In this short article, we will be looking at why is RAM important for the server and most importantly how to allocate more RAM to a Minecraft server.
On top of that, you will learn all the different ways you can give more RAM to the server, plus why allocating more RAM for your growing server is necessary, because it really is!
Why is RAM Needed?
RAM is one of the basic things needed to make a server live online. The amount of RAM in the server decides its speed and efficiency, so RAM plays the main role in the performance of your server and how well it runs.
The more is RAM the more efficient the server will be in many ways, including:
- Speed,
- Lag,
- Game loading,
- Commands processing, etc.
There are many factors that RAM is dependent on, which you can see here, in our article on why we need RAM for a Minecraft Server.
What Happens If You Run Out of RAM?
When a server is first made it doesn’t need a lot of RAM. You can make a server with 1 or 2 GB of RAM and have it running smoothly. But once you have grown and got a lot of players, that RAM isn’t going to be enough for all players.
And what will happen is it will not run the server smoothly. So that is one instance, the next is even more annoying.
And then there comes a stage when you run out of Allocated RAM. Your server crashes, which as you already know will have many bad effects on the server, including eating your important server files causing data leakage.
But there is always a solution to these types of things...
How to Allocate More RAM for a Server?
Allocating RAM for the server isn’t a big task. There are multiple ways you can allocate the RAM for the server to keep it running smoothly.
#1. Using a dedicated host
There are multiple host companies such as Hostinger, Apex Hosting, Shock Byte which offer their services for your Minecraft server. Using their services, you can get allocated RAM for the server, and you can find out about each one of them in the reviews below.
These hosts have the big tech/server houses which provide you with any RAM for your requirements. You can use them for your server to get the best gameplay for you and your players, and which is why we 100% recommend them.
There are multiple packages offered by these sites, and you can subscribe to any of the offers which are from 1 GB to 25GB+ which is enough for a really big server.
When needed more memory/RAM you can upgrade your package to allocate more RAM to the server, they make everything so simple.
#2. Local Host
Another way to host your server is through your local PC or any device. You can also make a self-hosted server. But the problem mostly faced with such servers is RAM (as you already guessed).
As it is hosted by your device, you might face multiple problems on your device as well as the server-side.
You can Allocate as much RAM as you want (within the limit of your device RAM) in a self-hosted server, and it is more of a manual process, outlined below.
- Stop your server.
- Go to the file where your server.jar file is present.
- Find the start.bat or run.bat file.
- Open the file using any text editor
- You will see the following thing written:
java -Xmx2000M -Xms2000M -jar server.jar nogui
pause
- This means the current Allocated RAM for the “server.jar” type server is 2000 MB / 2GB.
- You can replace 2000 with your required RAM limit and save the file.
- Now start the server.
This is how you can dedicate the RAM to the self-hosted server, a bit of a pain, but doable.
Why Use A Dedicated Host Instead Of Self Hosted
The server can be hosted by dedicated hosts or local hosts as well. But there are many drawbacks of hosting the server on your device as it can affect your device health. It can also data leakage problems to your device in case of multiple people playing in it.
There are many other advantages of dedicated hosts that are better than self-hosted servers, which you can read about in the linked article linked here.
Final Words About How To Allocate More RAM To A Minecraft Server
RAM is one of the most necessary items to make a server alive. The requirement of the RAM increases as the server grows. Hence, comes the stage when you need to upgrade the RAM so your server can run smoothly without any hurdle.
At this stage, you have to upgrade the Allocated RAM for the server. So, you can use the server without any problem. The method of upgrading the RAM on both servers is different.
For the dedicated hosts, you can simply upgrade your package.
While in the case of the locally hosted server you need to edit the start.bat file.
