This is a basic Ansible playbook to create an on-demand Minecraft server on DigitalOcean that uses Block Storage to persist game data. This allows you to shut down the server when not in use without affecting your world or in-game inventory data.

• Python 3.11+

Installation of Python via pyenv is recommended -- it will automatically use the version specified in .python-version once installed.

Before you can provision your new server, you'll need to ensure that the necessary dependencies and credentials are installed:

Setup automation is provided by make, simply run the setup target:

$ make setup

This will ensure that your local configuration files are in place and that all necessary Python and Ansible dependencies are installed.

Once dependencies are installed, you will need to edit the vars/credentials.yml file and provide your DigitalOcean API key:

---
credentials:
  digital_ocean:
    api_key: d34db33f

The community.digitalocean modules call endpoints beyond the obvious ones — for example, digital_ocean_droplet queries /v2/firewalls even when the droplet is not associated with any firewall, so the token needs firewall:read or droplet creation will fail with "Failed to get firewalls: You are not authorized to perform this operation".

Minimum required scopes for make provision and make destroy:

If you hit a "not authorized" error on an unexpected endpoint, either add the corresponding scope or generate a "Full Access" token for throwaway testing. Always set a finite expiry (1 day / 1 week) rather than "No expiry".

This playbook can also create a DNS entry using the DNSimple service. If you are a a DNSimple customer, you can configure your credentials in vars/credentials.yml as well:

---
credentials:
  digital_ocean:
    api_key: d34db33f
  dnsimple:
    account_email: user@host.com
    account_api_token: t0k3n

Sensible defaults have been chosen for the server creation options, but you can always override those as needed:

# vars/server.yml
server:
  ssh_key_name: "Ansible / Minecraft"
  image: ubuntu-22-04-x64
  region: nyc3
  size: s-2vcpu-2gb
  name: minecraft

See the DigitalOcean size slugs reference for other options. Legacy slugs like 2gb, 4gb were retired — use s-<vcpu>-<ram> (basic), g-<vcpu>-<ram> (general purpose), or other current formats.

The Minecraft server is configured by a local Ansible role at roles/minecraft/. The variables you typically set in vars/server.yml are:

minecraft_home: /srv/minecraft
minecraft_version: 1.21.4
minecraft_accept_eula: true  # https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/eula

minecraft_accept_eula must be true — the role asserts it before doing any other work. See roles/minecraft/defaults/main.yml for additional knobs (Java package, JVM heap size, user/group names).

If you have credentials set for DNSimple, you can configure the domain and hostname of the record that will be created -- this will point to your newly created server:

# vars/server.yml
dns:
  domain: my-domain.com
  hostname: minecraft
  ttl: 300

Ensure that all dependencies are installed, and then run the provision target to create your new server:

$ make provision

When successful, your new server will be ready to use -- you can either try using the created hostname if you are using DNSimple, or the IP captured in the inventory file to connect.

It's important to shut down the Minecraft server process and unmount the Block Storage volume before deleting the server. To do this correctly, you just need to run the destroy target:

$ make destroy

Three workflows under .github/workflows/ let anyone with repo write access spin up and tear down a session server without cloning the repo locally.

All three share concurrency group minecraft-server so they cannot race each other. provision.yml and destroy.yml are gated on the minecraft-server GitHub Environment so an explicit reviewer click is required — auto-destroy.yml is not gated since it runs unattended.

Variables (Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions → Variables tab) are non-sensitive — unlike secrets, their values are not masked in workflow logs or step summaries.

1. Repository → Settings → Environments: create minecraft-server, add yourself (and any other write-access users) under Required reviewers.
2. Repository → Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions: add the secrets and variables above.
3. (Optional) Restrict workflow_dispatch to specific actors via branch protection / environment policies if the repo is public.

• Provision: Actions → Provision Minecraft server → Run workflow → choose region/size/duration → approve in the environment prompt → workflow summary contains the FQDN, IP, and expiry timestamp.
• Destroy early: Actions → Destroy Minecraft server → Run workflow → approve.
• Auto-destroy: nothing to do; cron polls every 15 min and tears down once now >= expires-<unix>.