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Getting Started with Minecraft Hosting

Everything you need to set up, manage, and troubleshoot your Minecraft server from your NordServ portal.

🚀 Instant setup

Your server is created automatically as soon as your order is confirmed — there's no manual provisioning step on our end, so it's usually ready within a couple of minutes. You'll get an email with your connection details as soon as it's live, and the same information is always available on your service page in the portal.

🎮 Start / Stop / Restart

From your service page in the portal, the power controls let you start, stop, or restart your server without opening a support ticket. This is the same panel that shows whether your server is currently online — the buttons available change based on the current state (a stopped server only shows Start, a running one shows Stop and Restart).

  1. Log in to your portal and open your Minecraft service.
  2. Find the power control panel near the top of the page.
  3. Click Start, Stop, or Restart — you'll be asked to confirm before anything happens.
Tip: A restart is usually enough to recover from a crashed plugin or a frozen world — try that before opening a ticket.

🧩 Plugins & mods

The plugin/mod manager on your service page lets you upload .jar files directly from your browser — no FTP client needed. Files are picked up automatically the next time the server restarts, so upload your plugin or mod, then use the restart button above to load it.

Tip: Make sure the plugin or mod version matches your server's Minecraft version and loader (Paper, Fabric, Forge, or NeoForge) — a mismatched version is the most common cause of a server failing to start after an upload.

📡 Connecting to your server

Your server's address (IP and port) is always visible at the top of your service page — that's exactly what your players enter in Minecraft's "Add Server" screen. This address doesn't change for the life of your service, so it's safe to share with your players once and not worry about it again.

🆕 NeoForge & other mod loaders

Every plan supports NeoForge alongside Forge, Fabric, and Paper — pick the loader you need when you set up your server, or contact us if you need to switch an existing server to a different loader (this usually needs a fresh world if you're crossing between vanilla/Paper and a modded loader like Forge/NeoForge, since mods can add blocks and items a vanilla world doesn't know about).

👑 Op / admin access

You can grant server operator (op) permissions to players directly from your service page — no console command needed. Add a player's Minecraft username, and they'll get op the next time they join.

🔒 Whitelist

Minecraft has no server-wide connection password — the closest equivalent is the whitelist on your service page. Adding your first player's username automatically restricts the server to the whitelist; anyone not on the list can't join even with your server address. Removing the last player opens the server back up to everyone.

Tip: The server needs to be running to add or remove a whitelisted player — the change won't save if it's stopped.

💾 World backup & restore

You can download a full copy of your world data (Overworld, Nether, and End) as a .zip archive directly from your service page — useful for keeping your own backup, moving to a different host, or opening the world locally in a single-player game. The same panel also lets you upload a world to restore it: pick a .zip or .tar.gz archive and we'll detect the world folders inside it automatically, even if your archive tool wrapped them in an extra folder. Your server is stopped during the swap and restarted automatically once it's done.

  1. Open your Minecraft service page and find the World panel.
  2. To back up: click Download World — the .zip starts once it's ready.
  3. To restore: choose a .zip or .tar.gz file and click Upload World, then confirm.
Tip: The archive can take a moment to generate on larger worlds — the download starts once it's ready, there's no separate "please wait" step to click through first.
Warning: Uploading a world replaces your server's current world data. We keep your most recent previous world as a one-generation backup on our side, but treat an upload as a real replace, not a merge.

🖥️ Console (RCON)

The console panel lets you send a command directly to your running server — the same as typing it at the server's own console prompt, with no separate RCON client to set up. Type a command like say hello everyone, time set day, or weather clear and hit Send.

Warning: Commands run immediately with no confirmation, including ones that affect gameplay or stop the server — the console is a direct line to your server, so double-check what you're about to send.

⚙️ Server settings

The Server Settings panel lets you change common gameplay options — difficulty, game mode, hardcore, max players, spawn protection radius, view/simulation distance, the server list message (MOTD), and a few others — without editing server.properties by hand or opening a ticket. Networking, RCON, and other infrastructure-level settings aren't exposed here on purpose, since changing them could break how your server connects to our platform.

Tip: Changes save immediately but only take effect after your server restarts — use the power controls or a scheduled restart below to apply them.

Scheduled restarts

Set up a recurring restart — daily or on a specific day of the week — right from your service page. This is useful for applying pending server-settings changes automatically, or just clearing accumulated memory usage on a long-running server. Restarts happen within a few minutes of the time you set, in Eastern time.

📋 Server logs

The logs panel on your service page shows recent server output right in your browser — the same log a crash report or a plugin error would normally only show in the console. This is usually the fastest way to figure out what happened after a crash, before reaching out to support.

Tip: If you do need to open a ticket about a crash, pasting the last 20-30 lines of the log saves a back-and-forth — it's usually the first thing we'll ask for.

Still stuck? Check the FAQ or contact us — we'll answer directly.