The panel is where you do everything that is not done from inside the game. Knowing which tab owns which job is most of the learning curve, and it is shorter than it looks.
The tabs and what lives in them
| Tab | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Console | Start, stop and restart. Live output. Typing server commands without being in game. |
| Files | Browsing, editing, uploading and deleting. The same files SFTP sees. |
| Databases | Creating a MySQL database and getting the credentials a plugin needs. |
| Schedules | Things that should happen on a timer — nightly restarts, periodic saves. |
| Users | Giving someone else access without handing over your account. |
| Backups | Point-in-time copies you can restore or download. |
| Network | The address and port your service is listening on. |
| Startup | Which file runs, which version, and the variables passed to it. |
| Settings | SFTP details, reinstall, and renaming the server. |
| Activity | Who did what, and when. The audit trail for the account. |
| Splitter | Running more than one instance from the memory of one plan. |
| Mods | Browsing and installing mods for Fabric and Forge servers. |
| Plugins | The same, for Paper and Spigot plugins, without leaving the panel. |
| Versions | Changing the Minecraft version or the server software. |
The two numbers worth watching
The resource graphs above the console show memory and CPU as they happen. Memory near its ceiling explains crashes; CPU pinned at one core's worth explains lag. Almost every performance conversation starts by looking at those two.
Whatever is wrong, the server has usually already said so. Reading the last thirty lines before asking anyone anything answers a surprising share of questions, and makes the rest much faster to answer.
Stop asks the server to shut down properly, saving the world on its way out. Kill ends the process immediately, and anything unsaved is gone. Kill is for a server that has stopped responding, not for a server that is taking twenty seconds.