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Minecraft Dedicated Server: Headless Monitoring and Performance Metrics

Minecraft Guide โ€ข Updated Feb 21, 2026

Minecraft Dedicated Server: Headless Monitoring and Performance Metrics

For large-scale Minecraft dedicated servers in 2026, simply watching the console for "Can't keep up!" warnings isn't enough. Professional hosting requires proactive monitoring to identify memory leaks and entity lag before players notice. This guide covers the best tools for headless server management.

๐Ÿ“Š Real-Time Metrics

Track Ticks Per Second (TPS), MSPT (Milliseconds Per Tick), and JVM Garbage Collection frequencies to catch "hiccups".

๐Ÿ” Profiling

Deep-dive into which specific plugin or mod is consuming the most CPU time using automated profilers.

Essential Tool: Spark Profiler

Spark is the industry standard for monitoring dedicated Minecraft servers. It provides a web-based dashboard and heap dump analysis without requiring a server restart.

  • TPS Tracking: Use /spark tps for a quick overview of server health.
  • Sampling: Run /spark profiler start during a lag event to generate a detailed flame graph of CPU activity.
  • Memory Analysis: Use /spark heapsummary to find mods that are "leaking" RAM over time.

Integrating with Grafana and Prometheus

Enterprise hosting platforms often allow you to export server data to Grafana. By installing the "Prometheus Exporter" plugin, you can create a 24/7 visual dashboard showing:

  1. Player counts over the last 30 days.
  2. Disk I/O usage (critical for Chunk loading performance).
  3. Network bandwidth spikes during DDoS attempts.

Automated Maintenance Tasks

A healthy dedicated server should never go more than 24 hours without a reboot to clear the JVM cache. Set up an automated task to:

/tellraw @a {"text":"Server rebooting in 1 minute for maintenance!","color":"red"}
/save-all
/stop

Note: In 1.21+, the /tick command is now available in vanilla, allowing you to freeze or slow down the server for debugging without needing plugins.

High-Visibility Minecraft Hosting

Know exactly what's happening under the hood. At Supercraft, our Minecraft dedicated servers include a built-in monitoring dashboard with historical TPS data and Spark integration, giving you the data you need to maintain a perfect 20.0 TPS world.

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