Minecraft Hosting Control Panel Guide

If this is your first Minecraft hosting account, the control panel might look overwhelming. This guide walks through every essential feature of the Pterodactyl panel used by HeavenCloud — in simple steps, no technical background needed.

1. Starting and Stopping Your Server

The most basic operation. In your Pterodactyl panel, click the green Start button to boot the server. The console tab shows the startup log in real time. If you see Done (Xs)! For help, type "help", your server is online and ready.

Always use Stop (not Kill) to shut down. The Stop command runs the save-all sequence before closing, preventing world corruption.

2. Console Commands

The console tab lets you run any server command without a player op account. Useful commands:

3. Startup Flags (JVM Settings)

In Startup tab, you can configure the Java startup command. The most important parameter is -Xmx (maximum RAM) and -Xms (starting RAM). Set both equal to your plan's RAM for best performance:

4. File Manager and SFTP

Use the Files tab in the panel to edit server.properties, upload plugins (drop .jar into the plugins/ folder), and manage world data. For bulk uploads or downloads, use an SFTP client like FileZilla with your panel's SFTP credentials (found under Settings → SFTP Details).

5. Scheduled Backups

Go to Schedules → Create Schedule. Set a cron expression like 0 2 * * * (runs at 2AM daily) and add a Create Backup task. HeavenCloud plans include backup slots that store compressed world archives accessible from the Backups tab.

6. Updating Your Server Version

To update Minecraft or Paper version: download the new .jar file from papermc.io, upload it via File Manager or SFTP, then go to Startup tab and change the jar filename to match. Always back up your world before a major version update.