Launch a Free Minecraft Server in Acorn Sandbox

Let's get started by launching a Minecraft server right a way. To do that, you'll need to create a GitHub account if you don't already have one, and then click this link to launch Minecraft in your personal Acorn sandbox. Acorn will create an account using your GitHub account and you'll be able to launch your server.

You can see more detailed instructions below on how to connect to your new Minecraft server, and how to modify it to meet your exact needs. This is a Minecraft server that will work with both Java and Bedrock editions, so you should be able to use it regardless of what platform you are on.

What is Minecraft and Minecraft Server

Minecraft is an incredible sandbox video game that invites players to explore, create, and survive in an open, blocky world filled with endless possibilities, from crafting to adventuring. There is no prescribed way to play the game, leading to infine possibilities. Players can fight hostile mobs, as well as cooperate with compete against other players in the same world. In Minecraft players explore a blocky 3d world. Players can build structures, craft tools and items, and discover and extract raw materials during game play.

Minecraft server allows you to host your own multiplayer Minecraft world and invite other players to join you. There are two flavors of the Minecraft server. There is the Java server flavor that MacOS and Linux systems use, and there is the Bedrock server that game consoles, phones, and other systems use.

What is an Acorn Sandbox

Acorn is a platform for running and hosting containerized applications. To get started you will need a GitHub account to create your Acorn account. Once you sign up you will have access to a free sandbox environment that lets your run applications packaged as Acorns for up to two hours at a time. At the end of that time the application will be removed and you can continue to launch new Acorns in that Sandbox. If you would like to have applications stick around longer, you can upgrade to the “pro” plan.

Launching with Minecraft Server in Acorn Sandbox

Hopefully you did this already, but if you've read tot his point and not launched your Minecraft server, you can click here to sign up and launch the Minecraft server acorn on the platform. During the launch process you will need to authorize the Acorn platform to use your GitHub account. Once that is completed, you see the Minecraft sever’s readme file. You can read that to learn more about the acorn.

If you are ready to launch a basic Minecraft server in survival mode at easy difficulty level, click the deploy button. If you would like to see what options you have to configure, you can select the drop down in the “Deploy” button and select “Customize before launching”.

Users who wish to connect will need valid Minecraft accounts.

Connecting Minecraft clients

Open your Minecraft client on your computer or device.

Java Version

Open the Acorn dashboard and select the Minecraft app from the list and copy the url from the endpoint for port 25565.

In the Minecraft Client app select Multiplayer.

Then click "Add Server"

In the address box for adding a server, paste the text. Then click “Done”

You can now select your freshly added server.

Bedrock Version

On the Acorn dashboard, select the Minecraft server and copy the address from the port 19132 in the endpoints box.

Open up your Minecraft client on your device.

Select “Servers” tab.

At the bottom lower left, click Add Server.

Enter a server name.

Copy the address from the 19132 endpoint. If you can paste from your browser, do that otherwise type the address in on your device. The address will have a port appended to it

. Copy the numbers and paste in the port box. Delete the from the server address and port text boxes.

Then click save.

You can now join the freshly added server.

Customizing Minecraft server configuration

The Minecraft server acorn provides options to customize the configuration to change gameplay and versions.

Here are the options you can configure for the Minecraft server acorn.

--allowFlight         Allow characters to fly
--difficulty string   Difficulty level of the game. Options are "peaceful", "easy", "normal", "hard". Default is "easy"
--eula                This must be TRUE to accept the EULA
--geyser              Enable GeyserMC. Allows Bedrock clients to connect to the server.
--mode string         Mode: "creative or survival". Default is "survival"
--version string      Version of Minecraft paper to download. Current version is 1.20.2

The

option must always be true, otherwise you can not play the game.

To disable the Bedrock server capability, you can set the

flag to false, by using from the CLI or disabling the toggle switch in the UI. When this option is off, players wanting to connect from iPhones, game consoles, and Windows PCs will be unable to.

To host a competitive server for you and your friends, you can change the

flag to . When this is toggled players can sustain damage and must mine for their resources.

You can also make the game more challenging by updating the

setting from the default value.

Wrapping up

There are lots of things you can do with Acorn and your Sandbox. This was a fun way to explore Acorn platform. We created a Minecraft server and connected our Minecraft clients from our devices to our virtual world. You should also now be familiar with the basics of Acorn, and you can check out other applications, databases, and cloud services that can be consumed with Acorn.