How We Migrated a 254-Mod Forge Server Away From Exaroton in 30 Minutes

If you're hitting the 10 GB storage limit on Exaroton with a modded Minecraft server, migrating can feel scary. A few weeks ago someone running a 254-mod Forge 1.20.1 server for friends — on top of a CurseForge pack and a world they'd been building for months — reached out after running into that exact wall.

They'd never moved a server before and weren't sure which Exaroton files actually mattered. Thirty minutes later the server was running on our hardware. Here's exactly how we migrated it away from Exaroton step-by-step.

What files you actually need

This is where most people overthink it. You don't need to copy everything. You need:

• /mods — every mod, including the ones you added manually on top of the base pack
• /config and /defaultconfig — mod configurations, took months to tune, don't lose these
• /kubejs and /scripts — if you're using KubeJS for custom recipes or quests
• Your world folder — check the name in server.properties under level-name
• server.properties — carries your seed, view distance, difficulty, whitelist setting

That's it. Leave behind the forge installer jar, the libraries folder, the logs. Your new host handles the server software fresh.

The part people always forget

Check your actual Forge version before migrating. It's in the filename of the server jar — something like forge-1.20.1-47.3.7-universal.jar. That middle number is your Forge build. Your new host needs to match it exactly or your mods will throw compatibility errors on startup.

In this case the server was running Forge 47.3.7 on 1.20.1 — not the latest build, but the one the modpack was built around. We matched it exactly and the server booted clean on the first try.

What Exaroton's 10GB limit actually means for modded

A vanilla server world is small. But a 254-mod modpack generates chunks differently — more biomes, more structures, more entity data per chunk. Worlds grow fast.

The 10GB limit isn't a problem on week one. It's a problem on week eight when your world is rich and your players are invested. By then migrating feels risky and complicated — which is exactly what happened here. If you want to migrate your Exaroton server to a dedicated host, the sooner you do it, the less stressful the process.

If you're running anything over 150 mods with an active group, plan around storage from day one.

The per-hour billing reality check

Exaroton's credit system feels smart at first. You only pay when the server is running, so a group that plays three times a week feels like they're saving money.

The math stops working once you're playing regularly. An active friend group running 4-5 sessions per week at 3-4 hours each adds up to 60-80 server-hours per month. At Exaroton's rates that lands you at roughly the same cost as a fixed monthly host — but with the storage limit still sitting there.

Fixed monthly hosting makes more sense the moment your group has a regular schedule.

How the migration actually went

Once we had the files, the process was:

1. Fresh Forge 1.20.1 install matching their exact build
2. Drop in mods, configs, kubejs, scripts
3. Restore the world folder
4. Copy server.properties, adjust memory allocation for the new hardware
5. Test boot — check logs for missing mods or version conflicts
6. Green light

Total time from receiving the files to a live running server: under 30 minutes.

The player who'd been managing the server said it was the first time he hadn't spent an entire evening doing server maintenance.

If you're also running into performance issues like debugging modded servers that use too much RAM, getting on the right host is only half the battle — having someone who can diagnose those problems matters just as much.

Want help moving your own Exaroton server?

If you want help moving your own Exaroton server — especially big modpacks — we can do the same 30-minute migration for you as part of a 48-hour test server on Piggo, so you can compare performance before committing. No card required. piggo.host