install java 17 for basic servers

apt install openjdk-17-jdk

or install java 21 for latest paper

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates apt-transport-https gnupg wget
wget -O - https://apt.corretto.aws/corretto.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/corretto-keyring.gpg && \
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/corretto-keyring.gpg] https://apt.corretto.aws stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/corretto.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y java-21-amazon-corretto-jdk libxi6 libxtst6 libxrender1

create minecraft directory

mkdir -p /opt/minecraft

create minecraft user

useradd minecraft -d /opt/minecraft -s /bin/bash -p <password>

put service in /etc/systemd/system

cp minecraft@.service /etc/systemd/system
systemctl daemon-reload

download mcrcon here

cd /opt/minecraft
mkdir bin
cd bin
wget https://github.com/Tiiffi/mcrcon/releases/download/v0.7.2/mcrcon-0.7.2-linux-x86-64.tar.gz
tar -xvf mcrcon-0.7.2-linux-x86-64.tar.gz
rm LICENSE

put manage.sh in /opt/minecraft/bin

don't forget to make it executable

chmod +x /opt/minecraft/bin/manage.sh

create a new folder in /opt/minecraft with the name of your server

put server.conf.template as server.conf in the folder you just created and edit it

put your server jar/server (paper for exemple) files in the folder you just created

don't forget to put a link to java bin in the server folder

ln -s /usr/bin/java /opt/minecraft/<server_name>/java

or

ln -s /opt/minecraft/<server_name>/jdk... /opt/minecraft/<server_name>/java

if jdk included with the server

after the first launch of your server, don't forget to edit MCRCON port/password in server.properties and to enable rcon

enable-rcon=true

change the flag in eula.txt to true after the first launch

to start the server

systemctl start minecraft@<server_name>

to stop the server

systemctl stop minecraft@<server_name>

to restart the server

systemctl restart minecraft@<server_name>

to check the server status

systemctl status minecraft@<server_name>

to check the server logs

journalctl -xefu minecraft@<server_name>

you can use mcrcon bin to send command to the server

to auto start the server on boot

systemctl enable minecraft@<server_name>

if you want to add custom java flags that are recommanded, here's some of them

JAVA_OPTIONS= -XX:+UseG1GC -XX:+ParallelRefProcEnabled -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=200 -XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions -XX:+DisableExplicitGC -XX:+AlwaysPreTouch -XX:G1NewSizePercent=40 -XX:G1MaxNewSizePercent=50 -XX:G1HeapRegionSize=16M -XX:G1ReservePercent=15 -XX:G1HeapWastePercent=5 -XX:G1MixedGCCountTarget=4 -XX:InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent=20 -XX:G1MixedGCLiveThresholdPercent=90 -XX:G1RSetUpdatingPauseTimePercent=5 -XX:SurvivorRatio=32 -XX:+PerfDisableSharedMem -XX:MaxTenuringThreshold=1 -Dusing.aikars.flags=https://mcflags.emc.gs -Daikars.new.flags=true