karlrees/mcserver_docker_archsystemd

Minecraft Server (Bedrock) for Docker

This project has been replaced by https://github.com/karlrees/docker_bedrockserver, which takes advantage of the official server released in the latest Minecraft version.

A Docker image and docker-compose file to run one or more instances of a native Minecraft Bedrock server using codehz/mcpeserver in an ArchLinux environment wth systemd.

Changes in this version

v0.2.1

• Moved the unpacking of the minecraft.apk file to run time instead of build time so that the project can be used without having to rebuild it.
• Changed the stucture I was using to link external volumes to be more user-friendly (I think)
• Various other enhancements

Background

My kids wanted a Minecraft (Bedrock) server so that they can play the same worlds on any of their devices at home. We stumbled upon mcpelauncher (https://github.com/MCMrARM/mcpelauncher-linux) and then mcpeserver (https://github.com/codehz/mcpeserver).

This worked well for a single server, but my kids each have their own worlds they want to serve, and they want to be able to bring these up and down quickly. Long story short, for various reasons, I decided it was time to teach myself about Docker, and run the servers in a docker image.

The biggest challenge was to figure out how to get systemd running on an ArchLinux, as that was required for codehz/mcpeserver. Now, I realize that running systemd in Docker is generally ***ed a no-no, but I was in a hurry and didn't want to reverse engineer mcpeserver to run it without systemd (saving that for a future project).

So this is my first Docker project. Don't be too hard on me if I'm doing something terribly wrong.

Prerequisites

• Docker
• docker-compose (if you want to use the instructions for multiple servers)
• A Minecraft x86 .apk file (e.g. use mcpelauncher to access the Minecraft apk file)

Instructions

Single-server / New world

To build/run a single server with a new world on the host:

1. Download the latest Minecraft x86 apk file.
2. Save the file as "minecraft.apk" to a folder on the host. We'll refer to this folder subsequently as the "resource" folder.
3. Pull the docker image.

docker pull karlrees/mcserver_docker_archsystemd

4. Start the docker container, replacing "/path/to/resource/folder" with the absolute path to the "resource" folder in which you stored the apk file in step 2.

docker run --privileged -v /sys/fs/cgroup:/sys/fs/cgroup:ro -v /path/to/resource/folder:/mcresources -d --network="host" karlrees/mcserver_docker_archsystemd

Single-server / Existing world

To build/run a single server using a pre-existing Bedrock world folder:

1. Complete steps 1-3 above.
2. Create (or locate) a parent folder to store (or that already stores) your Minecraft worlds. We'll refer this folder subsequently as the parent "worlds" folder.
3. Locate the "world" folder that stores the existing Minecraft world data for the world you wish to serve. This may or may not be named "world", but we'll refer to it subsequently as the "world" folder.
4. Save the "world" under the parent "worlds" folder.
5. If needed, rename the "world" folder to a new name of your liking.
6. Create or locate a default.cfg file for your world (this is in the same format as server.properties)
7. Save the default.cfg file as "worldname.cfg" in the "resources" folder, where worldname is the name of your "world" folder.
8. Change the level-name and level-dir attribute values from "world" to "worldname" (or whatever your "world" folder is named)
9. Start docker container as shown below, replacing "worldname" with whatever your "world" folder is named, and "/path/to/world/folder" with the absolute path to your parent worlds folder:

docker run --privileged -e WORLD=worldname -v /sys/fs/cgroup:/sys/fs/cgroup:ro -v /path/to/resource/folder:/mcresources -v /path/to/worlds/folder:/srv/mcpeserver/worlds -d --network="host" karlrees/mcserver_docker_archsystemd

Multiple existing worlds / docker-compose

To run multiple servers using multiple pre-existing Bedrock worlds, each running at a separate IP address:

1. Download the source code from git

git clone https://github.com/karlrees/mcserver_docker_archsystemd

2. Complete steps 1-9 above, using the resource folder in the source code to store the apk file and cfg file, and using the worlds folder in the source code as the parent "worlds" folder. Repeat steps 3-8 for each world you wish to run.
3. Edit envirnonment variables as needed (e.g. change the IP Prefix to match your subnet, eth0 to match your network interface, etc.)
4. Edit the docker-compose file to include a separate section for each server. Be sure to change the name for each server to match what you used in step 2. Be sure to use a different IP address or each server as well.
5. Run docker-compose

docker-compose up -d

Sorry for any confusing instructions. Just thought it'd be better to share with terse instructions than not at all.

Known Issues

Because of Windows permission difficulties, mounting external volumes for Minecraft worlds does not appear to work when using a Windows host.

To-do list

• Auto-detect apk file name and use latest version unless explicitly overridden
• See if I can get away from systemd