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Build a network: proxy, lobby, survival

Several servers behind one address with Velocity: when it is worth it, what you need, and the config that trips everyone.

1 min readUpdated 2026-09-14Diese Anleitung auf Deutsch lesen →

A network is one proxy (Velocity) that players connect to, plus backend servers (lobby, survival, creative, minigames) they get sent to. It is worth it from roughly 30+ players or when you want separate worlds with separate plugin sets.

What you order

  • One small server for the proxy (1 GB is plenty).
  • One server per backend.

Setup in brief

  1. Proxy: order a Minecraft Paper server, then ask Kowalski to swap the jar for Velocity (or upload the Velocity jar and set the jar name in Startup). Its address is the one players use.
  2. Backends: normal Paper servers. In server.properties set online-mode=false (the proxy does the authentication). In config/paper-global.yml set proxies.velocity.enabled: true, online-mode: true and paste the proxy's forwarding.secret.
  3. velocity.toml on the proxy: list the backends under [servers] with node1.penguhost.com:<port>, set try = ["lobby"], player-info-forwarding-mode = "modern".
  4. Restart everything, join the proxy, /server survival.

The config that trips everyone

Backends with online-mode=false and no forwarding secret are open to anyone who knows their port: they can join as any name. Always set the Velocity secret, and use a whitelist on backends as a second wall.

Crossplay on a network

Geyser goes on the proxy (Geyser-Velocity), not on each backend.