Minecraft Server

Kubernetes-managed Minecraft server with persistent storage.

Overview

Self-hosted Minecraft server using the itzg/minecraft-server image. Runs in K8s with:

• Persistent world data (10Gi PVC)
• NodePort exposure for game clients
• EULA auto-acceptance

Architecture

Namespace: minecraft-space
Replicas: 1
Image: itzg/minecraft-server:latest
Port: 25565 (NodePort 30001)
Storage: 10Gi hostPath PVC

Storage Strategy

Uses hostPath PV (not Longhorn) for:

• Direct disk access (better I/O performance)
• Node-local storage (Minecraft doesn’t need HA)
• Simpler backup (tar the host directory)

Manifest Structure

Apps/minecraft/base/
├── kustomization.yaml
├── namespace.yaml
├── pvc.yaml
├── deployment.yaml
└── service.yaml

Key Files

pvc.yaml:

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: minecraft-pvc
spec:
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 10Gi
  volumeName: minecraft-data-pv

deployment.yaml:

containers:
- name: minecraft-server
  image: itzg/minecraft-server:latest
  env:
  - name: EULA
    value: "TRUE"
  volumeMounts:
  - name: minecraft-data
    mountPath: /data

Deployment

# Apply via kubectl
kubectl apply -k Apps/minecraft/base/

# Watch rollout
kubectl rollout status deployment/minecraft-server -n minecraft-space

Access

Connect via:

• <node-ip>:30001 (standard Minecraft port 25565)

Why This Design?

Decisions

Trade-offs

• Pro: Simple, performant, easy backup
• Con: Tied to single node (can’t migrate without copying data)

Lessons Learned

What worked: The itzg image handles everything — version upgrades, world management, modpacks.

What I’d improve:

• Add resource limits (Minecraft can spike on chunk generation)
• Use Longhorn if you need HA (but hostPath is fine for casual servers)

Backup

# Tar the world data
ssh talos-326-d4w "tar -czf /var/minecraft-backup-$(date +%F).tar.gz /var/minecraft-data"

# Restore
tar -xzf /var/minecraft-backup-2026-03-17.tar.gz -C /var/minecraft-data

Related

• PairDrop — Another NodePort service
• Windows VM — Also uses hostPath for storage