Crafty is a highly versatile control panel for Minecraft servers in Linux. Similar to a web panel, Crafty provides an easy-to-use interface for you to create, manage, and configure your own custom Minecraft server. This article will show you how you can install and deploy Crafty on your own Ubuntu server.
Do you know: you can host your own Minecraft server?
Why Host Minecraft Servers through Crafty?
One of the selling points of Crafty is that it provides a user-friendly platform where you can do anything with your Minecraft server. It removes all the hiccups of downloading dependencies and creating config files to run your Minecraft instance.
Aside from that, Crafty can also automatically manage multiple Minecraft servers at once. For example, you can run 1.12, 1.14, and 1.16 servers with little configuration. This makes it an attractive option if you want to provide a multi-version Minecraft experience for your players.
Lastly, Crafty only requires Docker, Docker Compose, and Nginx to deploy on your server. As such, it doesn’t require a lot of technical expertise to get started with the program. Further, Crafty’s use of Docker also means that it will not create any additional files inside your root filesystem.
Preparing the System for Crafty
Assumption: In this guide, we will install Crafty on an Ubuntu 22.04 LTS server accessible on the internet.
Install Docker
The first step in deploying Crafty is to fetch and install the repository for Docker and Docker Compose. To do that, download the signing key from the Docker project:
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg<br>sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
Create a new repository file inside “/etc/apt/sources.list.d/”:
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list
Paste the following line of code inside your new repository file:
deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu jammy stable
Reload your system’s repository listings and upgrade all of your current packages:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
Install Docker and Docker Compose along with their dependencies:
sudo apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-compose-plugin docker-buildx-plugin nginx
Make sure that the “core” snap package is available and running in your system:
sudo snap install core
Fetch the Certbot snap package from the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
sudo snap install certbot --classic
Fetching and Installing Crafty
Go to your home directory, then create all of the necessary folders for Crafty:
cd ~ && mkdir crafty cd ./crafty && mkdir -p ./{backups,logs,servers,config,import}
Create a new “docker-compose.yml” file using your favorite text editor:
nano ./docker-compose.yml
Paste the following block of code inside your new file:
version: '3' services: crafty: container_name: crafty image: registry.gitlab.com/crafty-controller/crafty-4:latest restart: always environment: - TZ=Etc/UTC ports: - "8000:8000" - "8443:8443" - "8123:8123" - "19132:19132/udp" - "25500-25600:25500-25600" volumes: - ./backups:/crafty/backups - ./logs:/crafty/logs - ./servers:/crafty/servers - ./config:/crafty/app/config - ./import:/crafty/import
Save your new “docker-compose.yml” file, then run the following command to build your Crafty container:
sudo docker compose up -d
Once done, check if your Docker setup is working properly by listing all the running containers in your system:
sudo docker ps
Creating an SSL Reverse Proxy for Crafty
At this point, you have a running instance of Crafty on your computer broadcasting on multiple ports. To access this securely, you need to create an SSL reverse proxy using Nginx.
Start by creating a new “A” DNS record for your Crafty instance. In this case, I am using “crafty” as a subdomain and pointing it to the IP address of my server.
Go back to your Crafty server, then create a new site configuration file using your favorite text editor:
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/crafty-web
Paste the following block of code inside your new config file:
server { server_name SUBDOMAIN.YOUR-ROOT.DOMAIN; location / { proxy_pass https://127.0.0.1:8443; proxy_http_version 1.1; proxy_redirect off; proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade; proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade"; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto https; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_buffering off; client_max_body_size 0; proxy_connect_timeout 3600s; proxy_read_timeout 3600s; proxy_send_timeout 3600s; send_timeout 3600s; } }
Replace the value of the “server_name” variable with your custom subdomain.
Link your site config file to your Nginx daemon’s “sites-enabled” folder:
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/crafty-web /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
Make sure that your Nginx instance is running, then reload its state:
sudo systemctl enable --now nginx.service sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
Register your machine using your email address to the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
sudo certbot register --agree-tos -m YOUR@EMAIL.ADDRESS
Request for a new SSL certificate for your subdomain:
sudo certbot --nginx -d SUBDOMAIN.YOUR-ROOT.DOMAIN
Check if your Crafty instance is accessible to your web browser by navigating to your subdomain.
Tip: learn how you can fix the common “404” error in Nginx.
Adding and Managing a Minecraft Server in Crafty
With your Crafty instance up and running you can now deploy your first Minecraft server. To do that, you need to first find your instance’s password.
Go back to your server’s terminal session, then open the “default-creds.txt” file:
nano ./config/default-creds.txt
Copy the value of the “password:” variable to your clipboard.
Navigate to your Crafty instance’s login page, type “admin” on the username then paste your password on the password textbox.
Click the Servers category on the dashboard’s sidebar, then select Create New Server.
Click the Server Type dropdown box, then select Vanilla.
Select the version of Minecraft that you want to host, then provide the name of your server on the Server Name textbox.
Click Build Server! to download the jar file for your Minecraft version.
Click your server name on the Crafty dashboard, then press Start to create your new Minecraft world.
Confirm that your new server is working properly by logging in to your Minecraft account.
Good to know: learn some of the best Minecraft seeds that you can use with your multiplayer world.
Adding Operator Accounts through Crafty
Operator (OP) Accounts are an important part of every Minecraft server. They allow you to control and manage the world directly from the game itself. Accordingly, Crafty offers a convenient interface where you can add and remove privileges from player accounts.
To create an OP account, click Servers, then your server name on the dashboard’s sidebar.
Click Player Management on the dashboard screen.
Find the name of the account that you want to promote to OP status, then click the yellow OP button.
Test if your player account is an OP user by logging in to your Minecraft server, and then running the following command in the game chat:
/gamemode 1
Doing this will change the default mode for your OP account from survival to creative which will remove its health and hunger bar.
Note: You can return your OP account to survival mode by running: /gamemode 0 on the in game chat.
Backing Up Your Minecraft Server Files
Maintaining an up-to-date backup of your world is vital for reducing the downtime of your server. To this end, Crafty provides the tools for you to quickly save your world’s dimension files to your host server’s filesystem.
Go to your server’s control panel, then click Backup.
Type “3” on the Max Backups textbox. This will ensure that the Crafty will only keep the three latest backups of your server.
Tick both Compress Backup and Shutdown server for the duration of backup checkboxes.
Click Save to commit your new settings, then press Backup Now! to create the first backup of your server.
Aside from manual backups, you can also create scheduled backups for your Minecraft servers. To do that, click the Schedule category on your server’s dashboard.
Click Create New Schedule, then provide a name for your scheduled task. In my case, I will name it Automatic Backup.
Press the Action dropdown box, then select Backup Server.
Set a reasonable interval and time for your scheduled backup. For instance, you can set it to back up your world once a day at 3 AM in the morning.
Click Save to commit and enable your scheduled backup for your Minecraft server.
Deploying and hosting your own server controller using Crafty is just one of the things that you can do in a wonderful blocky world. Learn how you can speed up and increase the frame rate of your game by installing OptiFine for Minecraft.
Image credit: Crafty Controller Gitlab. All alterations and screenshots by Ramces Red.
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