Finding Minecraft Server Performance Issues with Spark

Analyze your Minecraft server in real time and identify lag, CPU load, and performance issues with Spark.

Analyze your Minecraft server in real time and identify lag, CPU load, and performance issues with Spark.

Spark profiles your Minecraft server in real time and generates reports on CPU usage, memory, ticks per second, and thread activity. Most MCServerHost servers ship with it preinstalled.

Installation

Paper, Purpur, and other Paper-based server software include Spark by default. No install needed. For Spigot, Fabric, or Forge servers, download Spark from spark.lucko.me/download.

  1. Stop your server from the MCServerHost dashboard.
  2. Drop the .jar into the plugins folder (or mods for Fabric/Forge).
  3. Start the server. Spark generates its config files on first boot.

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Commands

Run these in the server console or as OP in-game:

Command What it does
spark health Shows CPU, memory, and active thread counts
spark profiler start Begins recording CPU ticks
spark profiler stop Stops recording and returns a link to the full report
spark tickmonitor Logs individual tick times so you can spot lag spikes

Let the profiler run for at least 10 minutes before stopping it. A short sample won't catch the spikes you care about.

Spark report

Full command reference: spark.lucko.me/docs/Command-Usage

Conclusion

Spark shows you exactly what's slowing your server down: CPU spikes, memory pressure, chunk lag. Paper-based servers already ship with it.

If you run into issues on MCServerHost, join our Discord server or contact us at support@mcserverhost.com.

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