Although Minecraft has been out for beta testing for a while, there are still some glitches. You can merge it with CraftBukkit, Tekkit or third-party plugins to have problems like crashes, lags, errors, and faulty plugins. Server problems are usually unavoidable with most Minecraft servers and the more plugins and the larger your world, the more likely you are to have these issues. This guide will provide detailed information on how to troubleshoot a Minecraft server to help you find the root cause. One point we (GGServers) would like to make is that server crashes and [most] causes of lag have nothing to do with the host themselves (this goes for any hosting company). Every host runs the Minecraft/External Minecraft server software (which is a .jar file) through Java, which is cross-platform (Windows, Mac & Linux Compatible). This allows all servers to run the same way as they would on one OS compared to another. Due to this, it isn't the host that is actually starting/running your server, it is the Minecraft/External Minecraft server software that is running through Java that is the brain of everything, the only time a crash is an issue on the host's side is if their actual physical hardware breaks down or if the operating system crashes. All other crashes are caused directly by Minecraft/External Minecraft server software and plugins themselves. It is important to understand that host companies cannot solve all Minecraft-related problems. We did not program the game, CraftBukkit or Tekkit and we are not able to help you with the problem. However, we can give you our best efforts at debugging it using our experience. Because we didn't install the plugins nor configure your server, user error can also be a problem that hosts may not be able to fix. This is excepted if Modpack Support was purchased. In these cases, we will need to know as much as possible about the origin of the problem. Some problems may not be fixable without doing a reset/rollback. This is unfortunately the nature of Minecraft and the plugins that are based on it. FIRST STEP OF ANY SERVER ISSUES: The first thing YOU, the server owner, should do with ANY kind of server problem is check your console or server.log file (via FTP or built-in file viewer). The console is a realtime copy of the server.log files (a text based file), however the server.log files has a longer historical record since it is all console log's output. While the console display is limited only to the last few line, it can be used as a history file. A lot of the messages will look unusual or cryptic in the console/server.log, but you can usually find the error messages containing the names of the plugins the error is related to. An error message is preceded by a tag like, or similar to [SEVERE]. Some errors will tell you exactly what the problem is, which makes it easier for you, the server owner to fix the problem. In some cases, the server.log files can be over a gigabyte (1000MB+), making them difficult to open. Usually, server.log files that are larger than 1GB are caused by chunk errors. Tip: Deleting your server.log file (without the server running) will make it much shorter/cleaner and easier to see startup and shut down errors. It wouldn't make it fun to have 100MB log files to download each time. However, you can change the name of the file (example:server.logOLD1) if that is what you prefer. Once you have identified the problem, the next step will be to ensure that all plugins installed are up to date (including your Minecraft/External Minecraft JAR). Click the Update button in the Multicraft panel to do this. This should resolve most, if not all, plugin-related errors. However if you continue to get errors after updating your plug-ins, they could be due to another issue that will require further investigation. REMOVING WORLD AS A SOURCE TO THE PROBLEM Sometimes the problem is within the world. To test this, go into your multicraft panel and change level-name, which defaults to world) to something other (world2), then hit Save and let the server restart automatically. This will create a new world folder in your server's directory called world2 (Or other names if you chose a different name) and will be a plain, automatically generated, no user-input world. Check your server.log file for the same errors. NOTE: Changing a level-name can affect the way multi-world Plugins work. In this case, you might need to delete the new world from the multiworld Plugin(s) config file. Otherwise the world will be generated again. If this eliminates the issue on your server, then it means that something in your world file is causing issue. This could include, but not be limited to, water, redstone or lava, large numbers of mobs, non removal of dropped items, and so forth. You can also check to determine if your plugins continue throwing errors in the server.log file. To change the entire world back to the one you have before, simply change the name to the original. Spaces and capitalizations are important so type it exactly the same way as before. BASICS FOR FIXING PLUGIN PROBLEMS Plugin errors can be caused by improperly installed plugins. It is important to ensure that your Minecraft/External Minecraft server files are always up-to-date (from the game panel) and that all plugins you install support the exact same Minecraft server software version. Differences in these versions/different types of server software can cause errors, lag, and crashes. It is better to avoid installing plugins that do not support CraftBukkit. Plugins can sometimes be updated frequently, so you will always want to check on http://plugins.bukkit.org for the latest versions of your plugins. If updating doesn't fix the error, it's likely that there is an issue with your configuration file. Some plugins require things such as a MySQL database (which GGServers can provide by request), and if you don't enter in your MySQL database login info, then the plugin will throw errors. Other issues that can arise from plugin configs are outdated configs. If you have an updated plugin, you will need the config file to be removed and then restart the server. The plugin will then automatically generate a new configuration file. Some plugins may have data files that are not usable. In some cases the data files can be manually edited but you may need to delete (or rename!) the entire plugin's data folder in order to fix the problem. Many errors can be attributed to configs. Config files extensions are.yml. Those files must be followed strictly. Failure to do so, and even a small capitalization error will render the plugin unusable. You can check the syntax of any .yml file using this site: http://yaml-online-parser.appspot.com/ TYPES OF PLUGINS THAT CAN CAUSE LAG: These plugins can cause server lag, but not all. -Anti Xray (or any xray related plug-in) –World Edit –NPC –Anti-cheat –Wrong Anti-lag plugins –Outdated/wrong Version of plugins generally PROCESS OF ELUMINATION: To test for server errors, disable plugins in groups to narrow down the issue and make the process faster. This is simple, a good way to do this is to append .disabled onto the plugin file name, (example) worldedit.jar.disabled. Once it is time to reactivate the plugin(s), you can simply remove the.disabled extension from your plugin(s), and restart the server. WHAT TO DO IF YOUR SERVER DOESN'T START UP: There are a few causes of why a server won't start up (at all), so we'll go over a few here. 1. Check your multi-craft profile page to confirm that you have not exceeded the disk space limit. This is common if you have backup plugins that you don't keep track of and it creates hundreds of backups, thus using up all of your disk space. PERSIANCATRESCUE It's best to get rid of anything you don’t need. 2. Chunk errors are detected. Chunk errors send error messages to your server.log file, which limits your disk space. The server.log contains all error messages, so it can grow into the gigabytes. You will want to delete your server.log file in this case and may need to load a new world sadly. 3. Your Minecraft server JAR files are corrupt/unusable. You can upload the most recent version by using the update button within your multi-craft panel. 4. There is a plugin that stops/crashes the server upon start up, to fix this, read above on 'The process of elimination' to start using your server once again. TYPES & TYPES - LAG There are different types of lag that can mean different things on your server. We'll cover a few of them here: 1. Movement lag, delayed block breaking and movement lag are two examples of a delay in block breaking. (This is also known under the name rubber banding and damage delays. This type lag can be caused by network issues (on the host or client sides), lag on client's internet connection, server runningtime/performance issues that can occur due to plugins/worlds, and the use external MySQL databases for plugins. You can use a plugin called LagMeter or another similar plugin to determine if the problem is related to your world/plugins. Then, you can use the /lag command to feel the lag. If the TPS is close to 20, it could be a problem with other things. 2. Framerate issues on the client side. This is usually caused due to a problem in the server's chunk generation. It can also result from TNT explosions, or damage to chunks that is caused by TNT. A new world may be required if this type of lag lasts longer than a few minutes, or continues to occur after relogging into the server. This type lag can also be caused when plugins are used that have anti xray and ore obfuscation. The only way out is to update or to remove the plugin. Many servers have also disabled TNT in all of the world (not good for faction-based servers). CONCLUSION If you are experiencing some form of error or lag on your server and are unable to determine using this article, please feel free to open a ticket with our Technical Support team at: https://ggservers.com/billing/submitticket.php. To get your problem resolved quickly, please provide as much detail as possible. Also, please list any troubleshooting methods you have used. Without detailed information on the issue, or on troubleshooting you may have already done, our tech support team would start from the most basic troubleshooting procedures and may be repeating what you have already completed.
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