Minecraft Server Deployment Pipeline

Background

This tutorial walks through the process of automating the deployment of a Minecraft server using AWS, Terraform, Ansible, and Docker.

We'll use:

• Terraform to provision AWS infrastructure
• Ansible to configure the EC2 instance with Docker
• Docker Compose to run the Minecraft server container
• GitHub Actions to fully automate the pipeline on push

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Requirements

Software to Install

• Terraform
• Ansible
• AWS CLI v2
• Git

Configuration Required

• AWS account with a valid IAM user or temporary credentials
• SSH key pair created in AWS EC2 console (e.g., Minecraft.pem)
• Store AWS credentials and SSH private key in GitHub repo secrets:
  • AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
  • AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
  • AWS_SESSION_TOKEN
  • KEY_PAIR_NAME
  • SSH_PRIVATE_KEY = <your_private_key_contents>

Optional Environment Variables

For local runs:

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<your_access_key_id>
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<your_secret_access_key>
export AWS_SESSION_TOKEN <your_session_token>

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Pipeline Overview Diagram

[GitHub Push] → [GitHub Actions Workflow]
                ↓
terraform init + apply
                ↓
[EC2 Instance w/ Public IP]
                ↓
ansible-playbook
                ↓
docker-compose up
                ↓
Minecraft Server @ port 25565

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Commands to Run (If Running Manually)

Start by cloning the repo:

git clone https://github.com/LeefiusBeefy/CS312-mc-server.git
cd CS312-mc-server

Update KEY_NAME in deploy.sh to your Key Pair name.

Then run deploy.sh using

./deploy.sh

3. Deploy via GitHub Actions (CI/CD) (Automated Run)

Start by cloning the repo:

git clone https://github.com/LeefiusBeefy/CS312-mc-server.git
cd CS312-mc-server

On push to main, the workflow will:

• Run Terraform to provision EC2
• Configure it using Ansible
• Start the Minecraft container

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Connecting to the Minecraft Server

Once deployed, connect using the public IP:

<instance_ip>:25565

You can verify it’s live with:

nmap -sV -Pn -p T:25565 <instance_ip>

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Helpful Links

• itzg/minecraft-server Docker Hub
• Terraform AWS Provider
• Ansible Documentation