addons so I can get message of the day. welcoming message for new players etc?
tried googling but, bah
Multiple worlds in Bedrock
I installed successfully a bedrock server for the kids. Now comes the wish to have multiple worlds.
Bedrock seems to be prepared as in /worlds are sub-directories for multiple worlds.
But I find no way except of running multiple instances of bedrock to create new worlds and to chose them on client level when starting.
Is there a simple way?
In Bedrock it’s extremely hard. It’s not supported at all. Everyone doing this is running completely custom servers and crazy stacks of custom stuff to be able to do that with Bedrock.
In other words almost everyone doing this is actually running a Java server. You wouldn’t want to use Bedrock if you want to make extensive use of plugins, or have some kind of multiverse or anything like that. This is easy to do with Java and you have a lot of options. It’s nearly impossible to do with native Bedrock.
I don’t have a multiverse container set up by default. That’s not a very common request honestly but a few people have done it before. We’ve definitely seen people implement Bungeecord and multiverse before on the Java side. I’d imagine the reason I don’t hear about it that much is that most of the people who want to do this have a *lot* of players to justify needing not just one but multiple worlds. There’s lots of reasons that you may still want to do this though with a smaller server and that is absolutely possible (but very hard with Bedrock).
Hopefully that helps!
Ostehovelen
1 year ago
Pps. The way you reply, both what you write and how fast you reply – you are a saint man! I am in awe.
Ostehovelen
1 year ago
Sorry to bother you so much, i fixed the problem. One cannot summon/spawn etc things without players in the game..
But what i wonder now, i made a seperat user for this instace, that has sudo access, needed it for a couple of things – but now all is up and running, can i just remove user from sudo? want to make it a bit safer
It’s just a regular Minecraft server. You should ask Microsoft/Mojang that question. Can you summon things in Minecraft? That’s not something I have anything to do with using my scripts. I don’t sit and decide what Minecraft features to put in the game. Of course it can do it.
Please read the Minecraft documentation for stuff like this. Why don’t we try using a summon command generator? Use that. Have it generate the command for you. They are hard to use and they change them across different patches so even if you knew what it used to be it’s probably different now. I’d strongly recommend just using command generators and things like that. You’re not using it correctly basically.
If you are trying to summon an item that would be the problem. Items use the “give” command. This is just Minecraft Adminstration 101 though. Check out this page here. It will tell you all the commands and how to use them.
To be clear this is not some server I have designed and made. All I made were scripts to run Microsoft/Mojang’s Minecraft server for you. I’m not a Minecraft developer. I do not decide what features go in the game. I do not decide what features go into this server. You’re basically asking someone who wrote a script that installed the server for you how to administrate a Minecraft server and I can assure you there are a lot better resources for that than asking me all of the questions about basic Minecraft server administration (and a lot faster too, this stuff is seconds away in Google at any time).
This is how I work with it after all these years. I am not going to keep up with all of the changes made to the summon command syntax. That’s a waste of brain space. I’d strongly recommend just using a command generator for the weird ones like summon, give and all of those that sometimes have additional properties.
It’s not even worth memorizing these. Just look up a generator or a reference. You’re going to have 1000 more comments here if you don’t start doing this. There’s so much more to learn so I strongly recommend starting to use the references. Literally when you asked me this question that is what I did. I pulled up the references in Google and just looked it up. I don’t have them memorized and neither do most people. I’ve had some of these scripts for 5+ years and I still don’t have most of them memorized because they change and they’re so easy to look up. You can even look them up in game with /help but the help won’t tell you all of the special properties that the command generators know.
I strongly recommend that summon command generator for example. There’s *no way* you’ll get that command right without using a generator unless you are doing the most simple actions like spawning a default monster with default properties. If you’re trying to do anything interesting *at all* you should use a command generator.
Hi James, thanks a lot for this job. I used it to install the server on a Raspberry 4. What can I do with this msg that I got when I try to connect : “could not connect: outdated server!
Hey juanlu,
Welcome! So the best way to do this is to restart the server. It will update itself every time you restart the server basically. The source of the download is here on Microsoft’s site.
The current version being served is:
https://minecraft.azureedge.net/bin-linux/bedrock-server-1.19.63.01.zipIf this is the version your server is running then Microsoft probably has the Microsoft Store and the dedicated server download out of sync. It never stays like this for long and it will fix itself if this is the case. I would just keep restarting the server and watch for the download on their main page to change and it should get back to the current version again.
Hopefully that helps!
Okay James! thanks a lot for your fast reply! so I have nothing to do but to wait ? unfortunately, it is for the birthday of my son in law, this monday to come!
Hey juanlu,
No, when this happens it doesn’t happen for more than a couple of hours. If this was the issue it would have been resolved a long time ago.
The most likely explanation is that you have the “beta” Minecraft client installed. Can you remove the beta client and install the regular version?
Ok! Yes! I have the beta client. I didn’t find the regular version.
Hey juanlu,
Excellent, I’m so glad that ended up being it! I just remembered your earlier message and thought “oh that should definitely have been fixed by now” and thought to suggest this.
Thanks for confirming! Here’s a link to some instructions on how to opt in/out of the beta.
It can be a bit of a pain. In the past when I opted out I remember there was a delay of at least several hours before my Microsoft Store updated and started showing the normal version. I seem to have to recall uninstalling and reinstalling multiple times and eventually it did switch over within a few hours.
It can supposedly take a lot longer though. They have this warning on the page:
Please remember that unenrolling from Minecraft Preview or Minecraft Beta can sometimes take up to 24 hours.Hopefully that helps!
My server does not update game version at restart anymore. Please help.
Hey Wiktor,
Most likely if you go to the Minecraft download site you should be getting the exact version that it says you’ll get if you click “I Agree” and hover over the download button. Right now that is:
https://minecraft.azureedge.net/bin-linux/bedrock-server-1.19.63.01.zipIf that is the version that it is downloading then that is correct. It always downloads the version posted on the public web site. If that is outdated then you have to wait for Microsoft to update it. There’s nothing you or I can do about that and it will resolve itself shortly if it hasn’t already.
If the version is not correct then it means your server can no longer access the internet / DNS. This is a very serious problem far beyond anything to do with this script if that is the case and I’d recommend reimaging/reinstalling most likely.
Hopefully that helps!
Tips for good addons so I can get message of the day. welcoming message for new players etc?
tried googling but, bah
Hey Ostehovelen,
This is built into the Minecraft server for the motd. It’s in server.properties:
motd=A Minecraft ServerThis is what is shown in the server browser list before you connect for example.
It sounds like what you want to do is something more in-game when they join. If that’s the case you might want to check out this plugin. Hopefully that helps!
Multiple worlds in Bedrock
I installed successfully a bedrock server for the kids. Now comes the wish to have multiple worlds.
Bedrock seems to be prepared as in /worlds are sub-directories for multiple worlds.
But I find no way except of running multiple instances of bedrock to create new worlds and to chose them on client level when starting.
Is there a simple way?
Hey KurtSt,
In Bedrock it’s extremely hard. It’s not supported at all. Everyone doing this is running completely custom servers and crazy stacks of custom stuff to be able to do that with Bedrock.
There’s almost no point though. My Java version of the container can let Bedrock players connect. It’s pretty easy to do this with Java. It’s called Bungeecord and a bunch of other things with Java.
In other words almost everyone doing this is actually running a Java server. You wouldn’t want to use Bedrock if you want to make extensive use of plugins, or have some kind of multiverse or anything like that. This is easy to do with Java and you have a lot of options. It’s nearly impossible to do with native Bedrock.
If you wanted you could convert your Bedrock world to Java using Chunker which I’ve covered here. You could convert your world and switch to Java and you’d have a lot of options setting this up.
I don’t have a multiverse container set up by default. That’s not a very common request honestly but a few people have done it before. We’ve definitely seen people implement Bungeecord and multiverse before on the Java side. I’d imagine the reason I don’t hear about it that much is that most of the people who want to do this have a *lot* of players to justify needing not just one but multiple worlds. There’s lots of reasons that you may still want to do this though with a smaller server and that is absolutely possible (but very hard with Bedrock).
Hopefully that helps!
Pps. The way you reply, both what you write and how fast you reply – you are a saint man! I am in awe.
Sorry to bother you so much, i fixed the problem. One cannot summon/spawn etc things without players in the game..
But what i wonder now, i made a seperat user for this instace, that has sudo access, needed it for a couple of things – but now all is up and running, can i just remove user from sudo? want to make it a bit safer
Hey Ostehovelen,
Yes you can remove it from sudo. As per the guide the script sets up the sudoers file for you. It doesn’t need sudo rights anymore.
Hopefully that helps!
Cant we sommon things? “Unable to summon object”
Hey Ostehovelen,
It’s just a regular Minecraft server. You should ask Microsoft/Mojang that question. Can you summon things in Minecraft? That’s not something I have anything to do with using my scripts. I don’t sit and decide what Minecraft features to put in the game. Of course it can do it.
Please read the Minecraft documentation for stuff like this. Why don’t we try using a summon command generator? Use that. Have it generate the command for you. They are hard to use and they change them across different patches so even if you knew what it used to be it’s probably different now. I’d strongly recommend just using command generators and things like that. You’re not using it correctly basically.
If you are trying to summon an item that would be the problem. Items use the “give” command. This is just Minecraft Adminstration 101 though. Check out this page here. It will tell you all the commands and how to use them.
To be clear this is not some server I have designed and made. All I made were scripts to run Microsoft/Mojang’s Minecraft server for you. I’m not a Minecraft developer. I do not decide what features go in the game. I do not decide what features go into this server. You’re basically asking someone who wrote a script that installed the server for you how to administrate a Minecraft server and I can assure you there are a lot better resources for that than asking me all of the questions about basic Minecraft server administration (and a lot faster too, this stuff is seconds away in Google at any time).
This is how I work with it after all these years. I am not going to keep up with all of the changes made to the summon command syntax. That’s a waste of brain space. I’d strongly recommend just using a command generator for the weird ones like summon, give and all of those that sometimes have additional properties.
It’s not even worth memorizing these. Just look up a generator or a reference. You’re going to have 1000 more comments here if you don’t start doing this. There’s so much more to learn so I strongly recommend starting to use the references. Literally when you asked me this question that is what I did. I pulled up the references in Google and just looked it up. I don’t have them memorized and neither do most people. I’ve had some of these scripts for 5+ years and I still don’t have most of them memorized because they change and they’re so easy to look up. You can even look them up in game with /help but the help won’t tell you all of the special properties that the command generators know.
I strongly recommend that summon command generator for example. There’s *no way* you’ll get that command right without using a generator unless you are doing the most simple actions like spawning a default monster with default properties. If you’re trying to do anything interesting *at all* you should use a command generator.
Hopefully that helps!