MineCloud

MineCloud is an AWS CDK (Cloud Development Kit) project that allows users to set up an almost free on-demand Minecraft (or other game) server for their Discord server with minimal time.

MineCloud comes with Minecraft server built-in but can be easily configured to host other multiplayer game servers as well. For more details, please check out the Terraria example.

Enjoy your hassle-free Minecraft server with your friends on Discord at almost no cost!

Features

Discord Bot - start, stop, and backup the server with Discord commands (The server IP address will be sent to Discord channel after start)
Auto shutdown and backup when no one is online
Easy to setup - we do our best to make the process as simple as possible :)
Almost free (≈54 cents for 20 hr play/month - with a 2 CPUs & 8GB RAM server)
Fully customizable - install whatever mods you like
No maintenance cost - don't have time to play? Just leave it there! It cost nothing
Can be easily configured to host other multiplayer game servers as well

Supported Discord Commands

mc_start: Start the server and send the IP address to Discord channel
mc_stop: Stop the server
mc_restart: Restart the server process
mc_backup: Pause the server and create a backup
mc_backup_download: Get the download link of the latest backup

Cost Breakdown

with 20 hrs play / month

Lambda: Free tier
S3: Free tier, unless total backup size exceeds 5GB (default max backup count is 3)
Data Transfer: Free tier, unless total data transfer exceeds 100GB
EC2: 0.27 (t2.large spot price) * 20 (hr) ≈ $0.54/month
Total: ≈ $0.54/month

Please refer to Spot Instances Pricing and S3 Pricing for more information.

Diagram

For more details, please check out the wiki page.

How To Setup?

If you prefer, we have a step-by-step video tutorial ↓

Prerequisites

A Discord account :)
Node.js 18 (or above) - If haven't, go to https://nodejs.org to download and install the latest version of Node.js
- Type node --version in the terminal to confirm Node is properly set up. You should see something like this:
```
v18.xx.x
```
An AWS account and AWS CLI
- If haven't already, go to https://aws.amazon.com/ to register an AWS account
- Download and install AWS CLI from here
  - Type aws --version in the terminal to confirm AWS CLI is properly set up. Something like this should show up:
```
aws-cli/2.10.0 Python/3.11.2 Windows/10 exe/AMD64 prompt/off
```
- Setup AWS CLI credentials:
  - Login to your AWS account, click the account name at the top-right corner and click "Security credentials". Go to the "Access keys" section and create an access key. Notes down Access key and Secret access key
- In the terminal, type:
```
aws configure
```
  When prompted, enter the Access key and Secret access key you got from the last step (and optionally choose the "default AWS region" and "output format")
- Once done, type aws sts get-caller-identity in the terminal to confirm the AWS CLI credentials are set up correctly. You should see something like this:
```
{
  "UserId": "1234567890",
  "Account": "1234567890",
  "Arn": "arn:aws:iam::1234567890:xxx"
}
```
- Prerequisites done, now start the fun part :)

Set up MineCloud

Download the latest release from the release page, unzip it and open minecloud_configs/MineCloud-Configs.ts, there're some parameters we have to provide first:
- AWS_ACCOUNT_ID: Click the account name at the top-right corner of your AWS console and copy the Account ID
- AWS_REGION: Choose a region that's closet to you. Some example value are: us-west-2, ap-northeast-1 or eu-west-3
- DISCORD_APP_ID and DISCORD_PUBLIC_KEY: Go to Discord Developer Portal and click "New Application" to create a new Discord APP. On the "General Information" page, you will find the App Id and Public Key.
- DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN: Go to the "Bot" page on the Discord Developer Portal, reset and copy the token
  - This is the Discord BOT that will handle our commands. If there's no BOT shown, click the "Add Bot" button to create a new BOT
    
    You can optionally setup your BOT avatar
- DISCORD_CHANNEL_WEB_HOOK:
  - Open regular Discord, go to the Discord server you want to add MineCloud to, choose a text channel, and click "Edit Channel".
  - Go to "Integrations" => "Webhooks", click "New Webhook" to create a new Webhook then copy the Webhook URL.
  - This text channel is where our VM instance will send updates to
  You can also optionally set up your BOT avatar here
Deploy MineCloud
- In the MineCloud project directory, type npm install in the terminal to install all dependencies
- (Optional) Replace minecloud_configs/server/server.zip with your favorite Minecraft version / Mods, the default Minecraft being downloaded is 1.19.4 (When packing the server executable, make sure the server.jar is at the root level of the zip file).
  After replacing server.zip, set DEPLOY_LOCAL_SERVER_EXECUTABLE = true in the minecloud_configs/MineCloud-Configs.ts
- Open the terminal in the MineCloud folder and enter npx cdk list to make sure the build pass. You should see the stack name being printed:
```
MineCloud
```
- Bootstrap your AWS account by running npx cdk bootstrap aws://<AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>/<AWS_REGION>
- Before deploying, read through MINECRAFT END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT and make sure you agree to it
- Enter npx cdk deploy to deploy the stack.
- Sit back and relax, this will take like 5~10 minutes ☕.
  - When you see a "The server instance is ready" message shown up in the Discord channel, this means your Minecraft server is almost ready to connect :)
Setup BOT for your Discord server
- After MineCloud is deployed, go to your AWS CloudFormation page (make sure to select the right AWS region)
- Click on "MineCloud" stack, go to "Outputs" and copy the value of "Discord Interaction End Point Url"
- Go back to your Discord Developer Portal, select the APP created, and paste the URL into the "INTERACTIONS ENDPOINT URL" field.
- Go to "OAuth2" => "URL Generator", select "application.commands" and click "Copy"
- Open the copied URL (either in Discord or the browser) and add the BOT to your Discord server.
- You are all set now - Type any command (ex: /mc_restart) in the Discord text channel to give it a try🎉!

ONE MORE THING!!!

If you have deployed MineCloud more than once, THERE MIGHT BE DANGLING SPOT INSTANCE REQUESTS THAT WILL CONSTANTLY CHARGE YOU. MAKE SURE TO CHECK YOUR EC2 SPOT REQUESTS TAB AND CANCEL THE DANGLING SPOT REQUEST IF THERE'S ANY!!

Discord Server

We have a Discord Server

Need Help?

Common questions and troubleshooting can be found in the FAQs & Troubleshooting page.
You can also create a question post or ask on Discord if you like.

Support this project

A star will be appreciated ;)

314pies / MineCloud