Minecraft SMP Guide

1. Running Your Server Locally

Before launching your server to the public, it's critical to test it locally. The Express Launcher uses Docker to spin up your Bedrock server in an isolated container.

How it works:

• Building: Clicking "Start Local" will execute docker build using your provided Dockerfile. This downloads the official Bedrock server binaries and copies your local world data.
• Running: It runs the container and exposes UDP port 19132.
• Joining: Open your Minecraft client, go to Servers -> Add Server, and use 127.0.0.1 or localhost with port 19132.

2. Hosting on Google Cloud

Once you are ready to open the server to the community, you'll need a public IP. We offer two pathways:

Google Compute Engine (VM) - Recommended

Because Minecraft Bedrock relies heavily on UDP networking, a dedicated VM is the most reliable way to host.

• Firewall Rules: The launcher automatically provisions a firewall rule allowing UDP traffic on port 19132.
• Cost Management: Ensure you are using an e2-medium or e2-standard-2 instance depending on your player count. Remember to stop the VM from the Google Cloud Console when not in use to save money.
• Static IP: You may want to reserve a Static External IP address in GCP so your players don't have to change the server address if the VM restarts.

Google Cloud Run

Cloud Run is built for stateless HTTP containers, meaning Minecraft's UDP requirements are historically problematic without TCP proxying or specific load balancer configurations. Use this only for experimental deployments or WebSockets-based Java proxies.

3. Building a Community SMP

An SMP (Survival Multiplayer) thrives on community engagement. Hosting the server is only 20% of the work; community management is the other 80%.

Establish the Ground Rules

• Griefing & Stealing: Clearly state whether PvP, raiding, and griefing are allowed. Most SMPs operate on an honor system backed by regular world backups.
• Whitelist: Turn on white-list=true in your server.properties. Having an application process (via Discord or a Google Form) heavily reduces toxic players and hackers.

The Role of Discord

A Discord server is mandatory for a modern SMP. It acts as the town square when players are offline.

• Create channels for: #announcements, #general-chat, #server-rules, and #whitelist-applications.
• Use voice channels to encourage players to collaborate in-game.

Backups & Maintenance

World corruption or a malicious griefer can destroy months of progress.

• Always back up the worlds/ directory before updating the Minecraft server binary.
• Consider setting up a cron job to automatically zip and push the world folder to a Google Cloud Storage bucket every 24 hours.