How Minecraft Servers Work

There’s a lot of talk about using a Minecraft server and having one, but nobody ever really stops to ask how they actually work under the hood. We’re going to explain that here, in the simplest terms possible.

As you probably know, most Minecraft servers are provided by Minecraft server hosting providers, ourselves included here at AleForge. Once you’ve got a server from a provider like us, you and your friends can join it and play together on the same persistent world, which is what makes cooperative gameplay possible in the first place.

Sounds simple enough, right?

The Infrastructure

It’s only simple from the front-end side of things, since all you have to do is log in and start playing. The background work is where it actually gets complicated. For a provider like us to offer you a server, three important pieces need to be in place first:

1. A data center, for the hardware and network
2. A reliable network and connection
3. Robust, high-performance server hardware that can handle the load, especially during peak hours

Data centers exist all around the world and form the literal backbone of the internet. They’re where most online data lives, and they’re where a provider like us physically houses our servers. From there, our servers connect to the wider internet through various Internet Service Providers (ISPs) available at that data center. That’s the foundation that gets everything online in the first place.

The Software

Now for the actual server side of things. Once the hardware and network are in place, the next step is installing our chosen Linux operating system, applying our custom configurations, and installing the hosting backend software. All of this, especially the performance and security tuning, has been refined over years of experience running servers at scale.

Minecraft servers run on Java (not to be confused with JavaScript, an entirely different language despite the similar name). Java is a cross-platform programming language that lets applications run across many different types of computers and devices with minimal extra work. Since Minecraft, both the game and the server software, was written in Java, that’s exactly why it runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux alike. In simple terms, Java is what actually “runs” the Minecraft server itself, think of it as a program on the computer that knows how to run other Java programs inside it. Getting Java set up correctly is usually the last piece needed before a Minecraft server is ready to go.

With everything in place for our nodes, the data center, network, hardware, operating system, and Java, all it takes from there is a single command. That command tells the node to automatically spin up and activate your server, bringing it online within seconds of placing an order. Behind the scenes, this runs through a series of automated commands and scripts that handle everything needed to create your server instance and get it booted up, ready for you to jump in and start playing.