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August 1, 2025 0Comments

How to Host Your Own Minecraft Bedrock Server on Ubuntu

Want to play Minecraft Bedrock Edition with friends without relying on a paid hosting service? Running your own server on an Ubuntu machine gives you full control over the world, the settings, and who gets to join — and it’s cheaper than you’d think. This guide walks you through everything from installation to keeping the server alive 24/7 with automatic restarts and backups.

I specifically went with Bedrock Edition (rather than Java) for its cross-platform compatibility — it lets my friends and I all play together regardless of what we’re on, whether that’s PC, mobile, Xbox, or Switch. A single Bedrock server supports all of them at once, which makes it the easier choice for a mixed-device friend group.

Where to Run This: Affordable VPS Options

You don’t need a beefy home server to follow this guide — a small, affordable Virtual Private Server (VPS) is more than enough for a handful of friends. Two popular options:

  • Amazon Lightsail — AWS’s simplified VPS product, with predictable flat monthly pricing (no surprise EC2 bills) and Ubuntu images ready to go. This is what I use for my own server.
  • DigitalOcean Droplets — another solid, budget-friendly option with a similarly simple setup process and clean dashboard.

Either one gives you a fresh Ubuntu instance in a few minutes, and their cheapest tiers (roughly $5–10/month) comfortably meet the CPU, RAM, and storage requirements below. Once your instance is up, SSH into it and everything from here works exactly the same as it would on a home machine — the one extra step is opening the gameplay port at the cloud firewall / security group level, covered in Step 5.

Using Amazon Lightsail? When creating your instance, choose an Ubuntu blueprint, and make sure to attach a static IP to it (Lightsail calls this a “static IP” in the networking tab) so your server’s address doesn’t change on reboot — otherwise your friends will need a new IP every time it restarts.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have:

  • OS: Ubuntu 20.04+ (Debian and other modern Linux distros work too, x86_64 only)
  • A user account with sudo privileges
  • A static IP (so friends can reliably reconnect)
  • CPU: 2 vCPUs
  • RAM: 2 GB minimum
  • Storage: ~20 GB for the server, plus room for world data
  • Network: enough bandwidth allowance for regular play (2 TB/month is comfortable)
  • Open ports:
    • 19132/UDP — gameplay (IPv4)
    • 19133/UDP — gameplay (IPv6)

Step 1: Create a Server Directory

Keep things tidy by giving the server its own home:

Bash
mkdir -p ~/minecraft/bedrock-server
cd ~/minecraft/bedrock-server

Step 2: Download the Bedrock Dedicated Server

Go to the official download page in your browser:
👉 https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/download/server/bedrock

Right-click the Linux download button and copy the link — the version number changes with every release, so don’t rely on an old URL. Then download it on your server:

Bash
wget https://www.minecraft.net/bedrockdedicatedserver/bin-linux/bedrock-server-<version>.zip

Replace <version> with whatever the site gives you at the time — Mojang updates this frequently, and old links stop working.

Unzip and make the binary executable:

Bash
unzip bedrock-server-<version>.zip
chmod +x bedrock_server

If unzip isn’t installed:

Bash
sudo apt install unzip

Step 3: Configure server.properties

Open the config file:

Bash
nano server.properties

Adjust the key settings to fit your world:

Java
server-name=MyServerName
gamemode=survival
difficulty=easy
allow-cheats=false
max-players=10
level-name=Yggdrasil
level-seed=20241207

Step 4: Open the Firewall

If UFW is active on the box:

Bash
sudo ufw allow 19132/udp

Step 5: Check Cloud Firewall / Security Group Rules

If you’re on AWS, Lightsail, or a similar cloud provider, local firewall rules aren’t enough — you also need an inbound rule at the network level:

TypeProtocolPort RangeSource
Custom UDPUDP19132Your static IP, or 0.0.0.0/0 for open access

Locking the source down to specific IPs is safer if you’re only playing with a known group of friends.

Step 6: Start the Server

Bash
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./bedrock_server

You should see a line confirming the server has started. At this point you can connect from Minecraft Bedrock using your server’s IP address.

Step 7: Keep It Running with screen

Running the server in your terminal means it dies the moment you close the SSH session. screen solves that by letting the process run in a detachable background session.

Bash
sudo apt install screen
screen -S minecraft-bedrock

Inside the new screen session:

Bash
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./bedrock_server

Detach without stopping it: Ctrl+A, then Ctrl+D
Reattach later:

Bash
screen -r minecraft-bedrock

Step 8: Lock It Down — Whitelist & Anti-Cheat

If you only want specific people joining, enable the allowlist. Edit server.properties:

Java
allow-list=true

(This restricts connections to players listed in allowlist.json. Values: true or false.)
Then create allowlist.json in the same directory:

JSON
[
  {
    "name": "YourFriendName",
    "xuid": "1234567890123456"
  }
]

To find a player’s XUID, use a free converter tool such as cxkes.me/xbox/xuid.

A few more security tips:

  • Set online-mode=true so players are authenticated through Xbox Live.
  • If it’s a private group, restrict inbound traffic to specific IPs at the firewall level rather than opening the port to everyone.
  • Leave allow-cheats=false unless you have a specific reason to enable it.

Step 9: Automate Backups

World corruption and accidental griefing happen — regular backups save you from starting over. Create a backup script:

Bash
nano ~/minecraft/bedrock-world-backup.sh
Bash
#!/bin/bash
TIMESTAMP=$(date +"%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S")
BACKUP_DIR="$HOME/minecraft/bedrock-world-backups"
WORLD_DIR="$HOME/minecraft/bedrock-server/worlds"

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
zip -r "$BACKUP_DIR/bedrock_world_backup_$TIMESTAMP.zip" "$WORLD_DIR"
echo "Backup created at $BACKUP_DIR/bedrock_world_backup_$TIMESTAMP.zip"

# Keep only the last 7 days of backups
find "$BACKUP_DIR" -type f -name "*.zip" -mtime +7 -delete

Make it executable:

Bash
chmod +x ~/minecraft/bedrock-world-backup.sh

Step 10: Schedule Backups with Cron

Bash
crontab -e

Add a line to run the backup every day at 3 AM (swap ubuntu for your actual username):

Bash
0 3 * * * /home/ubuntu/minecraft/bedrock-world-backup.sh >> /home/ubuntu/minecraft/bedrock-world-backup.log 2>&1

The rotation logic (-mtime +7 -delete) is already built into the backup script above, so old backups clean themselves up automatically.

Step 11: Auto-Restart on Crash

Server processes occasionally crash. Wrap the launch command in a loop so it restarts itself automatically:

Bash
nano ~/minecraft/bedrock-server-start.sh
Bash
#!/bin/bash
while true; do
  echo "Starting Minecraft Bedrock server..."
  LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./bedrock_server
  echo "Server crashed/stopped. Restarting in 5 seconds..."
  sleep 5
done
Bash
chmod +x ~/minecraft/bedrock-server-start.sh

Run it inside a screen session so it survives logout:

Bash
screen -S minecraft-bedrock ~/minecraft/bedrock-server-start.sh

Now the server restarts itself automatically whenever it crashes or is killed — no manual intervention needed.

Step 12: The Production-Ready Option — systemd

If you want the server to start on boot, restart on failure, and be managed with standard Linux tooling instead of screen, set it up as a systemd service.

Directory layout:

/home/ubuntu/minecraft/
├── bedrock-server-start.sh
└── bedrock-server/
    ├── bedrock_server
    └── ... (other Bedrock files)

Update the start script to cd into the server directory first:

Bash
#!/bin/bash
while true; do
  echo "Starting Minecraft Bedrock Server..."
  cd "$(dirname "$0")/bedrock-server" || exit 1
  LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./bedrock_server
  echo "Minecraft Bedrock Server crashed/stopped. Restarting in 5 seconds..."
  sleep 5
done
Bash
chmod +x /home/ubuntu/minecraft/bedrock-server-start.sh

Create the service file:

Bash
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/minecraft-bedrock-server.service
INI
[Unit]
Description=Minecraft Bedrock Server
After=network.target

[Service]
User=ubuntu
WorkingDirectory=/home/ubuntu/minecraft
ExecStart=/home/ubuntu/minecraft/bedrock-server-start.sh
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
Nice=5
LimitNOFILE=4096

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Reload systemd and enable the service:

Bash
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable minecraft-bedrock-server.service
sudo systemctl start minecraft-bedrock-server.service

Check that it’s running:

Bash
sudo systemctl status minecraft-bedrock-server.service

Why this beats screen: the server now starts automatically on boot, restarts itself if it crashes, and you manage it with standard commands (systemctl start/stop/restart/status) instead of juggling terminal sessions.

Step 13: Point a Domain to Your Server (Optional)

Sharing a raw IP address with friends works fine, but it’s easy to forget and annoying to type. If you own a domain, you can set up a subdomain like minecraft.example.com to point to your server’s static IP instead — much easier to remember and share.

Add an A Record

You need an A record (not CNAME, since you’re pointing to an IP address, not another domain) at wherever your domain’s DNS is managed — your registrar (Namecheap, GoDaddy, Cloudflare, etc.) or, if you’ve delegated DNS to Lightsail, the Lightsail DNS zone.

TypeHost/NameValueTTL
Aminecraft<your static IP>300 (or default)

The minecraft in the Host field is what makes it minecraft.example.com — your DNS provider automatically appends your root domain.

Option A: Using Lightsail’s Built-in DNS

If you’re hosting on Lightsail and haven’t delegated DNS elsewhere, this is the simplest path:

  1. In the Lightsail console, go to Networking → Create DNS zone, pointing it at your domain (e.g. example.com)
  2. Once the zone exists, add a record: A record, subdomain minecraft, value = your static IP
  3. Lightsail will give you 4 nameservers — set these at your domain registrar so it actually uses Lightsail’s DNS

Lightsail will give you 4 nameservers — set these at your domain registrar so it actually uses Lightsail’s DNS

Option B: Using Your Registrar’s DNS (most common)

If you manage DNS at your registrar (Namecheap, GoDaddy, etc.) or Cloudflare:

  1. Log into your registrar/DNS provider’s dashboard
  2. Find DNS settings / DNS Zone Editor
  3. Add a new A record: Type A, Name/Host minecraft, Value = your static IP, TTL = default
  4. Save

Verify It Worked

DNS propagation usually takes a few minutes to a couple hours (rarely up to 48h). Check with:

Bash
dig minecraft.example.com +short

or:

Bash
nslookup minecraft.example.com

Both should return your server’s static IP once propagated.

One Important thing to note for Bedrock

Once DNS resolves, your friends can enter minecraft.example.com as the server address in the Minecraft client — but the port still matters. Bedrock’s default port is 19132, and most clients let you enter it as:

minecraft.example.com:19132

If your client doesn’t have a separate port field, just make sure you’re running on the default port so it’s assumed automatically.

Wrapping Up

At this point you’ve got a Minecraft Bedrock server that:

  • Starts automatically on boot
  • Restarts itself if it crashes
  • Backs up your world daily and prunes old backups
  • Can be locked down to a private group of friends
  • Is reachable through a friendly domain name instead of a raw IP

For a small group playing together, this setup will comfortably run for months without needing to touch it.

Playtime

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