Title
Clients cannot connect to a second Bedrock Dedicated Server 1.26.32.2 instance on the same host (InitialConnection-13)
Environment
Bedrock Dedicated Server 1.26.32.2
Ubuntu Linux x86_64
Two native Bedrock Dedicated Server instances running on the same host
Configuration
Server 1
server-port=19132
server-portv6=19133
Server 2
server-port=19142
server-portv6=19143
Steps to reproduce
Start two native Bedrock Dedicated Server instances on the same host.
Configure the first instance to use ports 19132/19133.
Configure the second instance to use ports 19142/19143.
Connect to the second instance using Minecraft Bedrock 1.26.32.
Expected result
The client connects successfully to the second server instance.
Actual result
The second server starts successfully.
The world loads successfully.
The server listens on the configured ports.
UDP packets are received and replies are sent.
The Minecraft client cannot connect and reports InitialConnection-13.
No Player connected entry is written to the server log.
GameDig health checks are unsuccessful.
Additional information
The same hardware, operating system, server configuration and world work correctly with Bedrock Dedicated Server 1.26.23.1. After upgrading to 1.26.32.2, the issue occurs.
Reproduced with an existing world.
Reproduced with a newly generated world.
Reproduced with a freshly extracted server installation.
Reproduced when the second server is the only running Bedrock server on the system.
No firewall or network issues were identified during testing.
ss confirms that the server is listening on ports 19142/19143.
tcpdump confirms that UDP packets are received and replies are sent.
Using the same configuration with Bedrock Dedicated Server 1.26.23.1, the client connects successfully.
Environment
Bedrock Dedicated Server 1.26.32.2 * Ubuntu Linux x86_64 * Two native Bedrock Dedicated Server instances running on the same host
Comments 7
Update
The issue is still present with Bedrock Dedicated Server 1.26.40.8.
The behavior has changed slightly:
When attempting to connect to the second server instance, the Minecraft Bedrock client now times out instead of reporting
InitialConnection-13.The server starts successfully and listens on the configured ports.
The issue remains reproducible under the same conditions described above.
Downgrading the second server from Bedrock Dedicated Server 1.26.40.8 to 1.26.23.1 immediately restores client connectivity. No other changes were made.
Sounds like we have to file this under the client, not the server. If the UDP packets are getting a response but the client is ignoring non-standard ports…
But then again, who uses non-standard ports to hide their online BDS from trolls and griefers?
I agree that the client could be involved. However, I cannot test the current client with BDS 1.26.23.1 because the versions are incompatible.
The second instance uses different (non-standard) ports because two BDS instances are running on the same host and IP address. Therefore, different ports are required — not to hide the server.
One additional observation:
With BDS 1.26.40.8 on the same host, the main BDS instance using the standard ports 19132/19133 is still detected correctly by GameDig/Uptime Kuma.
Only the second BDS instance using the non-standard ports 19142/19143 is affected. Both instances are running the same BDS version on the same host.
Same problem here