How do I properly setup an auto-starting server on Windows Server?

Question

I have been having a difficult time configuring the Minecraft server to start with Windows. Here's the situation:

I have a Windows Server 2008 hosted at GoDaddy which I use for my web development and such. It has really powerful hardware which most of the time is not utilized (Core 2 Quad @2.5Ghz, 8GB RAM, etc). I have had the server configured to restart automatically every night at 2AM just to keep it refreshed. Well, I spent hours trying different ways to configure the Minecraft server to startup after the computer boots, but I've had no luck and finally gave up. The server hasn't been restarted in like a month thanks to that...

So, I ask for any assistance on how I can configure a scheduled task that will startup the Minecraft server after boot.

Answer 1

It generally doesn't work that great, but you can define you own services. You will need to figure out some way to make sure the service performs a save.

How To Create a User-Defined Service

• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/137890

From SF see these questions.

• https://serverfault.com/questions/55607/help-with-running-an-application-as-a-service-on-server-2008
• https://serverfault.com/questions/75292/looking-for-a-solution-to-allow-a-regular-app-to-run-as-a-service
• https://serverfault.com/questions/58025/install-service-in-windows-server-2008
• https://serverfault.com/questions/12094/how-to-create-a-windows-service-in-xp

Create a schedule task that runs at boot

• http://www.myboogpages.com/2009/02/how-to-create-a-scheduled-task-that-runs-at-boot-time.html

If all else fails, you may have to do as Corey suggests. Configure your server to auto-login as some account, and just place a shortcut in the startup group.

Answer 2

Edit: This app is actually quite mature and reliable now and not really an "early release" anymore. It's still being worked on and recently added support for running multiple servers at the same time (e.g. for trialling the weekly builds).

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If you are happy with the "vanilla" experience, I have (as mentioned in comments) made an application that keeps Minecraft running as a service. You can download an early release direct from GitHub which gives you Vanilla Minecraft as a service with a web-based console.

Answer 3

What you're looking for is a tool that can turn any arbitrary Windows process/executable into a Windows service.

There are three tools that I can recommend get the job done:

• SrvAny: Free but requires more in-depth technical detail to setup. Not compatible with ALL apps.
• FireDaemon: Not free but is extremely reliable and effective. Try the 30-day trial.
• Java Service Wrapper: Free for personal use. Works for java apps.

Set your Windows service as 'Automatic' and you're done!

Answer 4

On a windows machine, you don't need anything fancy or to run anything "as a service". The quickest and easiest way I've done this is using task scheduler. Simply create a basic task and point the "task/script" at the java executable (with full path): "C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.8.0_25\bin\java.exe"

and then in the optional parameters: (some of these could be wrong, but hey, it's an example) -Xms1024M -Xmx1024M -jar craftbukkit-1.7.2-R0.3-20131221.081113-1.jar -o true

I also set a "Start In" path, so I didn't have to fully reference my jar file too: D:\Minecraft

I also have a script that does a backup of the minecraft folder every night that deletes zip files after a few days. I run that at 4:00am.

So on my server I have: - the MC server startup automatically using a scheduled task at 5:00am - minecraft server auto-shutdown at 3:00am - the backup .bat file run at 4:00am - Go back to step 1.. :-)

I hope this helps someone.

Answer 5

With os x I made a simple script that I could add that to the startup items.

I'm guessing that you could just make a shortcut to the server application and put that in your startup folder.

Answer 6

You can make a .txt file, rename it as whatever.cmd and then change the text to

start (the address, for example C:\Desktop\....and so on)

then in the cmd file you may use any command prompt action such as start. I hope this is helpful.

Answer 7

You could just make a batch file that starts the exe instead, have the batch shortcut in the startups folder and have it route to the minecraft_server.exe

The batch file was a workaround the issue of Windows 2008 server not allowing user login apps to start.

Answer 8

McMyAdmin will auto start a server on Windows as a Windows Service. You can configure it to do this during the install process. Here's a screenshot:

However only 10 people can play at the same time using the free edition. See here for a comparison of free and paid versions of McMyAdmin: https://www.mcmyadmin.com/#/editions

Of course this won't give you the same flexibility as if you set up a Minecraft server yourself by making your own Windows Service by following the steps in the articles from others' answers. But it may be an option. I might even buy the pro version just because creating and maintaining a Minecraft management system is surely a lot of hard work. I mean, just manually setting up your own Windows service is some hard work! (I don't work for McMyAdmin. I just discovered it today.)

Answer 9

You should run your Minecraft Server as a Windows Service to achieve what you want. There's no need to use scheduled tasks. There's a detailed guide on how to do this here:

http://forums.firedaemon.com/howtos/minecraft-server-as-a-windows-service.8/