@MojangSupport - I run a cloud VM that hosts a Minecraft Java server for myself and friends. Today, someone asked if the server was down, so I went to check. Everything with the server backend is working properly, and I was playing yesterday. Now, clients cannot connect. Help???

What steps have you tried to troubleshoot this issue and can you please screenshot any errors that you may be seing? ^TK

There are no errors other than the server listing in clients showing unavailable. I have tried restarting the server and even restarted the VM instance to no avail. IPs and configs are correct. It's a simple matter of a client-server bridging issue, over which I have no control.

If you've ensured configs are correct, firewall/antivirus may also be a cause. Check and ensure Minecraft has permissions. To ensure this isn't just a temporary issue, we also suggest trying again a couple times or waiting a bit. Let us know if the issue persists, though! ^AM

No, it's nothing to do with firewall or antivirus. In case you failed to read my initial report, I was playing just fine the day prior and nobody else in my group of friends can play either. The cloud VM running this server isn't any different either.