MineCloud
MineCloud is an on-demand multiplayer server hosting solution based on AWS CDK (Cloud Development Kit) that allows users to set up an almost free on-demand game server for a Discord community in just a few minutes.
MineCloud supports the following games out of the box:
Don’t see your favorite games? Consider contributing to the list by following the Create and publish your own MineCloud Configuration Packages guides!
Enjoy your hassle-free server with your friends on Discord at almost no cost!
Features
- Discord Bot - start, stop, and backup the server with Discord commands (The server IP address will be sent to the Discord channel after start)
- Auto shutdown and backup when no one is online
- Support varieties of games out of the box
- Easy to setup - we do our best to make the process as simple as possible :)
- Almost free (≈60 cents for 20 hr play/month - with a 2 CPUs & 8GB RAM server)
- Fully customizable - install whatever mods you like
- No maintenance cost - don't have time to play? Just leave it there! It cost almost nothing
- Able to support new games by creating and publishing Configuration Packages
Supported Discord Commands
mc_start
: Start the server and send the IP address to the Discord channelmc_stop
: Stop the servermc_restart
: Restart the server processmc_backup
: Pause the server and create a backupmc_backup_download
: Get the download link of the latest backup
Cost Breakdown
with 20 hrs play / month
- Lambda: Free tier
- S3: 5GB free tier for first 12 months, $0.03/GB after that (default max backup count is 3)
- Data Transfer: Free tier, unless total data transfer exceeds 100GB
- EC2: 0.27 (
t2.large
spot price) * 20 (hr) ≈ $0.54/month - Total: ≈ $0.60/month
Please refer to Spot Instances Pricing and S3 Pricing for more information.
Diagram
For more details, please check out the wiki page.
Discord Server
Interested in MineCloud? Join our Discord Server!
How To Setup?
If you prefer, we have a step-by-step video tutorial ↓
Prerequisites
- A Discord account :)
- Node.js 18 (or above) - If haven't, go to https://nodejs.org to download and install the latest version
- Type
node --version
in the terminal to confirm Node is properly set up. You should see something like this:v18.xx.x
- Type
- An AWS account and AWS CLI
- If haven't already, go to https://aws.amazon.com/ to register an AWS account
- Download and install AWS CLI from here
- Type
aws --version
in the terminal to confirm AWS CLI is properly set up. Something like this should show up:aws-cli/2.10.0 Python/3.11.2 Windows/10 exe/AMD64 prompt/off
- Type
- Setup AWS CLI credentials:
- In the terminal, type:
When prompted, enter the
aws configure
Access key
andSecret access key
you got from the last step (and optionally choose the "default AWS region" and "output format") - Once done, type
aws sts get-caller-identity
in the terminal to confirm the AWS CLI credentials are set up correctly. Something like this should show up:{ "UserId": "1234567890", "Account": "1234567890", "Arn": "arn:aws:iam::1234567890:xxx" }
- Prerequisites done, now start the fun part :)
Set up MineCloud
- Pick a Configuration Package from your desired game. Next to the package you will see the corresponding MineCloud version (e.g.
MineCloud x.x.x
), download the corresponding version from the MineCloud release page and unzip it. - Open terminal in the MineCloud project directory:
- Install Node dependencies:
npm install
- Copy and paste the downloaded Configuration Package (e.g.
"1.19.4 Vanilla.zip"
) into the/minecloud_configs
folder. - Install Configuration Package:
npm run install-minecloud-config-pack
- The following message should be printed:
Successfully installed <Configuration Package Name> configuration package.
- The following message should be printed:
- Install Node dependencies:
- Open
MineCloud-Service-Info.ts
and fill in the following fields:AWS_ACCOUNT_ID
: Click the account name at the top-right corner of your AWS console and copy theAccount ID
AWS_REGION
: Pick a region that's closet to you. Some example values are:us-west-2
,ap-northeast-1
oreu-west-2
DISCORD_APP_ID
andDISCORD_PUBLIC_KEY
: Go to Discord Developer Portal and click "New Application" to create a new Discord APP. On the "General Information" page, you will find the App Id and Public Key.
  ÂDISCORD_BOT_TOKEN
: Go to the "Bot" tab, reset and copy the token- This is the Discord BOT that will handle our commands. If there's no BOT shown, click the "Add Bot" button to create a one
  Â
You can optionally setup the BOT avatar
- This is the Discord BOT that will handle our commands. If there's no BOT shown, click the "Add Bot" button to create a one
DISCORD_CHANNEL_WEB_HOOK
:- Open regular Discord, go to the Discord server you want to add MineCloud to, choose a text channel, and click "Edit Channel".
- Go to "Integrations" => "Webhooks", click "New Webhook" to create a new Webhook then copy it.
- This text channel is where our VM server instance will send updates to   Â
You can also optionally set up the BOT avatar here
- Deploy MineCloud
- (Optional) Customize Deployment
- Common customizable options (e.g. VM type, disk size...etc) can be found in
minecloud_configs\MineCloud-Configs.ts
- Follow the "Custom deployment" section on the Configuration Package's home page for games-specific customizations
- Common customizable options (e.g. VM type, disk size...etc) can be found in
- Open the terminal in the MineCloud folder and enter
npx cdk list
to make sure the build pass. You should see the stack name being printed:<Stack Name>
- Bootstrap your AWS account by running
npx cdk bootstrap aws://<AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>/<AWS_REGION>
- Before deploying, read through the End User License Agreement for the game (ex: Minecraft EULA, Factorio EULA)
- Enter
npx cdk deploy
to deploy the stack. - Sit back and relax, this will take like 5~10 minutes
☕ .- When you see a "The server instance is ready" message shown up in the Discord channel, this means your game server is almost ready to connect :)
- (Optional) Customize Deployment
- Setup BOT for your Discord server
- After MineCloud is deployed, go to your AWS CloudFormation page (make sure to select the right AWS region)
- Click on the deployed stack, go to "Outputs" and copy the value of "Discord Interaction End Point Url"
   - Go back to your Discord Developer Portal, select the APP created, and paste the URL into the "INTERACTIONS ENDPOINT URL" field.
   - Go to "OAuth2" => "URL Generator", select "application.commands" and click "Copy"
   - Open the copied URL (either in Discord or the browser) and add the BOT to your Discord server.
- You are all set now - Type any command (ex:
/mc_restart
) in the Discord text channel to give it a try🎉 !
  Â
ONE MORE THING!!!
If you have deployed MineCloud more than once, THERE MIGHT BE DANGLING SPOT INSTANCE REQUESTS THAT WILL CONSTANTLY CHARGE YOU. MAKE SURE TO CHECK YOUR EC2 SPOT REQUESTS TAB AND CANCEL THE DANGLING SPOT REQUEST IF THERE'S ANY!!
Managing the Server after Deployment
After Deployment, the server can be managed by SSH terminals and SFTP clients.
MineCloud's working directory is /opt/minecloud
and the game server folder is located at /opt/minecloud/server
.
Different Configuration Packages may have different file-saving locations, please refer to the Configuration Package's homepage for more details.
Accessing the Server Terminal
The server can be connected via SSH, the easiest way to do it is by using the "Connect" button at the top-right of the EC2 instance page on the AWS console.
For useful commands, please check out the Useful Linux Commands section on the Wiki.
Interact with the Game Server
The game server is running in a Screen session. To interact with the game server:
- Type
sudo screen -ls
to list out the screen session, and typesudo screen -r
to enter the session - When done, use
Ctrl-a Ctrl-d
to exit the session.
Manually Start/Stop the Game Server
To manually start/stop the game server:
- Pause the MineCloud service first:
sudo systemctl stop minecloud.service
- Go to the server directory with:
cd /opt/minecloud/server
, - Manually start the game server:
sudo ./start_server.sh
- Manually stop the game server:
sudo ./stop_server.sh
- Once done, Resume the MineCloud service:
sudo systemctl start minecloud.service
Usually, we will want to do this to make sure the server can start up correctly after we've made changes to the server files.
As long as ./start_server.sh
and ./start_server.sh
function properly, MineCloud service can start/stop the game server when the VM start and stop.
Managing Server Files
To make changes to the server files, connect to your EC2 instance with an SFTP client (ex: WinSCP).
Step-by-Step Guide for Windows:
- Download and install WinSCP
- Install PuTTY (which should come with
PuTTY Key Generator
) - Setup key pair:
- Open
PuTTY Key Generator
and click "Generate". When done, you should see your public key in the "Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys" field - Turn on your EC2 instance, connect to the instance terminal via the AWS web console
- Type
sudo nano .ssh/authorized_keys
to edit. Copy and paste in the public key from the "Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys" field as a new line andctrl+x
to save the file. - In
PuTTY Key Generator
, click "Save private key" to save your private key. - Your key pair is ready now!
- Open
- Connect to your machine with WinSCP to edit the server files
- Before connecting, you will want to change the files' owner first. To do so:
- In the EC2 terminal launched in previous steps. Run
sudo su
to become root user, and runchown -R ec2-user:ec2-user /opt/minecloud/server
to change the owner of the server files to our WinSCP login user. - This is a workaround for our current user permission setup. We will further address this in future releases.
- In the EC2 terminal launched in previous steps. Run
- In the EC2 terminal, run
sudo systemctl stop minecloud.service
to pause the MineCloud system service - Open WinSCP, paste in the server IP, click "Advanced" => "SSH/Authentication" and select the private key.
- Save and click "Login" to connect. Input "ec2-user" for the user name when prompted.
- You are all set now! Navigate to
/opt/minecloud/server
and start editing the server and world files. - When done, run
sudo /opt/minecloud/server/start_server.sh
to make sure the server can start properly and runsudo systemctl start minecloud.service
to enable the MineCloud system service again.
- Before connecting, you will want to change the files' owner first. To do so:
Deploy Multiple Game Servers
- We can have multiple MineCloud game servers for a Discord server (ex: 1 Minecraft server and 1 Terraria server)
- Every game server needs to have its own Discord Bot and CloudFormation stack name. CloudFormation Stack name can be set via the
STACK_NAME
field inminecloud_configs/MineCloud-Configs.ts
. - We can also have 2 versions of the same game (ex: Minecraft Vanilla 1.19.4 and Minecraft Forge server 1.19.3) as long as they have different Stack names.
Need Help?
Common questions and troubleshooting can be found in the FAQs & Troubleshooting page.
You can also create a question post or ask on Discord if you like.
Support this project
A star will be appreciated ;)
Also, feel free to contribute to the project if you have any thoughts!