Set Up A Minecraft Server In Azure VM

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My son is addicted to Minecraft, a single or multi-player game with a client/server architecture, millions of players, a recently released version (as of last Wednesday), and a vibrant, engaged community. When I first saw the game I was put off by the seemingly crude graphics (a cube-constructed world with overlaid textures on the blocks), but I quickly got over that when I saw how it was fun to play, how it sparks creativity (in the way it has you gather materials and craft things in survival mode), and how it encourages even greater creativity by letting you build structures and contraptions 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 played single-player on your local machine or you can connect with remote servers. You can set up your own server if you are a skilled user or have some IT skills. There are many tutorials available. You will need to download the server software, run it, disable any firewalls and enter a server IP on the client.



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



So I went down that route and configured our home router to do port forwarding, in turn allowing open internet traffic into the Minecraft-active port on our home network. It was easy, and there are dozens of tutorials to help you.



The scary part: Poking holes in the firewall. This, of course, allows the unknown (and sometimes malicious) parties onto your home network and onto a machine that may have other personal information on it. You also have the issue of connection bandwidth. This is a critical aspect of smooth gameplay involving a host server. You could be creating an unusable server if you don't have an internet connection that is fast or has bandwidth limitations.



Enter Windows Azure Virtual Machines



As a Microsoft Windows Azure Insider I realized that Windows Azure was the ideal infrastructure for this type shared access. Windows Azure offers many features, including shared host roles as well as storage and access control. It is also known as PaaS – Platform as a Service. Minecraft servers IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service – is a relatively new offering by Windows Azure. It includes virtual machine hosting.



Finally, a reason to get started with Azure VMs!



[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...



This idea is becoming more appealing to me the more I think about it. It's easy to take it down once you're done. Yada, yada...