Pterodactyl Panel Installation Guide

System Requirements

The interactive method is recommended for most users as it guides you through each step:

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/guldkage/Pterodactyl-Installer/main/installer.sh)

Interactive Installation Steps

Step-by-Step Manual Installation

# Update system packages
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

# Install required packages
sudo apt install -y curl wget gnupg2 software-properties-common apt-transport-https ca-certificates lsb-release

# Add PHP repository
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php -y
sudo apt update

sudo apt install -y php8.3 php8.3-{cli,gd,mysql,pdo,mbstring,tokenizer,bcmath,xml,fpm,curl,zip,intl,sqlite3,redis}

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

# Install MariaDB
sudo apt install -y mariadb-server mariadb-client

# Secure MySQL installation
sudo mysql_secure_installation

# In MySQL prompt:
CREATE DATABASE pterodactyl1;
CREATE USER 'pterodactyl'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_secure_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON pterodactyl.* TO 'pterodactyl'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Automated Installation

For advanced users or server automation, use the non-interactive mode:

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/guldkage/Pterodactyl-Installer/main/autoinstall.sh) \
    <fqdn> <ssl> <email> <username> <firstname> <lastname> <password> <wings>

Parameters Explanation

Manual Dependencies Installation

For manual installation, install the following dependencies:

Update System

# Update package lists
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install Required Packages

# Install essential packages
sudo apt install -y software-properties-common curl apt-transport-https ca-certificates gnupg

# Add PHP repository
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ondrej/php

# Update package lists
sudo apt update

Install PHP 8.1 and Extensions

sudo apt install -y php8.1 php8.1-{common,cli,gd,mysql,mbstring,bcmath,xml,fpm,curl,zip}

Install MariaDB

# Install MariaDB
sudo apt install -y mariadb-server mariadb-client

# Secure MariaDB installation
sudo mysql_secure_installation

Install and Configure Redis

# Install Redis
sudo apt install -y redis-server

# Start and enable Redis
sudo systemctl start redis-server
sudo systemctl enable redis-server

Download Pterodactyl Panel

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/pterodactyl
cd /var/www/pterodactyl

sudo curl -Lo panel.tar.gz https://github.com/pterodactyl/panel/releases/latest/download/panel.tar.gz

sudo tar -xzvf panel.tar.gz

sudo chmod -R 755 storage/* bootstrap/cache/

Install Composer Dependencies

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

sudo composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader

sudo cp .env.example .env

sudo php artisan key:generate --force

Database Setup

Create database and user for Pterodactyl:

sudo mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE panel;
CREATE USER 'pterodactyl'@'127.0.0.1' IDENTIFIED BY 'yourPassword';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON panel.* TO 'pterodactyl'@'127.0.0.1' WITH GRANT OPTION;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Environment Configuration

Edit the .env file with your database credentials:

DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=panel
DB_USERNAME=pterodactyl
DB_PASSWORD=yourPassword

# Redis configuration
REDIS_HOST=127.0.0.1
REDIS_PASSWORD=null
REDIS_PORT=6379

Database Migration

sudo php artisan migrate --seed --force

Create Administrative User

sudo php artisan p:user:make

Set File Permissions

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/pterodactyl/*

sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/pterodactyl/storage/* /var/www/pterodactyl/bootstrap/cache/

Install Docker

curl -sSL https://get.docker.com/ | CHANNEL=stable bash

sudo systemctl enable --now docker

Install Wings

sudo mkdir -p /etc/pterodactyl

sudo curl -L -o /usr/local/bin/wings "https://github.com/pterodactyl/wings/releases/latest/download/wings_linux_$([[ "$(uname -m)" == "x86_64" ]] && echo "amd64" || echo "arm64")"

sudo chmod u+x /usr/local/bin/wings

Configure Wings

Create the Wings configuration file from the panel:

1. Login to your Pterodactyl Panel
2. Go to Admin Control Panel
3. Navigate to Nodes → Create New
4. Fill in node details and copy the configuration
5. Save configuration to /etc/pterodactyl/config.yml

Create Wings Service

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/wings.service

Add the following content:

[Unit]
Description=Pterodactyl Wings Daemon
After=docker.service
Requires=docker.service
PartOf=docker.service

[Service]
User=root
WorkingDirectory=/etc/pterodactyl
LimitNOFILE=4096
PIDFile=/var/run/wings/daemon.pid
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/wings
Restart=on-failure
StartLimitInterval=180
StartLimitBurst=30
RestartSec=5s

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Start Wings

sudo systemctl enable --now wings

sudo systemctl status wings

Web Server Configuration

Nginx Configuration

Create Nginx virtual host for Pterodactyl:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name your-domain.com;
    root /var/www/pterodactyl/public;
    index index.html index.htm index.php;
    charset utf-8;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
    location = /robots.txt  { access_log off; log_not_found off; }

    access_log off;
    error_log  /var/log/nginx/pterodactyl.app-error.log error;

    # allow larger file uploads and longer script runtimes
    client_max_body_size 100m;
    client_body_timeout 120s;

    sendfile off;

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param PHP_VALUE "upload_max_filesize = 100M \n post_max_size=100M";
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param HTTP_PROXY "";
        fastcgi_intercept_errors off;
        fastcgi_buffer_size 16k;
        fastcgi_buffers 4 16k;
        fastcgi_connect_timeout 300;
        fastcgi_send_timeout 300;
        fastcgi_read_timeout 300;
    }

    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }
}

SSL Configuration with Let's Encrypt

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx

sudo certbot --nginx -d your-domain.com

Queue Workers Configuration

Set up queue workers for background tasks:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/pteroq.service

Add the following content:

[Unit]
Description=Pterodactyl Queue Worker
After=redis-server.service

[Service]
User=www-data
Group=www-data
Restart=always
ExecStart=/usr/bin/php /var/www/pterodactyl/artisan queue:work --queue=high,standard,low --sleep=3 --tries=3
StartLimitInterval=180
StartLimitBurst=30
RestartSec=5s

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl enable --now pteroq.service

Cron Configuration

sudo crontab -e

* * * * * php /var/www/pterodactyl/artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

Initial Configuration Steps

• Access Panel - Navigate to your domain in a web browser and login with your admin credentials.
• Create Node - Go to Admin Panel → Nodes → Create New and configure your server node.
• Configure Allocations - Set up IP addresses and port ranges for your servers.
• Create Server - Build your first game server with the desired egg and resource limits.

Game Server Management

Creating Servers

Steps to create a new game server:

1. Login to Admin Panel
2. Navigate to Servers → Create New
3. Select Node and Nest (game type)
4. Configure server specifications
5. Set startup parameters
6. Assign to user

Server Allocation Management

Manage IP addresses and ports for your servers:

# Go to Admin Panel → Nodes → [Your Node] → Allocation

# Example allocation ranges:
# IP: 0.0.0.0 (or specific IP)
# Ports: 25565-25665 (for Minecraft servers)

User Management

Create and manage users through the admin panel:

• Set user permissions and server access
• Configure resource limits
• Manage API keys
• Monitor user activity

Custom Docker Images

Create custom Docker images for specific game configurations:

FROM openjdk:17-jre-slim

WORKDIR /app
COPY server.jar /app/
COPY plugins/ /app/plugins/

EXPOSE 25565

CMD ["java", "-Xmx2G", "-Xms1G", "-jar", "server.jar", "nogui"]

API Integration

Use Pterodactyl's API for automation:

# Get all servers
curl -X GET "https://panel.example.com/api/application/servers" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json"

curl -X POST "https://panel.example.com/api/application/servers" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Test Server",
    "user": 1,
    "egg": 5,
    "node": 1,
    "limits": {
      "memory": 512,
      "swap": 0,
      "disk": 1024,
      "io": 500,
      "cpu": 100
    }
  }'

Backup Configuration

Set up automated backups for your panel:

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/pterodactyl-backup.sh

# Backup database
mysqldump -u pterodactyl -p panel > /backups/pterodactyl-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql

# Backup panel files
tar -czf /backups/pterodactyl-files-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /var/www/pterodactyl

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/pterodactyl-backup.sh

sudo crontab -e
# Add: 0 2 * * * /usr/local/bin/pterodactyl-backup.sh

Multi-Node Setup

Scale your infrastructure with multiple Wings nodes:

1. Install Wings on additional servers
2. Create new nodes in the admin panel
3. Configure network connectivity between nodes
4. Distribute servers across nodes for load balancing

Common Issues

sudo systemctl status wings

sudo journalctl -u wings -f

sudo docker ps

sudo cat /etc/pterodactyl/config.yml

Log Files Location

/var/www/pterodactyl/storage/logs/

sudo journalctl -u wings

/var/log/nginx/

sudo journalctl -xe

Performance Monitoring

htop
iostat -x 1
free -h

sudo mysql -u root -p -e "SHOW PROCESSLIST;"

sudo docker stats