If I was microsoft, I would overhaul minecraft mods and make it possible to write them in c# (maybe with a bridge or something). Get kids into your stack and fix an existing pain point.
It has been done multiple times, by several people. Just run a search on GitHub :)
Usually you would install java, download the latest server jar and just start it. I was working on a set of scripts to launch multiple containers on the same host and keep track of the ports exposed, but I've only spent a couple of hours on it and jumped to something else https://github.com/pjperez/Multicraft
I've also added a poor man's queue system using Azure Storage :)
Forgive my poor coding; I'm not a developer and only do these things as a hobby.