Craftbukkit is really a third-party Minecraft mod which allows one to use Minecraft plugins. The mod can be acquired at Bukkit.org and operates as a JAR file which runs the Minecraft server JAR.
After downloading the latest version of Craftbukkit rename the downloaded file to craftbukkit.jar. It is possible to download the development build or the recommended build. Recommended builds tend to be more stable however they are often earlier versions of Minecraft which users with updated clients cannot connect to. Unless the recommended build is also updated for the latest version of Minecraft you'll want to run the development build.
Copy the craftbukkit.jar file to the same directory which has your minecraft_server.jar. This article assumes you already have a running Minecraft server, if not please refer to my article on setting up your very own Minecraft server.
Start your Minecraft server as you usually would, but replace minecraft_server.jar with craftbukkit.jar. You might want to increase the quantity of RAM assigned to your server, as Craftbukkit will require more memory, especially with plugins. Craftbukkit will initialize itself and develop a configuration file called bukkit.yml. https://best-minecraft-servers.co/ in this file should be changed and configuration is rather basic.
What's next with Bukkit is choosing and installing plugins. Plugins are available on the Bukkit.org site under plugins.bukkit.org. Here you can list plugins by category, and also search for plugins predicated on keywords. Plugins which haven't been updated recently likely won't use the latest version of Craftbukkit/Minecraft. On a plugin page you can download the plugin, find information and documentation, and interact with other users.
Downloading and installing a plugin is a fairly simple process. In the event that you get a JAR file, just put that file in the "plugins" folder automatically generated by Craftbukkit. You will have to restart the server because of this change to take effect. The plugin will also generate a folder with exactly the same name as the JAR file containing configuration files and other assets required to utilize the plugin.
If your download is really a zip or rar file you need to unzip/unrar this file utilizing a program which can handle these extensions. Move these files to your plugin folder and make certain the JAR file is in the root of the plugins folder. Restart your server and the brand new plugin will be activated.
If you're having trouble learning how to utilize the plugin you downloaded, the download page could have a web link to the author's resources where you could learn how to use your plugins to the fullest extent.