Setup PaperSpigot on CentOS 7

PaperSpigot is a high performance fork of Spigot that aims to fix gameplay and mechanics inconsistencies. Paper contains numerous unique features and changes, including many performance improvements not found in Spigot. In this guide, we will setup PaperSpigot on a CentOS 7 Server.

Set up the Server

It is recommended to run all commands as a user with sudo privileges that is not root.

Start by ensuring that your server is up to date.

$ sudo yum update -y

Install the needed packages.

$ sudo yum install java-1.8.0-openjdk -y

Create a swap file

Allocate the desired amount of memory. Replace 1G accordingly.

$ sudo fallocate -l 1G /swapfile

Secure the permissions of your new swap file.

$ sudo chmod 600 /swapfile

Allocate the swap space.

$ sudo mkswap /swapfile

Turn on swap.

$ sudo swapon /swapfile

Make your swap file permanent by modifying the fstab file.

$ sudo echo "/swap swap swap sw 0 0" >> /etc/fstab

Install PaperSpigot

Ensure you are in the home directory of the user you are planning to use to install PaperSpigot.

$ cd ~

Create a folder for PaperSpigot

$ mkdir paper
cd paper

$ wget -O paperclip.jar https://papermc.io/ci/job/Paper/lastSuccessfulBuild/artifact/paperclip.jar

This will download the latest build of PaperSpigot. If you would like to use a different Minecraft version, replace lastSuccessfulBuild with a corresponding build number which you can find here.

Start your server

Create a start up script for your server.

$ nano start.sh

Make start.sh match the following, replacing 1024M with the amount of RAM installed on your server.

#!/bin/sh

java -Xms512M -Xmx1024M -XX:MaxPermSize=128M -jar paperclip.jar

Make start.sh executable.

$ chmod +x start.sh

Start your server.

$ ./start.sh

The first time you start your server, it will download files necessary to setup PaperSpigot. After the first run, your server will launch faster. You will also need to agree to the Minecraft EULA by replacing eula=false to eula=true in eula.txt

Optional: Run your server in the background

Install screen.

$ sudo yum install screen -y

Open an instance of screen.

$ screen -S "paper"

Start your server script.

$ cd ~/paper
$ ./start.sh

You can now configure your server's settings and install plugins.

Troubleshooting

Make sure to accept the EULA

As mentioned previously, you will need to agree to the Minecraft EULA by changing eula=false to eula=true in eula.txt

$ nano eula.txt

Can't run paperclip.jar

You may need to purchase a server with more ram or you may need to increase your SWAP file.