Set Up A Minecraft Server In Azure VM

My son’s latest addiction is Minecraft. This single or multiplayer game has a client/server architecture to it. There are millions of users, a newly released edition (as at last week), as well as a vibrant community. At first, I was disappointed by the primitive graphics (a cube-constructed game with overlaid textures), but I quickly got over it once I discovered how it was enjoyable to play and how it inspires creativity (in the way that you can gather materials and craft things in survival mode), as well as how it allows you to build structures and contraptions when you are in creative mode. I’m also impressed by the huge and vibrant community of people playing and extending the game with plug-ins (mods), custom maps, and public server worlds (sites you can go to play, such as http://planetminecraft.net).

Minecraft can be used to play single-player games on a local computer or you can connect remotely. S-games.net You can set up your own server if you are a skilled user or have some IT skills. There are many tutorials available. That involves downloading the server software, running it, disabling any intervening firewalls, and typing in a server IP address on the client machine.

Of course what comes next is “Dad, can my friends connect to my Minecraft server?”

I decided to go that route and set our router up to do port forwarding. This allowed us open internet traffic to our Minecraft-active port. That wasn’t too tough, and again dozens of tutorials are out there to help walk you through the process.

The scary part: Poking holes into the firewall. This allows unknown (and sometimes malign) parties to your home network and onto a computer that may have additional personal information. There’s also the issue with connection bandwidth. This is an essential aspect of smooth gaming when a host server is involved. If you don’t have a screaming-fast internet connection, or bandwidth limitations on your connection, you could really be setting up an unusable server.

Enter Windows Azure Virtual Machines

Being a Microsoft Windows Azure Insider, it naturally occurred to me that an infrastructure optimal for this kind of shared access is Windows Azure. Windows Azure offers many capabilities including storage, access control, shared host roles, storage, and what is commonly referred to as PaaS – Platform as a service. But a relatively new offering from Windows Azure is IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service – which includes virtual machine hosting.

AHH, finally, a good reason to get going with Azure VM’s!

[Wait… That sounds kind of snarky… It’s not meant that way. I was trying be funny… I guess I should keep my day job…

The more I think about this, though, the more I like the idea. It’s easy to take it down once you’re done. Yada, yada…