Hosting a Forge Server

This guide will walk you through creating a Forge server. This server will support Forge mods exclusively. Please note that running mods can be highly unstable and may require more resources than a vanilla server.

Requirements

• A computer that will be on when you or your friends want to play
• A good internet connection
• A basic understanding of networking
• At least 5GB or more of RAM free at all times

Steps

macOS

1. Head over to the official website and find the version of Forge that you want to use.
2. Download the installer for the version of Forge that you want to use.

info

You may get sent to an AdFoc page, just wait a few seconds and click "Skip" in the top right corner.

3. Create an empty folder on your computer in a place where you can easily access it.
4. Double click on the installer to run it.
5. Select "Install server" and choose the folder we created previously.
6. Click "OK" and wait for the installer to finish.
7. Open the folder and find the forge-<version>-universal.jar file.
8. Rename the file to forge.jar.
9. Create a new text file in the folder and name it start.bat.
10. Open the file and paste the following code:

start.bat

java -Xmx5G -Xms5G -jar forge.jar nogui
pause

info

This code will allocate 5GB of RAM to the server. If you have more RAM available, you can increase the -Xmx and -Xms values.

11. Save the file and double click on it to start the server.
12. Open the eula.txt file and change eula=false to eula=true.
13. Double click the start.bat file again to start the server.
14. Share your IP address with your friends. You can find your IP address by searching "what is my IP" on Google.
15. Have your friends open Minecraft and click on "Multiplayer". Then click on "Add Server" and enter your IP address.

Windows

1. Head over to the official website and find the version of Forge that you want to use.
2. Download the installer for the version of Forge that you want to use.

info

You may get sent to an AdFoc page, just wait a few seconds and click "Skip" in the top right corner.

3. Create an empty folder on your computer in a place where you can easily access it.
4. Double click on the installer to run it.
5. Select "Install server" and choose the folder we created previously.
6. Click "OK" and wait for the installer to finish.
7. Open the folder and find the forge-<version>-universal.jar file.
8. Rename the file to forge.jar.
9. Create a new text file in the folder and name it start.sh.
10. Open the file and paste the following code:

start.sh

java -Xmx5G -Xms5G -jar forge.jar nogui
pause

info

This code will allocate 5GB of RAM to the server. If you have more RAM available, you can increase the -Xmx and -Xms values.

11. Save the file and double click on it to start the server.
12. Open the eula.txt file and change eula=false to eula=true.
13. Open Terminal by pressing Cmd + Space and typing Terminal.
14. Navigate to the folder where the server software is located by typing cd path/to/folder.
15. Type chmod +x start.sh to make the file executable.
16. Type ./start.sh to start the server.
17. Share your IP address with your friends. You can find your IP address by searching "what is my IP" on Google.
18. Have your friends open Minecraft and click on "Multiplayer". Then click on "Add Server" and enter your IP address.

info

In order for people outside your network to connect to your server, you will need to port forward your router. You can find a guide on how to do this here.

By default, you will need to port forward 25565.

Tips

• Make sure your computer is powerful enough to run the server
• Keep your server software up to date
• Use a whitelist to prevent unwanted players from joining
• Back up your server regularly