Running a Velocity proxy & Paper servers using Panel and Docker
Hey!
I am getting into the world of admins but I already have a few specs I want to try and achieve and I am starting by setting up the environment. (I am not looking for an easy setup, I am looking to learn and have control for the most parts)
So far I tested out running 2 paper servers with a velocity proxy from a windows machine, it works, it's awesome.
I want to move the setup to a control panel and use docker image/s for a bit more control and comfort.
What are the recommendation for such a setup?
- Linux server hosting service
- - Should I need to run each server/proxy on it's own instance?
- Recommendation for the docker setup
- - Separate each server/proxy as it's own image or should they always run together? (I see pros and cons for each)
- What should I do for backup?
- I would also add blumap/ dynamap, what should I take into account?
- Recommendation for the control panel?
- - I saw Pterodactyl but I am not too familiar with this game server control panels.
Also if you can recommend any guide (video or written) for a similar setup that would be a great help!
Thank you!
31 Replies
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Requested by zuk8375#0
If you are willing to, it's better to learn and run the servers on linux as it takes up less space and is more efficient than windows(combined with less bloat). You would just need one linux system to run all the games on and if you ran a panel, you could run the panel on that one machine as well. If you are manually running them in docker containers, each server needs its own docker container. For backup, you can simply copy the files, use plugins that automatically do so, or use the backup feature of pterodactyl to automatically create backups that you choose where they are to be stored.
Pterodactyl is the industry standard panel to run with currently for Linux.
If you want something that is newest of the new you can look at moonlight panel but you'll probably just want to stick with pterodactyl. pterodactyl manages all the docker networking and docker stuff. Pterodactyl can work with blumap /dynamap you just need to add an extra port to the server.
Pterodactyl has its own well written guide to set it up, https://pterodactyl.io under documentation
Pterodactyl
Pterodactyl is an open-source game server management panel built with PHP, React, and Go. Designed with security in mind, Pterodactyl runs all game servers in isolated Docker containers while exposing a beautiful and intuitive UI to end users.
Thank you! You gave tons of useful information, I appreciate it.
Haven't read the guide yet, so maybe it's stated there,I am looking for a cheap or even linux VPS to test out stuff and once I learned enough move on to one with all the needed specs.
If you want a test server I would recommend Oracle cloud free tier
You can make a pay as you go account and as long as you don’t go above the free tier resources, it will stay always free. This will give you a place to practice installing pterodactyl, wings, redis, and other services and getting used to Linux cli before you try it on your production server
Also docker is only needed for the panel. I would not recommend using it for each game server as it requires advanced knowledge and the ease of use is severely less
From the comment above it guess I will only need one instance (which is provided with the free tier).
Am I correct assuming that?
I'm a full stack dev, so although I am not familiar with and game servers I want to learn.
And am working with docker on a day to day basis
So learning here is part of the goal
And I have the benefit of taking the setup with me once I've set those up, in case I want to move to a different machine
One more question, how would I know what specs to aim for? What are the benchmarks?
depends on budget and sustainability of how long you want to run said minecraft server and proxy. along with expected player count
i have a decent cpu for private / small sessions with like 10 players without issues. but going production it’ll be hectic because a i9-9900k wont be able to run 8-10 servers with players on its own
I'm looking to have a great performance for the players, but with that.
It would just be an SMP and a creative server.
And it would be light on mods and plugins.
Budget is but not an issue, but no need to go crazy for no reason
ok
hmm, id suggest finding ryzen cpus, like 5k series maybe low 7k series, as they have Really good single thread performance (minecraft is a single? thread game)
like a 5950x will do you fine for a long while
creative not a great idea
Awesome thank you!
Why is that?
1 spawn egg = end of dedi :LUL:
well actually, end of that instance since its all docker
crash exploits, etc and a ton of other issues
a private friends only creative is better then a public one
What about removing entities or constantly clearing those items from players inventories?
I am not the first to do this, so a solution must exists
i mean probably? but giving creative to anyone that can join isnt the best. Maybe if you have a long list of banned items and can only build its good
Probably gonna have a whitelist.
Also I dint plan on players "playing" on creative, just testing builds and redstone.
We are playing a lot with redstone and it's always a bummer finding out the server you play on don't support some mechanics
yeah thats fine, and fair
but they dont support some mechanics because of the plugin loaders they have, like purpur or paper as they by default disable redstone things iirc
i could be very wrong, i mainly deal with modded servers and thats my jam
But what I plan is never what the end user does... So probably some research won't hurt
100%
also, never give the /give command 😛
You are right, I think stuff like tnt duping is off by default on paper
yes that i know
thankfully lol
fabric/forge dont do any of those by default
I'm yeah, but also rip some farms
yeah
I'd rather ban someone once in a while
@Zuk yes just max out the instance with the resources from free tier: ampere arm shape with Ubuntu 22.04 image, 24 GB RAM with 200 GB boot volume and 4 OCPU cores. As long as you don’t create another virtual machine you will stay in the free tier and not get charged. I recommend installing pterodactyl on the instance and using it as a test environment for servers, web deployments, databases, etc.
As for a creative server, you’ll need to heavily lock down entities, minecarts, spawn eggs, nbt exploits, crash glitches, etc. It can be a lengthy process of trial and error
iirc oracle is like ALWAYS out of their free tiers
:Sadge:
you can upgrade to the PAYG tier
the capacity is much higher for paid tiers but it still uses free resources first
so as long as you stay within the free resources you get you won’t be charged
I am trying to make it out, I can use the specs you suggested expect for the boot volume which is 50gb for free tier, I am reaching 4.35 while I have 250 euros credit for the trial
should I try and use more of it?
There is a bug with Oracle that says you will be charged in the bottom right box
even if you're within the free resources
Yeah I see that, I guess it ok if they are using the credit
Is there a time limit for the free tier?
as long as you actually use the machine you'll usually not get terminated
if your machine has low resource usage for extended periods of time
you're at risk of being terminated