Minecraft Server

Yes, there is a Minecraft server running on the Kubernetes cluster. It was set up as a practical exercise in deploying stateful applications and also because it is fun.

Connecting

Open Minecraft Java Edition and add a server:

Server Address: california-utter.gl.joinmc.link
Port: 25565 (default)
Edition: Java

Architecture

Minecraft presents interesting infrastructure challenges that make it a good teaching exercise:

Challenge	Solution
Game state must persist	StatefulSet with PersistentVolumeClaim
Raw TCP protocol (not HTTP)	Cannot use Traefik/Ingress — uses NodePort instead
No static public IP	Playit.gg game tunnel (Cloudflare Tunnel does not support arbitrary TCP)
Resource-intensive	Runs on dedicated resources within the cluster

Components

Resource	Type	Namespace
minecraft	StatefulSet	minecraft
minecraft	Service (NodePort)	minecraft
playit	systemd service on nst-n1	—

The Minecraft server image is itzg/minecraft-server with TYPE=PAPER (Paper is a high-performance Bukkit-compatible server).

Why StatefulSet, not Deployment

A Deployment is designed for stateless applications — pods can be created and destroyed freely. Minecraft is stateful: it has a world that must persist. A StatefulSet provides:

• Stable pod identity (minecraft-0)
• Persistent storage that survives pod restarts
• Ordered startup and shutdown

Why Playit.gg, not Cloudflare Tunnel

Cloudflare Tunnel routes HTTP and HTTPS traffic. Minecraft uses raw TCP on port 25565. Cloudflare does support TCP tunneling through cloudflared, but not for arbitrary public TCP services on the free plan.

Playit.gg is a free game tunnel service that:

1. Assigns a public address
2. Forwards TCP traffic to a specified local port
3. Runs as a systemd service on nst-n1

The tunnel target is the Minecraft NodePort on nst-n1 (port 32565).

Starting the server

On nst-n1:

# Start the Minecraft pod
kubectl -n minecraft scale statefulset minecraft --replicas=1

# Wait for it to be ready
kubectl -n minecraft get pods -w

# Start the game tunnel
sudo systemctl start playit

# Verify the tunnel is running
sudo systemctl status playit --no-pager

# Verify the port is reachable
nc -vz 127.0.0.1 32565

Stopping the server

# Stop the Minecraft pod (world data is preserved in PVC)
kubectl -n minecraft scale statefulset minecraft --replicas=0

# Stop the tunnel
sudo systemctl stop playit

The PersistentVolumeClaim remains intact. No data is lost.

Checking status

# Is the pod running?
kubectl -n minecraft get pods

# Is the tunnel running?
sudo systemctl status playit --no-pager

# Is the port accessible?
nc -vz 127.0.0.1 32565

# Server logs
kubectl -n minecraft logs minecraft-0 --tail=50

What stays running when Minecraft is off

These are platform services and should not be stopped:

• k3s
• containerd
• cloudflared
• Traefik
• Rancher

Stopping Minecraft only affects the minecraft namespace and the playit systemd service.