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Setting Up Your Ultimate Minecraft Server: A FreeNAS Jail Guide

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Creating your own Minecraft server opens up a world of personalized gameplay, allowing you to craft unique experiences for yourself and your friends. Utilizing FreeNAS to host your Minecraft server within a jail offers a robust and efficient solution, keeping your server isolated and your system organized. This comprehensive guide will walk you through setting up a dedicated Minecraft Server Server environment on FreeNAS, ensuring optimal performance and manageability.

Step-by-Step Guide to Installing Your Minecraft Server in a FreeNAS Jail

This guide is designed to be straightforward, even if you’re new to server administration or FreeNAS. We will cover every step, from jail creation to server management, ensuring you have a fully functional Minecraft server running smoothly.

1. Creating Your FreeNAS Jail for Minecraft Server

Jails in FreeNAS provide isolated environments, which is ideal for hosting applications like Minecraft servers. This isolation enhances security and system stability.

  1. Navigate to the “Jails” section in your FreeNAS WebGUI.
  2. Click “Add Jail”.
  3. Configure the jail settings as follows (adjust IP addresses as needed for your network):
    • Jail Name: minecraftserver (Descriptive and easy to identify)
    • Jail Type: portjail (Standard jail type for applications)
    • IPv4 Address: 192.168.2.128 (Choose an available IP address on your network)
    • IPv4 Netmask: /24 (255.255.255.0) (Standard netmask for most home networks)
    • MAC Address: Leave as default (Automatically generated)
    • Autostart: Checked (Ensures the jail starts automatically on boot)
    • VIMAGE: Unchecked (Generally not needed for this setup)
    • NAT: Unchecked (Direct IP address assignment is preferred)
    • vanilla: Unchecked (We are setting up manually)
  4. Click “Save” to create the jail.

2. Installing Required Packages Inside the Jail

Once the jail is created, you need to access its shell to install the necessary software.

  1. Start the minecraftserver jail if it’s not already running.
  2. Click on the jail name, then select “Shell”. This will open a command-line interface within the jail.
  3. As the root user, execute the following command to install Java (OpenJDK) and Screen (for server management): 
    pkg install openjdk screen
  4. Confirm the installation of any dependencies when prompted. This process may take a few minutes depending on your internet speed.
  5. (Optional) For easier file editing within the jail, you can install nano (a text editor) and sudo (for user privilege management): 
    pkg install nano sudo

3. Setting Up the Minecraft Server Directory Structure

Creating a dedicated directory for your Minecraft server files keeps things organized.

  1. Still within the jail shell as root, create the /srv and /srv/minecraft directories using these commands: 
    mkdir /srv
mkdir /srv/minecraft

4. Creating a Dedicated Minecraft User

For security best practices, it’s recommended to run the Minecraft server under a non-root user.

  1. In the jail shell as root, run the adduser command to create a new user:

    adduser

  2. Follow the prompts to create the minecraft user. Here are suggested settings:

    • Username: minecraft
    • Full name: Minecraft Server User (Or any name you prefer)
    • Uid: Press Enter (Accept default)
    • Login group: Press Enter (Accept default)
    • Login group is minecraft. Invite minecraft into other groups?: Press Enter (No additional groups needed)
    • Login class: Press Enter (Accept default)
    • Shell: csh (Or bash if preferred. csh is used in the original guide)
    • Home directory: Press Enter (Accept default)
    • Use password-based authentication?: yes
    • Use an empty password?: no
    • Use a random password?: no
    • Enter password: Choose a strong password for the minecraft user.
    • Enter password again: Re-enter the password to confirm.
    • Lock out the account after creation?: no
    • OK?: yes (If all details are correct)
    • Add another user? (yes/no): no

  3. (Optional) Set a password for the root user within the jail if you haven’t already:

    passwd

5. Stop the Jail Before File Configuration

It’s generally safer to stop the jail before making significant file changes to avoid potential conflicts.

  1. Go back to the FreeNAS WebGUI, navigate to the “Jails” section.
  2. Stop the minecraftserver jail by clicking the “Stop” button.

6. Installing Minecraft Server Files and Scripts

Now we need to place the Minecraft server software and the management scripts into the jail.

  1. Download the Minecraft server .jar file from the official Minecraft website or from Mojang’s download page. Ensure you are downloading the server version.
  2. Rename the downloaded .jar file to minecraft_server.jar for simplicity and consistency with the scripts.
  3. Using your preferred method (like SMB/CIFS share if you have FreeNAS shares set up, or scp), copy the minecraft_server.jar file to the /mnt/tank/jails/minecraftserver/srv/minecraft/ directory on your FreeNAS system. (Note: Adjust /mnt/tank/jails/ to the actual path of your jails dataset.) If you have CIFS shares configured to /mnt/tank, you can access the jail’s directory through your network shares.
  4. Download the mcwatchdog and minecraft scripts (ensure these are obtained from a trusted source, you may need to create these scripts based on the original article’s logic if not provided directly). These scripts are crucial for automatically managing and restarting your Minecraft server.
  5. Place both mcwatchdog and minecraft scripts (without file extensions) into the /mnt/tank/jails/minecraftserver/usr/local/etc/rc.d/ directory.
  6. (Optional but Recommended) If you need to configure SSH access more granularly, you can modify the sshd_config file located at /mnt/tank/jails/minecraftserver/etc/ssh/sshd_config. However, for basic setup, the default configuration usually suffices. If you do modify it, be cautious not to overwrite existing configurations if you have other SSH setups.

7. Booting Up and Setting Permissions

With files in place, we need to boot the jail and set the correct permissions for the scripts and directories.

  1. Start the minecraftserver jail from the FreeNAS WebGUI.
  2. Access the jail shell again as root.
  3. Execute the following commands to set permissions and enable services: 
    chmod +x /usr/local/etc/rc.d/mcwatchdog
chmod +x /usr/local/etc/rc.d/minecraft
chgrp -R wheel /usr/local/etc/rc.d
chmod -R 777 /srv  # Less secure, consider more restrictive permissions if you understand FreeBSD permissions
chown -R root:wheel /srv # Correcting ownership for /srv and subdirectories for better security. Original guide had chown -R root /srv, and chgrp -R minecraft /srv, this is revised for clarity and security.
sysrc mcwatchdog_enable=YES
sysrc minecraft_enable=YES
sysrc sshd_enable=YES

    Note: chmod -R 777 /srv grants very open permissions and is generally discouraged for production environments. For a more secure setup, you should understand FreeBSD permissions and set more restrictive permissions as needed, ensuring the minecraft user has appropriate access. Setting ownership to root:wheel for /srv and then adjusting permissions more granularly is a more secure approach than chown -R root /srv and chgrp -R minecraft /srv with wide-open 777 permissions.

8. Verifying Server Startup

Let’s check if the Minecraft server and watchdog are running correctly.

  1. In the jail shell as root, start the SSH and watchdog services: 
    service sshd start
service mcwatchdog start
  2. Check the status of the Minecraft server. The mcwatchdog script should automatically start the minecraft service. You can check logs if available or try connecting to your server from a Minecraft client.
  3. As a test, stop the jail from the FreeNAS WebGUI and then start it again. This will simulate a system reboot and verify that the Minecraft server starts automatically with the jail. Allow 5-10 seconds after starting the jail before attempting to connect to the server.

9. Administering Your Minecraft Server

To manage your Minecraft server console, you’ll use SSH and Screen.

  1. Use an SSH client (like PuTTY on Windows or the built-in ssh command on macOS/Linux) to connect to the IP address of your minecraftserver jail.
  2. Log in with the username minecraft and the password you set earlier.
  3. Once logged in via SSH, type the following command to access the Minecraft server console: 
    screen -x
  4. You are now in the live Minecraft server console. You can type Minecraft server commands (like /op <your_minecraft_username>, /stop, etc.).
  5. To detach from the Screen session without stopping the server, press Ctrl+a then d. The Minecraft server will continue running in the background. To re-attach, use screen -x again. Avoid using Ctrl+C in the screen session as it might stop the Minecraft server. Simply close your SSH client or detach from the screen when you are done administering.

10. Adjusting RAM Settings for Your Minecraft Server

The default RAM allocation might need adjustment based on the number of players and server complexity.

  1. To modify the RAM settings, you need to adjust the minecraft_java_opts system variable. For example, to set the minimum RAM to 1GB and maximum to 2GB, use this command in the jail shell as root: 
    sysrc minecraft_java_opts="-Xms1G -Xmx2G"
    • -Xms1G sets the initial (minimum) heap size to 1GB.
    • -Xmx2G sets the maximum heap size to 2GB.
    • Adjust 1G and 2G as needed for your server requirements. Be mindful of your FreeNAS system’s total RAM.
  2. After changing RAM settings, restart the Minecraft service: 
    service minecraft restart

    (Alternatively, you can stop and start the mcwatchdog service, which will also restart Minecraft.)

11. Customizing server.properties

The server.properties file controls many aspects of your Minecraft server.

  1. The server.properties file is located in /srv/minecraft/ within your jail.
  2. To edit it, you should ideally stop the Minecraft server service first: 
    service minecraft stop
  3. Use a text editor like nano (if installed) or vi to edit server.properties: 
    nano /srv/minecraft/server.properties
  4. Modify the settings as desired (e.g., motd, max-players, gamemode, level-seed, etc.). Refer to the Minecraft Wiki for details on each property.
  5. Save the changes and exit the text editor.
  6. Restart the Minecraft server to apply the new settings: 
    service minecraft start

12. Installing Addons and Plugins (e.g., Bukkit/Spigot/Paper)

If you want to use server modifications like Bukkit, Spigot, or Paper for plugins, follow these steps:

  1. Stop the Minecraft server and ideally the jail for file replacement: 
    service minecraft stop
exit # Exit jail shell
# Stop the jail from FreeNAS WebGUI for safer file operations
  2. Download the Bukkit, Spigot, or Paper .jar file.
  3. Delete or rename the existing minecraft_server.jar in /mnt/tank/jails/minecraftserver/srv/minecraft/.
  4. Rename your downloaded Bukkit/Spigot/Paper .jar file to minecraft_server.jar.
  5. Copy the renamed .jar file to /mnt/tank/jails/minecraftserver/srv/minecraft/.
  6. Start the minecraftserver jail from the FreeNAS WebGUI and then start the Minecraft service from inside the jail shell if it’s not automatically started by mcwatchdog.

13. Network Accessibility and Port Forwarding

Making your Minecraft server accessible over the internet requires network configuration, specifically port forwarding on your router. This is highly dependent on your network setup and router model, and is beyond the scope of this guide. Consult your router’s manual or online resources for instructions on port forwarding port 25565 (default Minecraft server port) to the internal IP address of your FreeNAS jail (192.168.2.128 in this example).

14. Updating Your Minecraft Server

To update to a newer version of Minecraft server:

  1. Stop the minecraftserver jail.
  2. Download the new minecraft_server.jar file from the official Minecraft website.
  3. Replace the old minecraft_server.jar in /mnt/tank/jails/minecraftserver/srv/minecraft/ with the new one. Ensure the new .jar file is also named minecraft_server.jar.
  4. Start the minecraftserver jail.

To update packages within the jail (like Java or Screen):

  1. Stop the mcwatchdog and minecraft services: 
    service mcwatchdog stop
service minecraft stop
  2. Update the package repositories and upgrade installed packages: 
    pkg update
pkg upgrade
  3. Restart the mcwatchdog service to bring the Minecraft server back online: 
    service mcwatchdog start

By following these steps, you will have a fully functional and efficiently managed minecraft server server running in a FreeNAS jail. Enjoy creating and sharing your Minecraft world!

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