server.properties

server.properties lives in the root of your server's data directory. Edit it from the Files tab, then restart.

Most common edits

• motd=... — the message shown in the multiplayer server list.
• max-players=20 — hard player cap.
• view-distance=10 — chunk view distance. Lower = better performance.
• simulation-distance=10 — chunks where ticks/AI run. Lower = much better performance.
• difficulty=easy — peaceful, easy, normal, hard.
• gamemode=survival — survival, creative, adventure, spectator.
• white-list=true — turn on whitelist enforcement.
• pvp=true — toggle PvP.
• spawn-protection=16 — radius around spawn where non-ops can't build.

Less obvious

• network-compression-threshold=256 — packets above this size get compressed. Lower it on a fast network for marginal latency wins; higher for bandwidth savings.
• enable-rcon=false — leave off unless you know what you're doing. RCON brute-forcing is one of the most common attack patterns we see.

After editing

Restart the server from the panel. Most properties only apply on startup.