Migrating to Sponge¶

The purpose of the articles within this section is to help current server owners to migrate from other server platforms to Sponge.

Migrating to Sponge
Installing Sponge

Migrating to Sponge ¶

To migrate to SpongeForge or SpongeVanilla, look at the sections below. Most instructions are identical for both, differences are stated below.

Migrating from CraftBukkit or Spigot ¶

Note

Spigot is a modified fork of CraftBukkit.

Worlds¶

Forge, and thus SpongeForge (and also SpongeVanilla), use the same world structure as vanilla Minecraft. Vanilla Minecraft places the nether (typically world_nether) and the end (typically world_the_end) dimensions within the world folder.

CraftBukkit relocates the nether and end dimensions outside of the world folder, which must be remedied if it is desired to retain the nether and end dimensions when running SpongeForge. To relocate the nether and end dimensions, follow the instructions below.

Tip

It is a good idea to make a backup of your worlds in case you make a mistake.

Stop your CraftBukkit server if it is running.
Copy world_the_end/DIM1 to world/DIM1.
Copy world_nether/DIM-1 to world/DIM-1.

Server and World Configuration Files¶

CraftBukkit and Sponge both share files that are made available by vanilla Minecraft. These files can thus be reused on Sponge, if they are already present in your CraftBukkit installation:

server.properties
banned-ips.json
banned-players.json
ops.json
usercache.json
whitelist.json

The following files are used by CraftBukkit only, and can be removed because Sponge does not use them:

bukkit.yml
commands.yml
help.yml
permissions.yml

Users who are migrating from Spigot may wish to compare spigot.yml to global.conf in Sponge. Some keys in spigot.yml have counterparts in global.conf, and it may be desirable to copy over the values of any keys that are present in both files.

Plugins¶

Sponge has no native support for Bukkit plugins. However, some members of the community are re-implementing the Bukkit API within a special Sponge plugin, which may allow Bukkit plugins to function on a Sponge server. This plugin has not yet been slated for release.

Ore is Sponge’s official repository for finding plugins, and it is recommended to download all Sponge plugins from Ore. When finding replacements for your Bukkit plugins, there are a few points to keep in mind:

Not all Bukkit developers have chosen to port their plugins to Sponge. Over time, however, someone else may create a suitable replacement.
Not all Sponge plugins that are ported from Bukkit will automatically convert configuration files. Individual plugin developers make the decision on whether or not to automatically convert configuration files.
Some Sponge plugins that are ported from Bukkit may change in functionality, or may not even use the same configuration structure.

Migrating from Canary ¶

Worlds¶

Forge, and thus SpongeForge (and also SpongeVanilla), use the same world structure as vanilla Minecraft. Vanilla Minecraft places the nether (typically world_nether) and the end (typically world_the_end) dimensions within the world folder.

Canary relocates the nether and end dimensions outside of the world folder, which must be remedied if it is desired to retain the nether and end dimensions when running Sponge. However, Canary provides an easy method to convert Canary worlds to a structure usable by Sponge with the /makevanilla command. If the world conversion is successful, the output will be placed in the vanilla folder.

Server and World Configuration Files¶

Sponge uses many files that are made available by vanilla Minecraft, such as server.properties. Canary, however, does not; the only file it has in common with vanilla Minecraft is usercache.json. Thus, usercache.json is the only file from Canary that can be reused on Sponge.

Nevertheless, it is possible to manually migrate some Canary configuration files to their Sponge counterparts, which have been provided below.

Canary file(s)	Sponge counterpart(s)
server.cfg <world>_<dimension>.cfg	server.properties
<world>_<dimension>.cfg	global.conf <dimension>/dimension.conf
ops.cfg	ops.json
db.cfg	No counterpart
motd.txt	No counterpart

Plugins¶

Sponge has no native support for Canary plugins. It may be possible to re-implement the Canary API in a special Sponge plugin.

Ore is Sponge’s official repository for finding plugins, and it is recommended to download all Sponge plugins from Ore. When finding replacements for your Canary plugins, there are a few points to keep in mind:

Not all Canary developers have chosen to port their plugins to Sponge. Over time, however, someone else may create a suitable replacement.
Not all Sponge plugins that are ported from Canary will automatically convert configuration files. Individual plugin developers make the decision on whether or not to automatically convert configuration files.
Some Sponge plugins that are ported from Canary may change in functionality, or may not even use the same configuration structure.

Migrating from Forge ¶

Migrating from a plain Forge server to a SpongeForge or SpongeVanilla server is a fairly simple process that needs little-to-no preparatory work.

Migrating to SpongeForge¶

You must first ensure you are running a version of Forge that is compatible with the version of Sponge your plan to use. You may find recommended builds of Forge at http://files.minecraftforge.net. If you are using any other mods, they must also be updated.

When you are ready to install Sponge, you may proceed with the following steps:

Stop your Forge server if it is running.
Download SpongeForge from the Sponge website and Forge from MinecraftForge.
Place SpongeForge.jar into your mods folder.
Start the server and party!

Note

If SpongeForge is the only mod on your server, players will be able to log in with a vanilla client. Other mods may require players to install Forge on their own computers.

Migration to SpongeVanilla¶

Warning

If migrating to SpongeVanilla: You will lose all Forge mod data, blocks and entities as SpongeVanilla can’t run Forge mods. Keep that in mind when deciding whether you go with SpongeForge or SpongeVanilla.

The process of migration is almost the same as above:

Stop your Forge server if it is still running.
Download SpongeVanilla and the vanilla server from Mojang.
Place your worlds and config files in the server folder.
Run the server by launching the spongevanilla.jar.

Migrating from Vanilla ¶

Administrators of vanilla Minecraft servers can migrate to Sponge easily because Forge, and thus SpongeForge (and SpongeVanilla), use the same world structure as vanilla Minecraft. Sponge also uses the same files used by vanilla Minecraft, such as server.properties.

At first you should decide if you want to run SpongeForge or SpongeVanilla.

Note

Both flavours of Sponge are able to serve vanilla clients. Keep in mind that this only applies to SpongeForge as long as you don’t install Forge mods which require client modifications.

Stop your Vanilla server if it is still running
Download SpongeVanilla or SpongeForge.
Place your worlds and config files in the server folder.
Run your new server.

Installing Sponge ¶

The guide at Installing Sponge provides instructions for installing Sponge while you’re migrating.

Migrating to Sponge¶