Minecraft servers managed in a lightweight Kubernetes cluster
Thanks to https://github.com/itzg/docker-minecraft-server and https://k3s.io/
This is a very easy set of instructions for setting up a Kubernetes cluster and deploying minecraft java edition servers.
It has been tested on Ubuntu 20.10 and Raspbian Bullseye.
Give it a try, K3S provides a good uninstaller that will clean up your system if you decide to back out.
(If you are installing on a Raspberry Pi, first prepare the Pi with steps here)
Execute this command on your server to set up the cluster master (aka K3S Server node):
curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | sh -
Install kubectl on the workstation from which you will be managing the cluster (workstation==server if you have one machine only)
curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl"
sudo install -o root -g root -m 0755 kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl
Go to the server machine and copy over the kubectl configuration to your workstation
sudo scp /etc/rancher/k3s/k3s.yaml <YOUR_ACCOUNT>@<YOUR_WORKSTATION>:.kube/config
# edit the file .kube/config replacing 127.0.0.1 with your server IP Address
From the workstation execute the following:
kubectl create namespace minecraft
kubectl config set-context minecraft --namespace=minecraft --user=default --cluster=default
kubectl config use-context minecraft
This creates a namespace in which to create all of our minecraft assets, it then defines a context which uses that namespace as the default and sets this to be the current context.
Execute this on the workstation:
curl -fsSL -o get_helm.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/master/scripts/get-helm-3
bash get_helm.sh
Take a copy of the file minecraft-helm.yaml and call it my-first-mc.yaml. Edit the file and follow the comments to apply the settings you require for your server.
Then install using helm. I recommend using the same release name (argument after --install) as the basename of the file so you can easily keep track of which file your servers got their settings from. You can omit the rcon password if you disabled rcon in the yaml.
export HELM_EXPERIMENTAL_OCI=1
helm repo add minecraft-server-charts https://itzg.github.io/minecraft-server-charts/
helm upgrade --install my-first-mc -f my-first-mc.yaml --set minecraftServer.eula=true,rcon.password=<YOUR_RCON_PWD> minecraft-server-charts/minecraft
THAT IS ALL! You should see a minecraft server spin up with your server address and the port you specified in myfirst-mc.yaml.
You can edit the yaml and repeat the above command to update settings without deleting your world data. You can remove the minecraft server including world data with:
helm delete my-first-mc
| description | link |
|---|---|
| itgz minecraft image: | https://github.com/itzg/docker-minecraft-server |
| itgz helm chart: | https://artifacthub.io/packages/helm/minecraft-server-charts/minecraft |
| K3S: | https://k3s.io/ |
| Helm: | https://helm.sh |
| kubectl: | https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubectl/overview/ |
Go to your master / server and do:
sudo journalctl -fu k3s
First get the node token on your server:
sudo cat /var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/node-token
Then execute the following on your new node to create a K3S Agent:
curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | K3S_URL=https://gknuc:6443 K3S_TOKEN=<your token string> sh -
Use the script included in this repo to save/restore backups and save typing for a few other commands. See details by invoking the following:
$ source k8s-mc.sh
$ k8s-mchelp
This script adds the following functions to bash. It assumes that your
servers have been deployed using:
https://artifacthub.io/packages/helm/minecraft-server-charts/minecraft
or using the k8s-mcdeploy function below.
In all cases below <server name> is the helm chart release name.
k8s-mclist
list all minecraft servers deployed to the cluster
k8s-mcports
details of the ports exposed by servers and rcon
k8s-mcstart <server name>
start the server (set replicas to 1)
k8s-mcstop <server name>
stop the server (set replicas to 0)
k8s-mcexec <server name>
execute bash in the server's container
k8s-mclog <server name> [-p] [-f]
get logs for the server
-p = log for previous instance after a restart of the pod
-f = attach to the log and monitor it
k8s-mcdeploy <my_server_def.yaml>
deploys a server to the cluster with release name my_server_def and
with values overrides from my_server_def.yaml
recommended: copy and edit minecraft-helm.yaml for most common options,
see in file comments for details.
k8s-mcbackups
List the backups in the folder [MCBACKUP not yet specified]
k8s-mcbackup <server name>
zips up the server data folder to a dated zip file and places it
in the folder [MCBACKUP not yet specified] (prompts for MCBACKUP if not set)
k8s-mcrestore <server name> <backup file name>
restore the world from backup for a server, overwriting its
current world