SSH Sessions with Ubuntu Server

[Furball159.]

Hey guys.

This isn't really a issue as of the moment as i don't have the hardware ready for this to be a issue, im just trying to work out if i connect to a SSH session with ubuntu server, then start somthing like a minecraft server and then disconnect, will i be able to recconect to the same console again as in, can i ssh back into the server and see the mc server outputs and issues commands or will it dump me back into a normal terminal. I'm trying to set up a mini server network but it is proving to be slightly challanging.

Any form of help is gravely appricated.

[Kilrah]

Not directly, by default if you close the connection anything in the terminal would be closed.

There are tools like screen or tmux you can use to create persistent sessions that run in the background and can resume.

 

But for something like a minecraft server you'd set it up as a service.

[Lurick]

It depends on how you start the server but from what I remember doing this a while back if you exit the default session then it kills the server. The way around this is with screen. You create a screen session, start the MC server, and then disconnect from the screen session and then you can resume and disconnect, just be careful not to close the screen session

 

If it's a service then it's much easier to start and stop and whatnot.

[Furball159.]

Thanks to both of you for that, any reccomendations on how to set up mc as a service and how i would be able to acsess its internal console via ssh and physically being there???

@Lurick, @Kilrah

[ARitz Cracker]

50 minutes ago, Furball159. said:

Thanks to both of you for that, any reccomendations on how to set up mc as a service and how i would be able to acsess its internal console via ssh and physically being there???

@Lurick, @Kilrah

You said you're running Ubuntu server, look up how to create your own systemd service, you probably want the "simple" type. You can also configure your systemd service file to auto-restart the server when it crashes, and to auto-start when the server reboots.

 

Edit: create a file called /etc/systemd/system/minecraft.service

 

Read this: https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.service.html

 

then you can do "systemctl start minecraft" to start your server and "systemctl enable minecraft" to make it autostart on system startup. Your target should probably be "multi-user.target" and after "network.target"

Edit2: Just cuz dumping docs on someone is stupid, I'll give you an example based on a service I already run
 

[Unit]
Description=Epic 1337 Minecraft Server
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=java /path/to/server/files/minecraft.jar
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/server/files
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
KillMode=mixed
TimeoutSec=120

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

 

[Furball159.]

12 hours ago, ARitz Cracker said:

You said you're running Ubuntu server, look up how to create your own systemd service, you probably want the "simple" type. You can also configure your systemd service file to auto-restart the server when it crashes, and to auto-start when the server reboots.

 

Edit: create a file called /etc/systemd/system/minecraft.service

 

Read this: https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.service.html

 

then you can do "systemctl start minecraft" to start your server and "systemctl enable minecraft" to make it autostart on system startup. Your target should probably be "multi-user.target" and after "network.target"

Edit2: Just cuz dumping docs on someone is stupid, I'll give you an example based on a service I already run
 

[Unit]
Description=Epic 1337 Minecraft Server
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=java /path/to/server/files/minecraft.jar
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/server/files
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
KillMode=mixed
TimeoutSec=120

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

 

So over SSH how would i view the console of the game server? or would i even be able to see it when looking at it physically

[ARitz Cracker]

9 hours ago, Furball159. said:

So over SSH how would i view the console of the game server? or would i even be able to see it when looking at it physically

"journalctl -u minecraft.service", then press the [end] key on your keyboard to see the most recent logs. Navigate with the arrow keys. Press "Q" to exit the log view. You can also add "-e -f" at the end of the command to get a stream of most recent log entry's if that's what you want.

 

If you're asking how you would enter commands from the console, this basic setup won't allow that.

[Furball159.]

1 hour ago, ARitz Cracker said:

"journalctl -u minecraft.service", then press the [end] key on your keyboard to see the most recent logs. Navigate with the arrow keys. Press "Q" to exit the log view. You can also add "-e -f" at the end of the command to get a stream of most recent log entry's if that's what you want.

 

If you're asking how you would enter commands from the console, this basic setup won't allow that.

would using ubuntu instead of ubuntu server rectify that? or would cause prefromance loss?

[ARitz Cracker]

2 hours ago, Furball159. said:

would using ubuntu instead of ubuntu server rectify that? or would cause prefromance loss?

Using ubuntu instead of ubuntu server doesn't make it easier to set up an always online background task like this.

This minimal service setup was always good enough for me personally, since someone had OP and if no one did, I could temporarily start the server in a shell.

 

Out of curiosity, I did some searching, haven't tried this myself, but apparently in the [Service] section of the service config file, you can expose the console input by using the StandardInput field, and I'm sure there's an easy way to utilize this, I just haven't done the experimentation myself yet.

 

 

[Furball159.]

Thankyou to all of you who looked into this to help, I ended up using Crafty and getting it setup was a small chore for me, but it works perfectly now