NOTE 2022: This guide uses CentOS 6 which is unsupported and EOL. We do not recommend using CentOS 6, and instead use AlmaLinux 8 or Rocky Linux 8, which are continuations of CentOS. If you rent or own a server, please consider installing version 8 (we recommend AlmaLinux 8) and using it. As a common end user, there are no major changes so little to nothing new to learn. 

Run a Minecraft server? Multicraft is the most commonly used management control panel for Minecraft servers. In this guide I’ll show you exactly how to setup Multicraft, with MySQL support for each server created through the control panel. In this we will be using the Multicraft 2.0 pre-release, which contains many new features and fixes.

You can download Multicraft 2.0 pre-release here:
http://www.multicraft.org/download/linux64?version=preview

*READ* For this you will need to have a LAMP setup on your server already, if you don’t have it setup, please read our LAMP setup guide for CentOS 6, it’s very straightforward and will install Apache, MySQL, and PhpMyAdmin on your server:
https://extravm.com/billing/knowledgebase/34/Install-LAMP-on-CentOS-6-MySQL-55-PHP-56.html

*READ* Also read our Java 8 install guide so you have Java installed on your server, Java is needed for Minecraft to run.
https://extravm.com/billing/knowledgebase/17/Install-Java-8-JDK-on-CentOS-single-command.html

*READ* We must create a MySQL database for the control panel and the daemon beforehand, do this by entering mySQL and running the create command:

mysql -uroot -p
*Enter your root password and press enter*
create database multicraft_daemon;
create database multicraft_panel;
exit;

Now we created the two databases, that’s it!

Now we can get started and install Multicraft!

Use SSH to access your server and download the Multicraft tar archive using wget (if it’s not install, run “yum install wget -y”):
wget http://www.multicraft.org/download/linux64?version=preview -O multicraft.tar.gz

Once it’s downloaded, extract the archive and remove the main archived file to keep your directory clean:
tar -xvf multicraft.tar.gz
rm -rf multicraft.tar.gz

Now go into the directory of the extracted files:
cd multicraft

The extracted contents of the directory should look like this:


Now run the installer shell file:
./setup.sh

This will bring up the Multicraft installer prompt:


Press enter to continue, then it will ask which user you want to run Multicraft under, by default it’s “minecraft”, lets leave it as that and press enter:
Run each Minecraft server under its own user? (Multicraft will create system users): [y]/n
Run Multicraft under this user: [minecraft]

Now it’ll say the user isn’t found and confirm to create the user, press enter for yes:
User not found. Create user 'minecraft' on start of installation? [y]/n

Then it will ask which directory you want to install Multicraft in, lets leave it as the default and press enter again.
Install Multicraft in: [/home/minecraft/multicraft]

Now it will ask if you have a license key, if so, paste your key in here and press enter, if you don’t, just press enter for no.
If you have a license key you can enter it now: [no]

Now it will ask to set the unique daemon ID. If you’re just planning to use a single system leave it as the default, which is 1 and press enter:
If you control multiple machines from one control panel you need to assign each daemon a unique ID (requires a Dynamic or custom license). Daemon ID? [1]

Now it will ask if the php frontend (control panel) will run on the machine, press enter for yes:
Will the PHP frontend run on this machine? [y]/n

Now it’ll ask for the webserver use, by default it’s ‘apache’, lets press enter to leave it as the default:
User of the webserver: [apache]

Now it will ask for the PHP frontend location for the control panel, lets leave it as the default and press enter, which is in our apache web directory from the LAMP install you should have done earlier (link above):
Location of the PHP frontend: [/var/www/html/multicraft]

Now it will ask for a daemon password, by default it is set to ‘none’, you can change this, however we will be leaving it as the default for this guide:
Please enter a new daemon password (use the same password in the last step of the panel installer) [none]

Now it will ask to enable the built in FTP server, by default it’s yes, so lets press enter again:
Enable builtin FTP server? [y]/n

Now it will ask which IP the FTP server will listen on, the default one should be your servers main IPv4 address so lets just press enter again:
IP the FTP server will listen on (empty for same as daemon): [123.45.67.8]

Now it will ask for the FTP server port, by default it is 21, so lets press enter again:
FTP server port: [21]

Now it will ask if you wish to block the FTP upload of .jar files, this is set to yes by default, but we want to change it to no, so you can upload your own .jar files for your Minecraft server later on. Type “n” then press enter:
Block FTP upload of .jar files and other executables (potentially dangerous plugins)? [y]/n n

Now it will ask which type of database to use. For this guide we will be using MySQL, so type “mysql” and press enter here:
What kind of database do you want to use? [sqlite]/mysql mysql

Now it will ask for the database information that we created above, enter it here:
Database host: [127.0.0.1]
Database name: [multicraft_daemon]
Database user: [root]
Database password: [] *Enter your root password*

Now press enter once the database details are entered, then it will ask if you’re ready to install Multicraft. Press enter to continue.
Ready to install Multicraft. Start installation? [y]/n

It may take a few seconds and you’ll see the script installing now, when it’s done you will see this:


Read over this!

Now press enter after reading to continue, then it will ask to save the entered settings, press enter again then it will exit the installer.

Now start the Multicraft daemon using this command:
/home/minecraft/multicraft/bin/multicraft -v start

Once you run it, it should say the following:


Now lets navigate to your Multicraft panel via your web browser
, go to http://YOUR_SERVER_IP/multicraft and replace YOUR_SERVER_IP with your servers main IP address.

*Getting an error?* If it doesn’t connect, the firewall might be blocking the ports. Run the following command to allow all traffic in the firewall:
iptables -I INPUT -j ACCEPT
service iptables save
service iptables reload

If you get “403 Forbidden” error then you need to disable SELinux with the following command:
setenforce 0

Now the Multicraft panel installer should appear in your browser:

Press the “Start Installation” button.

Now you should be on the requirements page that looks like this:

If the “Protected Directory” area says failed, then we need to edit a part of the apache web server config:
nano /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Now go down the file a bit and look for the <Directory "/var/www/html"> section, a bit farther down you should see:
AllowOverride None
Change this to:
AllowOverride All

Then save the changes to the file and exit then restart apache with:
service httpd restart

This will let Multicraft’s .htaccess file to be used to protect certain directories on the panel.

Now go back to the installer in your web browser and  refresh the page, now it should say “passed” instead of “failed” for the protected directory part. Click “Next” now to go onto the next step.

Note: If you get an error page while clicking "Continue", just go back to the install.php and try again and it should work fine

Now you’ll see this next page:

Press the continue button.

Now you’ll be on the database page for the panel:

By default it will be set to SQLite, click the “Database Type” dropdown box and select MySQL instead (screenshot above), then it will give four text areas to enter database information. At the top of this guide we created the databases above, so enter the following information:

Database host: 127.0.0.1
Database name: multicraft_panel
Database username: root
Database password: *Your Root Password*

Once you’ve entered it all, press the “Save and Test” button, then it will refresh and say it was successful. Then click the “Initialize Database” button to the top right of the page.

Now it should have a green area and below it say  “The panel database setup was successful.” Now we can click Continue again to go to the next step.

Now it will ask us to setup the database again. By default, all of the information we entered in the original installer is used, so just press “Save and Test” on this page also then click “Initialize Database”.

Now it should bring you to the next page which will connect to the database and give you the default admin login credentials:

Click the “Login” button in the navigation bar then login using the username “admin” and password “admin”.

Once you’ve logged in to the admin account it will bring you back to the panel database configuration page, just press “Continue” since it is setup already.

Next it will bring you to the database configuration page for the daemon. Like before, instead of choosing SQLite as the database, click the drop down box and select “MySQL” and enter your daemon database details:

Database host: 127.0.0.1
Database name: multicraft_daemon
Database user: root
Database password: *Your Root Password*

Click “Save and Test” then it should successfully connect to the database. Now click the “Initialize Database” button at the top right then click “Continue” after it initializes.

Next it will bring you to the panel settings page:

We can leave all of the settings above as their defaults, just press the “Save” button.

Next it’ll bring us to the daemon connection page where it should detect our running daemon and list the daemon database information just for records:

*Note: The “Daemon Configuration” can be used if you plan to add a second, or more daemons afterwards. This is needed if you plan to setup multiple systems to sell servers publicly*

Click “Continue” now once it detects the running daemon, then we will be brought to the next page:

Now lets delete the install.php file in SSH so the installer can’t be re-ran:
rm -rf /var/www/html/multicraft/install.php

Now we can click “Continue to Multicraft”, and now Multicraft is completely setup on your server!

Now you can go to the “Servers” tab, and click “Create Server” to create a new server in the panel. Make sure to enter all of the fields properly with the IP and port that you wish to use for your Minecraft server.

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