Minecraft Server on a VPS

This guide assumes Pelican Panel + Wings are running from Part 1. If you are not using Pelican, you can install the Minecraft server directly - each section notes the standalone equivalent.

• Pelican Panel with Wings daemon (Part 1)
• Java 21 installed on the node (required for modern Minecraft)
• At least 2 GB of RAM allocated to the game server

How much RAM does your Minecraft server actually need?

Note: OS + Wings overhead is roughly 512 MB. Always recommend the next tier up for headroom.

Import the Paper MC egg from the Pelican Eggs GitHub repository, create a new server in the Panel, and configure startup flags.

1. Go to Admin > Nests > Import Egg
2. Import the Paper egg JSON from the Pelican Eggs repository
3. Create a new server: set RAM limit (-Xms and -Xmx), disk, and port allocation
4. Accept the EULA on first boot via the Panel console

Why Paper?

• Vanilla - the default Mojang server, no optimizations
• Spigot - basic performance improvements, plugin API
• Paper - significant performance gains, async chunk loading (recommended)
• Purpur - Paper fork with additional gameplay tweaks

These are Aikar's recommended JVM flags for Minecraft servers. Copy and paste this entire block into your server's startup command.

java -Xms4G -Xmx4G \
  -XX:+UseG1GC \
  -XX:+ParallelRefProcEnabled \
  -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=200 \
  -XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions \
  -XX:+DisableExplicitGC \
  -XX:+AlwaysPreTouch \
  -XX:G1NewSizePercent=30 \
  -XX:G1MaxNewSizePercent=40 \
  -jar paper.jar nogui

Set -Xms and -Xmx to the same value - this prevents the JVM from wasting time resizing the heap.

Key server.properties settings:

view-distance=10
simulation-distance=8
network-compression-threshold=256
max-tick-time=60000

Reducing view-distance from the default 16 to 10 dramatically reduces RAM and CPU usage with minimal visual impact.

Deploy a standalone Bedrock Dedicated Server (BDS) for Xbox, mobile, and Windows 10/11 players.

1. Import the Bedrock egg from the Pelican Eggs repository
2. The egg downloads BDS automatically on first start
3. Open port 19132/UDP in your firewall

ufw allow 25565/tcp   # Java Edition
ufw allow 19132/udp   # Bedrock Edition
ufw reload

Test the connection from an Xbox, mobile, or Windows Bedrock client using your VPS IP and port 19132.

Geyser allows Bedrock players (Xbox, mobile, Windows) to join your Java Edition server. Floodgate removes the requirement for Bedrock players to have a Java account. This is a genuine differentiator - very few VPS hosting guides cover this setup.

Setup steps:

1. Download the Geyser-Spigot plugin and drop it in your Java server's plugins/ folder
2. Restart the server to generate Geyser's config.yml
3. Edit plugins/Geyser-Spigot/config.yml:

bedrock:
  address: 0.0.0.0
  port: 19132
  motd1: "My Crossplay Server"

remote:
  address: 127.0.0.1
  port: 25565

auth-type: floodgate

4. Download and install the Floodgate plugin to the same plugins folder
5. Restart the server - Bedrock players can now join via port 19132

Use Pelican Panel's built-in backup system, or configure rclone for offsite backups.

• Pelican Panel - Configure backup schedule and retention in server settings (local or S3 target)
• rclone to Backblaze B2 - Budget-friendly offsite backup at $0.006/GB

Always test your backup restore process before you actually need it.

Key administrative commands via the Pelican Panel console or RCON:

# Give operator status (full permissions)
op PlayerName

# Enable whitelist mode
whitelist on
whitelist add PlayerName

# RCON remote commands
# Available through the Panel console tab

OP Permission Levels:

• Level 1 - Bypass spawn protection
• Level 2 - Use /clear, /gamemode, /tp, etc.
• Level 3 - Use /ban, /kick, /op
• Level 4 - Use /stop, /save-all (full server control)