Skip to main content

Dedicated Server for Minecraft:EE

Pinned Planned

Comments

196 comments

  • Mohib Hassan

    David Eichler Minecraft EDU Official
    if is possible can i join, i mean am not much help but i would like to give you guys ideas. The Deticated Servers will really bring the community together, with lots of new ways to teach, and more possibilities.

    We can even have like a Student Tournaments, each school will chose 5 students and they will go head to head with other students from other schools. like a team work challenge and a PVP challenge

    it will really change how students and teachers play Minecraft EDU

    1
  • Minecraft EDU Team

    Server Hosted Multiplayer

    FOLLOW
     
    Travis Gottsch
     

    Are there plans for server-hosted multiplayer?  My school has different networks for teachers and students making it extremely hard for teachers and students to interact.  Server hosted multiplayer would solve this issue for us.

    3
  • Aleece Landis
    Bug Zapper Beacon of Knowledge Super Star

    Still waiting for an update from Minecraft Education Edition Team Official about Progress on the Dedicated Server for Minecraft education edition.

    For those who might not really know as much about the geeky computer side of minecraft in general.  Education Edition is built on the cross platform Bedrock edition.  Java edition is the Original Minecraft.  Java edition has had the most done as far as servers and server plug ins and has the most complex ability to control permissions of players on servers.  Bedrock edition has server software too but it seems it is a little more difficult to carefully control players on bedrock servers the way it can be done in Java.  And I'm wondering if THIS lack of fine control might be PART of the reason a MC:EE server has not been rolled out ages ago.

    I'm sure they also have the added issues of how education edition is set up to host games AND only allow multiplayer within the same tenet but it really seems that should not be a complete stumbling block.

    Please, even if the initial EE server is JUST the basic Bedrock Edition Server software with the added EE security features so only people in the tenet can join and it is still limited to only 30 students at a time that will still be a HUGE bonus for most people who are asking for a dedicated server.  If those teachers have more than 30 students or more than one class, then they can have multiple servers running and they can leave them running and use the logging features to save the logs as needed.

    Once the Basic server is up and running and in testing.  Then, see if a way can be figured out for all the additional stuff people are asking for.

    For those wishing to do the cross institutional collaboration, I suspect the easier path to this, might be to create an organization which can include membership from all over and the organization would need to get the education account and tenet then anyone participating in the organization would be able to collaborate within Minecraft Education Edition.  I realize it is a pain and more complex to do it that way, however, I'm not sure that Minecraft EE or Microsoft for education is likely to take on the complexity (liability) for you.  They are expecting the organizations to police their own tenets as to who has access.  If they start letting people cross tenet lines how do they know that people from one tenet are following the same rules as another tenet?  I'm guessing Microsoft doesn't want to get in the middle of any disputes.

    4
  • Vyom Patel

    Minecraft education most definetly needs realms or a server where the host doesn't need to be on the world. It would help progression in the world this would help so many teachers, and students can work on projects anytime they want without waiting for their teacher to open the world. This would make getting projects done much quicker.😀 I've been waiting for this feature for too long. We would also like to know how far the minecraft education team is in making this a feature

     

     

    1
  • rui x

    yea it would make it so much easier for people just to hop on the servers when they have the time to. don't the bedrock and java versions already have dedicated server hosting? wouldnt it be practical to implement the hosting systems used in other version into mc edu

    1
  • Shouldn’t be to much work. MC:EE is based on the bedrock client. Its probably exactly the same core. Im not sure why microsoft is stalling here.

    2
  • Specifically as a result of this ongoing question, last summer I took a look into the state of Bedrock hosting, and at the time it was very much in preliminary stages compared to what has been available with Java. Given the continued protracted challenges arising out of licensing and server hosting with M: EE, for my work this summer I’m back to developing educational programming focussed on the Java platform, where there are tools, server facilities and plug-ins to provide the flexibility that currently does not exist with M:EE.  

    On one hand, Minecraft is incredibly broad and deep, and there is plenty to explore within the Java platform. On the other hand, however, given that we are approaching 18 months since the arrival of Covid, it’s a shame that there has not been a server-enabled version of M:EE to better support remote learning during this time. 

    3
  • Grant Pusey

    I'm only posting to try to add weight to the argument - I'm beyond thinking that I can make any difference to the devs - I've done this dance before.

    I've been looking for the dedicated server for too long and have essentially given up on MS doing anything about it. I've spent countless hours working around this and other problems that don't get fixed (e.g. 30 max users).

    I find that I use Minecraft: Education Edition about 20% as much as I used to with MinecraftEDU, despite the potentially great new features.

    When you consider how much other products have grown in the COVID climate, Minecraft: Education Edition had no extra developments over the last couple of years.

    What a missed opportunity...

    4
  • rui x

    yea, the comment says they started exploring possibilities 3 years ago

    1
  • Vyom Patel

    We should atleast know how far the minecraftEDU team has come along for servers where the host doesn't need to be in the world all the time, I'm pretty sure this discusion has gone on for 3 years. I've been waiting for this feature for too long. Please give us answers on how far you have come on this feature

    2
  • rui x

    Vyom Patel that may or may not go unanswered...

    also i noticed the "open pilot" has either been taken down or moved, i get a 404 error when i try to click on it, which means that plans of any sort for dedicated server hosting is probably out the window. shame we couldnt get it.

    0
  • Matthew Hess

    Yes,   For proper security in our environment we block peer-to-peer east-west traffic as well as keep our administrative and faculty on separate networks from students so asking teachers to host the server session on their devices and have students connect to their devices is a terrible architecture design.   Hopefully you will come up with a managed hosted solution that perhaps allows sessions (server slots) to be reserved ahead of time by authenticated teachers who then can share the server information with the students and bring in their lesson plans.

    2
  • Evan Denny

    hi

     

    0
  • Aleece Landis
    Bug Zapper Beacon of Knowledge Super Star

    We know that Bedrock Edition Has a dedicated server software available.  (No where near as good/flexible as the Java servers available.)  But there still is a way to host a dedicated server for Bedrock.  We just need microsoft/Minecraft Education Edition to enable some version of a minecraft education edition server.  I would love to help test it out on a small scale to help find the bugs in a safe environment before trying to test it out in a larger more complex school environment.

    We know it CAN be done.  We just do not know WHY it has not been done yet.  I'm sure it must be to do with security but certainly that could be handled by simply only allowing whitelisted players to enter the server.  Heck, they are already using something that looks a little like a server GUI for the Classroom Mode.  If you could create a server with a GUI functionality just a little more advanced than the existing Classroom Mode, it would be totally awesome.

    2
  • Matthew Hess

    Aleece Landis

    If they would have the schools register their IP address scheme and only allow joins to the server from those IP addresses that match the tenants domain users for a specific time (utilizing something like Microsoft Bookings) then they could easily provide some server infrastructure dedicated to education in a secure manner that could be reserved easily by teachers.

    I believe the issue is that there is no $$$ for this development and thus little traction to fix the problem.   Sad as engaging students through technologies they are interested in is how Microsoft will create a loyalty base with the next generation for their products and platform (Future investment)!

    1
  • Aleece Landis
    Bug Zapper Beacon of Knowledge Super Star

    I believe the issue is that there is no $$$ for this development

    Matthew Hess I can't believe that is the case since I know there are plenty of clubs and camps that would be interested in setting up a dedicated server for their groups.  If Education edition dedicated servers were to become a reality, I know there are more groups that would be willing to subscribe to Microsoft for education to work on projects together.  Biggest challenge I have with getting my group to work on "joint projects" is that the world has to be hosted by one of the students or the teacher pretty much all the time but most people can't leave their account in the world all the time to host it.  If there were even a way to have a "dummy" account be able to host the server long term but not actually have to have the player in the world to disrupt things like sleeping through the night for survival challenges.

    2
  • Aleece Landis
    Bug Zapper Beacon of Knowledge Super Star

    Ugh, My post vanished!

    I'll rewrite a short version.  Please provide at least a basic dedicated server software to work with Education Edition, even if it is just the Basic Bedrock server adjusted to work with Education Edition.  (since the number of players able to be on a server are going to be restricted more by the machine it's running on than by the software I'm sure.)

    So for those who use the normal work around (which requires an extra computer and student account for each world) I have figured out how (maybe this is common knowledge but I only just tested it) to allow players to sleep through the night without having to be at the host computer to operate that player myself.  I stick the HOST in the Nether (You may want to turn Minecraft sounds off for that account if you leave it next to a nether portal.)  Anyway, Make sure you adjust general settings for the world before you start (like if you don't want them using code builder in the world, disable it before creating the world or if you DO want them to use it make sure it is enabled.)  Create world, Do what ever setup you want for the world.  Then in creative mode with /wb true and destructive items enabled (apparently bedrock is a destructive item.)  You can teleport yourself to 0 2 0 and break out a space in the bedrock (I also surrounded it with bedrock) then create nether portal, go to nether Break nether portal TP to 0, 2, 0 in the Nether and break out a space there and create another nether portal.  Make sure you have a sign in each room to let you know if you are in the Nether or overworld.  Actually you probably don't even need to do any of that,  You are just trying to stick the Host somewhere out of the way in the nether (It may even be possible to do this with teleporting so as not to leave behind nether portals, but I'm not sure how to teleport between dimensions in Education edition.)

    3
  • Moon phoenix

    if server are added to M ee I would like to help in the map building and helping with the games here are my ides if this comes out. I have built all of this.

    1
  • Aleece Landis
    Bug Zapper Beacon of Knowledge Super Star

    @...  and Moon phoenix

    Just so you know, you can only play multiplayer on minecraft education edition with other people from your school or group where your account is from.  So even if your port forwarding for your device and education edition was set up for you to do it, it would still only work if both of your accounts are from the same school or group.

    Also, the IP address that shows on your screen would only help you join eachother's worlds IF you are on the same network or wifi.  IP addresses that start with 10 or 192 are generally the private IP address behind your router or firewall.  That is the address you would need your parents to set up the port forwarding to in order to let someone from the outside connect to your world.  You would also need to find out your public IP address (have your parent check what is my IP to find out what that is.)  Finally, you should not post that information on a public forum since that is like giving hackers a ticket telling them where you are and what port is likely to be open.  Make sure you are only posting information to connect to your game in a private messaging application with your group like Teams or something of the sort.

    1
  • Moon phoenix

    OMG thanks I did not know that was my ip thanks I have deleted it and I hope nothing bad happens. 

    -1
  • J Watt

    Wondering if there is any solution to this yet. I am hoping to teach IRL soon but otherwise really want to engage a world for multiple classes so that we don't have to repeat or fear that students lose out because of teaching inexperience in Minecraft.

    Here is my additional use case:
    I would love to create a world, give another teacher some type of cut down edit access (but not creator ownership) so they can't delete a world but can go into a 'master' world I have created and work with their students. For example we have 7 classes (over 3 teachers) at year 7 level that I would like to step through the same world but with their class teacher.  I also teach with other teachers that are not digital tech teachers and whilst they might become skilled in this, they could delete things while learning commands that I don't want them too. It's hard to try and pair- teach remotely with minecraft because of this inability to create and access worlds online. Downloading worlds is frustrating. 
    Realistically isn't his just like a game that you play online (via steam or xbox etc) sure there are likely to be some things to download on a local environment but the play is with others online not in a hosted offline world. Yes being able to create worlds on school servers might also be an option but it still has limitations such as help desk support etc.

    1
  • Andrew Forgrave

    Hi J Watt — I’ve been monitoring this thread for two+ years now, and to be honest, there has never really been any substantial response or indication that there are any plans in the works to develop a server version of M:EE. It would be wonderful to get some indication that work is being done behind the scenes and that something is forthcoming, but barring that, my best recommendation to you would be to look into using a Java server and the commercial version of Minecraft. My first use of Minecraft with students was almost a decade ago, using a modded version of Jave Minecraft, and I used that with my classes up until 2018 when my school moved to Windows 10. This past summer I did project development using the Java Minecraft edition, setting up two different server instances and making use of a good number of third-party plug-ins that allow for functionality/protection of the sort you are looking for — something that sadly just does not exist with M: EE.  Although the pending 1.17 release of M:EE will be bringing feature parity to the platform (with Java and Bedrock), there are many many features/protections available with Java that are just not available on M: EE. For the kind of granularity you are looking for, the Java version with a server and plug-ins, far surpasses what is currently available with the Education Edition. 

    2
  • Aleece Landis
    Bug Zapper Beacon of Knowledge Super Star

    J Watt I believe you may be able to do some of what you are asking about by creating your world and then exporting it as a template world (I'm not 100% certain about how to do this but there are template worlds out there.)  Anyway, if you turn it into a template, then when teachers/students import the world onto their machines and create a world from it, the original template is still available to go back to and create again at any time.

    You are totally correct in that the granular control (ability to very easily accidentally destroy things like NPC or command blocks when in creative mode with world builder on just because of a mouse glitch or lag spike, is soooo frustrating.) 

    as Andrew Forgrave says, Education edition is sorely lacking in a dedicated server solution.  And since Education Edition is based on Bedrock, it should be fairly simple to implement the dedicated server for it.  However, the Dedicated servers for Bedrock ARE NOT very good when it comes to fine control over permissions.  So if you want a server with fine control over user permissions, you may have to go to Java Edition.

    2
  • Noel Peterson

    Hello MEE Team, 
    1.    I would just like to know if you plan on adding in an option or feature to create servers, not just for classroom purposes, but also for things like creative mode and survival?, so students can play together on a world without someone owning it and always having to host it so others can join. Just like in normal MC versions where you create a server Id or link and share it. Also if you could make it work on different networks, that would be great! 

    2.    Do you also plan on adding in Hardcore mode and different world generation options, like amplified, no structures, caves only, etc..?

    Please notify me if you have an answer or plans for any of these. 
    Thanks! 
    NP

     

    2
  • Pratyush Dawadi

    Can you please release the server by the end of this year. My school uses Minecraft Education a lot for school projects and stuff like that, so if servers get implemented in the game then it will be a lot easier to work as a group and collaborate at school. Every time I want to join my friend's world while I am on the same internet as them there is always some connection problems and if there were servers the process of joining worlds will be a lot easier even if you weren't in the same connection as them.

    1
  • Zoey Carpenter

    Please please please add this to the game. It would be such a wonderful addition. So many people out there have too many students to have them in one Minecraft world.

    2
  • Andy Klavins

    If Microsoft is incapable of bringing a dedicated Minecraft:EE server program to life, could each education edition subscription be accompanied by a Java edition login such that we educators can set up our own dedicated servers with proven tech.... 2+ years is too long... 

    1
  • HOSHINO HISASHI

    I would like you to provide an implementation of Minecraft: Education edtion regarding servers as soon as possible.

    Currently, the specification is that no one will be able to connect after 4 or 5 days, so we are using Power Automate Desktop (PAD) to automatically restart M:EE.

    And although I use PAD to share the join code and join URL via OneDrive or Google Drive to simplify the connection, PAD sometimes fails to restart due to many uncertainties.

    Furthermore, we also need to maintain Remote Desktop connection using Raspberry Pi from remote to keep PAD running. This is no longer a minecraft server.


    I would like the development team to provide the server implementation as soon as possible.

     

    1
  • Aleece Landis
    Bug Zapper Beacon of Knowledge Super Star

    Any sort of server that will allow for a more or less always up world that education edition students can connect to is so very needed. 

    0
  • Scotty W

    Minecraft Java and Bedrock was released on Xbox Game Pass for PC. It is bundled together and has a dedicated launcher, were you can choose what version you want to play.

    100% speculation here:

    It seems Microsoft has figured how to license a Microsoft accounts for both version of Minecraft. I don't see why they couldn't make the Minecraft EE to behave like Xbox Game Pass version. Then schools/teachers could create their own self hosted Java Minecraft server, since you get a license for the Java version.

    Just a guess.

    0

Please sign in to leave a comment.