A Bedrock Dedicated Server your whole group can join

Will a Bedrock world fit on your server?

Almost certainly, because the official numbers are modest. The Minecraft download page asks for a processor on the level of an Intel Core i3 3210 or an AMD A8 7600 APU, 4 GB of memory and between 180 MB and 1 GB of free disk. Its FAQ goes lower still: 1 GB of memory will do for a small server, it says. The guide inside the zip recommends two cores or more on a 64-bit Intel or AMD chip.

Two things matter more than raw size. The Linux build needs Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or later, and the download page says other distributions are not supported. It also needs Intel or AMD, so an ARM machine will not run it. After that, your own settings decide the load: player count, view distance and tick distance all add work, as the guide warns.

Who can play, and on what

Anyone on Bedrock Edition. Mojang's download page names PCs running Windows, Xbox, PlayStation, phones and tablets, and the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2; everyone types in one address and one port. Friends on the Java edition are a different game with a different server; if that is your group, our Java Minecraft server guide is the one to follow.

Every player signs in with an Xbox account. The server guide says remote players are always authenticated by Xbox Live, and that you should leave online-mode=true when your server is open to the Internet. One habit saves a lot of confusion: keep your server on the same version as your players' games. Microsoft's own guide explains that a mismatch shows up as an Outdated Client or Outdated Server message.

Up and running in an evening

1. Open minecraft.net/download/server/bedrock in your browser. Read the two documents it links, the Minecraft End User License Agreement and the privacy policy, tick the box to accept them, choose Ubuntu (Linux) rather than the Preview, and download the zip.
2. Log in to your server. Switch the firewall on with SSH allowed first, so nothing is exposed while you work.
3. Make a separate account just for the game, so it never runs with full admin rights.
4. Send the zip to the server and unpack it into that account's folder.

# on the server
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y unzip tmux
sudo ufw allow OpenSSH && sudo ufw enable
sudo adduser --system --group --shell /bin/bash --home /opt/bedrock bedrock

# on your computer, from the folder holding the download
scp bedrock-server-*.zip you@your-server:/tmp/

# on the server again
sudo -u bedrock bash -c 'cd /opt/bedrock && unzip -q /tmp/bedrock-server-*.zip'

Good to know before you start: the guide in the zip says that when the server crashes, it sends Mojang information about the crash automatically.

Opening the right doors for players

Players connect to port 19132 by default. Under the default nethernet transport, IPv6 players use that same port, because one dual-stack socket serves both. Only the older raknet mode listens for IPv6 separately, on 19133. What you open depends on a setting called transport. The current download (version 1.26.52.3 when we checked, 23 October 2026) uses nethernet: a TCP handshake on 19132, then a separate UDP connection for each player. The older raknet mode uses UDP on 19132 for IPv4 and UDP on 19133 for IPv6, nothing else.

With nethernet, tell the server which UDP ports it may use, or it picks random ones your firewall will block. The range below is the example from Mojang's own guide. LAN discovery is switched off because your players are not on the server's local network.

# lines to set in /opt/bedrock/server.properties
server-name=Friday Night Builds
online-mode=true
allow-list=true
transport=nethernet
server-port=19132
server-udp-ports=49152-49200
enable-lan-visibility=false

# open the doors nethernet uses
sudo ufw allow 19132/tcp
sudo ufw allow 49152:49200/udp
# using transport=raknet? open these two instead:
# sudo ufw allow 19132/udp && sudo ufw allow 19133/udp

# start the world in the background; Ctrl-b, d to step out
sudo -u bedrock -H tmux new-session -d -s bds -c /opt/bedrock 'LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./bedrock_server'
sudo -u bedrock -H tmux attach -t bds

Want to bring a world you already play in? Microsoft's guide: run the server one time so it creates its folders, copy your world's folder into worlds/, then set level-name in server.properties to that folder's name, matching capital letters exactly.

Keeping strangers out

The server.properties file in today's zip arrives with allow-list=true, so nobody gets in until you name them. (Microsoft's property reference still shows false as the default; the shipped file is what your server actually reads.) Type these at the server console:

• allowlist add "Their Gamertag" lets a friend in; the quotes are needed when the gamertag has a space. allowlist remove takes them off.
• op followed by a gamertag makes that player an operator, and saves it to permissions.json when they are signed in to Xbox Live. deop turns them back into a member.
• permissions.json can also be edited by hand with three levels, operator, member and visitor, keyed by each player's XUID. Run permission reload afterwards. Newcomers who are not listed get the default-player-permission-level, which ships as member.
• changesetting difficulty hard or changesetting allow-cheats true changes those two settings on the fly without editing the file.

Saving the world before anything goes wrong

Before your first backup, enter serveridentity save in the server console one time. Without a saved identity key the server makes a fresh one every start, and your friends are asked to trust the server again each time. Saving it creates a keys folder, which the backup below packs up with everything else; without that folder the tar command stops with an error.

Take a copy of the world on a schedule you will actually keep. The easy way is to stop the server for a moment, pack up the world plus the files that say who can play, and start it again:

sudo -u bedrock -H tmux send-keys -t bds 'stop' Enter
while sudo -u bedrock -H tmux has-session -t bds 2>/dev/null; do sleep 2; done
sudo tar -czf /root/world-$(date +%F).tar.gz -C /opt/bedrock worlds keys server.properties allowlist.json permissions.json
sudo -u bedrock -H tmux new-session -d -s bds -c /opt/bedrock 'LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./bedrock_server'

Keep a copy somewhere other than the server too. If you cannot stop play, the guide describes save hold, save query and save resume for copying files while the world keeps running; follow its file list and lengths precisely.

When a new version comes out, download it the same way, unpack it into a new folder, and move your worlds folder, the keys folder, server.properties, allowlist.json and permissions.json across. We suggest comparing settings files rather than copying yours over blindly, since new versions sometimes add settings.

The server that fits

Your world needs a computer that is always on, close to your players, and not slowed down by somebody else's work. With our bare metal game servers you get a whole HPE enterprise machine that is yours alone, configured how you like, with Ubuntu up to 26.04 among the systems on our widest lines. Pick an Intel or AMD model: no ARM machine can run this server, because Mojang builds it for those two processor families only.

Each server sits on a port no other customer shares at the access switch, and nothing counts the traffic on it, so a crowded weekend never adds a bandwidth charge. Choose whichever of our five data centre locations is nearest your group: Amsterdam and Bucharest on the European side, or San Francisco, Miami and New York on the American one. Rack servers and blades include a remote console, so if a firewall change locks you out you can still get back in. A machine that is already racked is ready about 30 minutes after your order is approved, though payment checks can add time. People are on hand around the clock by live chat, email and phone, and our Linux server range shows the systems you can install.

When a spare PC is enough

If everyone plays in the same house, a spare computer running the server is fine and costs nothing extra. A rented server earns its place when friends join from different towns, and when the world should be there at 2 a.m. without your own PC staying on.

Questions people ask

Is the Bedrock server software free?

Yes. The download page calls it free to download. The download page asks you to accept Minecraft's licence agreement and its privacy policy with a tick box before you download, so read both first.

What port do my friends type in?

19132, the default server-port, together with your server's address. Behind the scenes nethernet uses TCP on that port plus a UDP range you choose, while raknet uses UDP 19132 and UDP 19133 for IPv6, so open the set that matches your transport setting.

Can Java edition players join?

No. This server is for Bedrock Edition players on PC, console and mobile. Java players need the Java server, which is a separate install.

My friend sees an Outdated Server message. What now?

Their game is newer than your server. Download the latest Ubuntu zip, unpack it into a new folder, move your world and settings across, and start it again. If the message says Outdated Client, they need to update their game instead.

Can I use Windows instead of Ubuntu?

Mojang also publishes a Windows build, which the download page says needs Windows 10 version 10.0.15063 or newer, or Windows Server 2016 and newer. This guide covers the Ubuntu build.