A simple Paper Minecraft Server Docker image that allows you to run 1.18+ Paper servers.
To get the latest Paper build, see Building an Image
As of version 1.18, Minecraft requires the use of Java 17. The openjdk-alpine:17 docker image doesn't contain the Java 17 release version, instead it contains an Early Access version that is not fully compatible with Paper Minecraft. Newer versions of Java, including 17, have improved memory security. You will need a newer version of docker running on your host to run Java 17 in an image. This image has been tested with Docker 20.10.11.
While you can successfully run Paper with less than ideal RAM, it's recommended to have at least 6GB to 10GB of RAM available for the JVM running minecraft. We use Aikar's flags to optimize server memory performance.
On a machine with docker installed, run the following command
$ docker build -t papermc:latest .
Building the image will automatically pull the latest Paper build for the experimental 1.18 branch
Based off of the azul/zulu-openjdk-alpine image, the server basically provides the JDK and paperclip.jar launcher that downloads, unpacks, and patches the vanilla Minecraft server. Currently, Paper 1.18 is experimental, so use caution and backup your data before running the 1.18 server!
An example command to run to start the minecraft server would be:
docker run -it \
--rm \
-e PGID=1000 -e PUID=1000 \
-v /some/local/folder:/data:rw \
-p 25565:25565 \
-m 8g \
-e MEMORYSIZE=7G \
-i ilektron/papermc:1.18 \
--name minecraft-server
If you need to access the running server command line, you can attach using the following command
docker attach minecraft-server
To detach from your server you can use the keystroke sequence of ctrl+p ctrl+q.
papermc stores all world and server data on a volume mounted at /data. If you wish to be able to easily edit the server configuration, bind a local folder on the docker host to the /data volume using the -v /some/local/folder:/data:rw option with the docker run command.
If you are binding a local folder to the container, please create a user specific to the container and pass the user's UID and GID to the container using the PUID and PGID environment variables. The user you use must have write access to the local folder that you bind to your container. You can pass the IDs to your container using the -e PGID=1000 -e PUID=1000 option with the docker run command.
To find the IDs of the user you created to use when launching the server, use the id command
$ id <dockeruser>
uid=1001(dockeruser) gid=1001(dockergroup) groups=1001(dockergroup)
If you are using previously created data, you might need to change the ownership of the data on your host system using chown and chmod for posix based systems.
The image starts the server to listen on port 25565. You can forward the port to the container running the server by using the -p 25565:25565 option with the docker run command.
In addition to supplying docker with an amount of memory to use, you can use the MEMORYSIZE environment variable by using the -e MEMORYSIZE=10G option with the docker run command.
You can find built images of this docker image under in the docker hub repository ilektron/papermc