Install Pterodactyl on a VPS: Panel and Wings

Pterodactyl is the most widely used open-source game hosting panel: a modern web interface to create, manage and isolate game servers inside Docker containers. This guide installs both components — the Panel (the interface) and Wings (the daemon that runs the servers) — on a Debian or Ubuntu VPS. Expect around 45 minutes.

⚙️ Requirements

• A Lordhosting KVM VPS, Debian 12 or Ubuntu 22.04/24.04, 4 GB of RAM minimum
• A domain name or subdomain pointing to the VPS IP (e.g. panel.yourdomain.com)
• An already-secured VPS — see Secure a Linux VPS
• Docker installed (required for Wings) — see Install Docker and Docker Compose

⚙️ 1. Install the Panel dependencies

The Panel runs on PHP, a database and a web server. Install what you need:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y php8.3 php8.3-{cli,gd,mysql,pdo,mbstring,tokenizer,bcmath,xml,fpm,curl,zip} \
  mariadb-server nginx redis-server git unzip

Then install Composer, the PHP dependency manager:

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

⚙️ 2. Create the database

Open MariaDB and create the database along with a dedicated user:

sudo mysql -u root

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

⚙️ 3. Download and configure the 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/
sudo cp .env.example .env
sudo composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader

Generate the application key, then run the setup wizard:

sudo php artisan key:generate --force
sudo php artisan p:environment:setup
sudo php artisan p:environment:database
sudo php artisan migrate --seed --force

Finally, create your admin account:

sudo php artisan p:user:make

⚙️ 4. Configure nginx and SSL

Obtain a certificate for your domain, then enable the virtual host provided by Pterodactyl:

sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d panel.yourdomain.com

Adjust the permissions for the web server:

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

Your Panel is now reachable at https://panel.yourdomain.com.

⚙️ 5. Install Wings (the daemon)

Wings runs the game servers. On the machine that will host them:

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

In the Panel, create a Node (menu Admin → Nodes), then copy the generated configuration file to /etc/pterodactyl/config.yml. Start Wings:

sudo wings --debug

If the connection to the Panel succeeds without errors, create the systemd service so it starts on boot:

sudo systemctl enable --now wings

✅ Conclusion

You now have a working Pterodactyl Panel and a first Wings node ready to host game servers. The rest happens in the interface: create a Nest, import an Egg and deploy your first server — steps we cover in our other Pterodactyl guides.

Would you rather skip the installation? Our Pterodactyl VPS come with the panel pre-installed and fully managed, ready to use in minutes.

❗Always good to know

• If a step blocks or a node refuses to connect, our support is here: open a ticket or drop by Discord.