Because its fun and my kids love it, this is a Docker image for a vanilla Minecraft server.

To quickly get the latest stable version of Minecraft up and running, the following will get you started:

docker run -d --name=minecraft_server \
    -p 25556:25556 \
    -v /src \
    -e PUID=<uid> \
    -e PGID=<gid> \
    -e EULA=true \
    -e DEFAULT_OP=<name> \
    petemcw/docker-minecraft-server

Mojang requires you to agree to their Minecraft EULA. If you don't pass an acceptance variable the container will not start.

I am also requiring at least a single administrator to be specified. You can pass in a single username or a comma-separated list.

DEFAULT_OP=petemcw,<some_other_admin>

The container will default to the latest stable release. You can change the version used by specifying one of three values:

• latest -- most recent stable release
• snapshot -- most recent release
• 1.x.x -- specific version number, such as 1.8.9

For example to run the latest, bleeding-edge version:

docker run -d -e VERSION=snapshot ...

The image uses environment variables to alter the configuration of the Minecraft server and Java settings. The most common settings are highlighted below but any of the options from server.properties can be adjusted.

The variable EULA is required when creating a new container. Mojang requires that you agree before Minecraft can be run.

The variable DEFAULT_OP is required when creating a new container. Any usernames specified in the variable will be added to the ops.json file.

You can adjust the JVM settings by altering what is defined in the JAVA_OPS variable. This is useful for settings things like Java's memory limit.

The default location for MINECRAFT_HOME is /src, which is also a volume. All Minecraft related artifacts go here. To add mods, backup your world data, or make other changes to your server you must connect to your server container and make changes in this directory.

You can adjust the message that is shown below each server entry in the Minecraft UI by changing the MOTD variable.

To use spaces in the message you will need to quote the whole variable like so:

docker run -d -e "MOTD=Best Server Ever"

You can switch between worlds or run multiple servers with different worlds by changing the value of the LEVEL_NAME variable.

You can create your Minecraft world using a specific seed by passing the value within the LEVEL_SEED variable.

A few cool options are:

• 4031384495743822299
• 69160882195

This image defaults the Minecraft difficulty to normal. You can change the difficulty by switching the DIFFICULTY variable. The possible options are:

• 0 -- Peaceful
• 1 -- Easy
• 2 -- Normal
• 3 -- Hard

The default game mode for Minecraft is survival. You can change the mode by altering the GAMEMODE variable. The possible options are:

• 0 -- Survival
• 1 -- Creative
• 2 -- Adventure
• 3 -- Spectator (version 1.8 or later)

The default setting is for the player-vs-player (PVP) mode to be enabled. You can disable this functionality by setting the PVP variable to false.

For reference, here is a list of the variables that can be set for use with generating a server.properties file:

• ALLOW_FLIGHT
• ALLOW_NETHER
• ANNOUNCE_PLAYER_ACHIEVEMENTS
• DIFFICULTY
• ENABLE_COMMAND_BLOCK
• ENABLE_QUERY
• ENABLE_RCON
• FORCE_GAMEMODE
• GAMEMODE
• GENERATE_STRUCTURES
• GENERATE_SETTINGS
• LEVEL_NAME
• LEVEL_SEED
• LEVEL_TYPE
• MAX_BUILD_HEIGHT
• MAX_PLAYER
• MAX_TICK_TIME
• MAX_WORLD_SIZE
• MOTD
• NETWORK_COMPRESSION_THRESHOLD
• ONLINE_MODE
• OP_PERMISSION_LEVEL
• PLAYER_IDLE_TIMEOUT
• PVP
• RESOURCE_PACK
• RESOURCE_PACK_SHA1
• SERVER_IP
• SERVER_PORT
• SNOOPER_ENABLED
• SPAWN_ANIMALS
• SPAWN_MONSTERS
• SPAWN_NPCS
• USE_NATIVE_TRANSPORT
• VIEW_DISTANCE
• WHITE_LIST

This image has a single volume defined, /src. This volume contains all the Minecraft server and world data. You can learn more about how to manage data within a volume at Docker.

This is the preferred way for managing your containers boots your Minecraft server with a data volume container to make sure your data is persisted.

Assuming you have Docker Compose installed, you need to have a docker-compose.yml file with your container details:

minecraft:
  image: petemcw/minecraft-server
  ports:
    - "25565:25565"
  volumes_from:
    - minecraft_data
  restart: always
  environment:
    - ADVANCED_DISABLEUPDATES=true
    - PUID=501
    - PGID=20
    - EULA=true
    - DEFAULT_OP=petemcw

minecraft_data:
  image: tianon/true
  volumes:
    - /src

Using the example above, to launch your Minecraft server and persist your data:

docker-compose up -d minecraft