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Dedicated Server: Installation of Pterodactyl

Introduction​

Pterodactyl Panel is an open source control panel designed to easily manage and host game servers. It provides a user interface that allows administrators to centrally configure and manage multiple game servers.

In this guide, we will explore the steps necessary to setup your own Pterodactyl instance on your server.

Prerequisites​

You will need a dedicated server running Linux to install the Pterodactyl Panel. You should use one of the compatible operating systems found in the table below.

OSCompatible versions
Ubuntu20.04, 22.04
CentOS7, 8
Debian11, 12

Dependencies​

Pterodactyl requires a range of dependencies in order to be able to install and run successfully. It also relies on a popular dependency manager for PHP named Composer.

Dependencies List​

Here is a shortlist of depdencenies that you will require for this guide. Head over to the following section which explores how to install these dependencies.

  • PHP 8.1 with the following extensions: cli, openssl, gd, mysql, PDO, mbstring, tokenizer, bcmath, xml or dom, curl, zip, and fpm.
  • MariaDB
  • Webserver - In this guide we will use Nginx.
  • curl
  • tar
  • unzip
  • git
  • composer v2

Installing Dependencies​

First, you should run this command which is essential in allowing you to add packages that aren't default to the OS.

apt -y install software-properties-common curl apt-transport-https ca-certificates gnupg

Now you should install the additional repositories for PHP, Redis and MariaDB (MySQL).

LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 add-apt-repository -y ppa:ondrej/php

You will also have to install Redis which is needed for temporary data storage.

curl -fsSL https://packages.redis.io/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/redis-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/redis-archive-keyring.gpg] https://packages.redis.io/deb $(lsb_release -cs) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/redis.list

For the webserver, we chose to use Nginx since it is reliable and open-source. You should install this or you could use alternate webservers suchas Apache or Caddy, although this wouldn't fit in well with this guide.

sudo apt install nginx # Download and install Nginx
sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full' # Adjust firewall

We recommend going to http://[your_serverip]/, replacing [your_serverip] with your server's IP address to test and ensure that Nginx is running. You should see a default welcome page.

Continuing, you should now install MariaDB which is what you will use as your MySQL database.

curl -sS https://downloads.mariadb.com/MariaDB/mariadb_repo_setup | sudo bash

Finally, you should update your repositories list and install the remaining dependencies.

apt update
apt -y install php8.1 php8.1-{common,cli,gd,mysql,mbstring,bcmath,xml,fpm,curl,zip} mariadb-server nginx tar unzip git redis-server

You should now have all the necessary dependencies installed and can proceed to installing Composer.

Installing Composer​

Now that your main dependencies are installed, you will have to install Composer, which is a popular dependency manager for PHP. This will allow you to easily download and install the entire Pterodactyl service.

Simply run the following command:

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

Download the Panel​

Now that all the prerequisites are in place, you will have to install the Pterodactyl Panel.

You must create a folder where the panel will be stored using the command below.

mkdir /var/www/pterodactyl
cd /var/www/pterodactyl

Now, you can clone the official Pterodactyl GitHub Repository to download the necessary files.

curl -Lo panel.tar.gz https://github.com/pterodactyl/panel/releases/latest/download/panel.tar.gz
tar -xzvf panel.tar.gz
chmod -R 755 storage/* bootstrap/cache/

Once cloning is complete, you will have the panel downloaded successfully. In the following section, you will configure a wide range of essentially settings and options to ensure that the panel is installed correctly and functions well.

Installation​

The first part of the installation involves setting up a MySQL database which will store all of the data for your Pterodactyl panel. If you already have a MySQL database ready with an appropriate user, you may proceed past the next sub-section.

Database Setup​

You will need to login to your MySQL database to begin. If this is a fresh MySQL instance you can do this simply by running:

mysql -u root -p

Otherwise, if you already have a MySQL instance, you can use your login with -u being the username and -p being the password entry field.

Once logged in, you must create a new user which you will use for your Pterodactyl instance. Ensure that you replace [your_password] with what you wish to use. This can be done through:

CREATE USER 'pterodactyl'@'127.0.0.1' IDENTIFIED BY '[your_password]';

Now that your user is ready, you must create a table for your Pterodactyl instance. You will also have to grant permissions for your new user to be able to perform actions on the table. Simply run:

CREATE DATABASE panel;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON panel.* TO 'pterodactyl'@'127.0.0.1' WITH GRANT OPTION;

You have successfully setup a MySQL user and table for your Pterodactyl instance, so you can proceed with the installation. Run the exit command to leave MySQL management.

Continuing Setup​

To continue, you must now copy the default environment file where you will store your secret tokens.

cp .env.example .env

Following this, you can now use Composer to automatically install all necessary packages by running:

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

You must also generate an encryption key that you will use for your application, which is done through:

php artisan key:generate --force

Environment Configuration​

You will now setup your Pterodactyl instance. This is done simply by running the following commands. Each command will go through an interactive setup that covers a wide range of settings such as sessions, email, caching and more.

php artisan p:environment:setup #First Command
php artisan p:environment:database #Second Command

Setting up the Database​

The next step is to setup the base data that is necessary for the panel to run, which uses the database table that you created earlier. Once again, this is done simply by running the following command.

info

Please be aware that this may take up to a few minutes to complete. Do not exit the process or this may break things. Please be patient :)

php artisan migrate --seed --force

Setting up Admin User​

Now that your database is prepared, you will have to create your first administrator user so that you can login to your Pterodactyl panel. This is done simply by running the following command.

php artisan p:user:make

Setting up Permissions​

The next step in installing your panel is setting the necessary permissions for files found in the pterodactyl panel so that the panel instance can always read and write without an issue.

You can set permission by running the following command:

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

Once this is done, you should be able to access your Pterodactyl panel by heading over to the following link, replacing your_ipaddress with the IP of your system.

http://[your_ipaddress]/

Queue Workers​

The final step in installing the panel, involves setting up a cronjob which runs in regular intervals alongside a queue worker that is responsible for many background tasks.

First, open up your crontab by running sudo crontab -e in your console. Once this is open, run the following command which sets up a cronjob that runs every minute for your Pterodactyl panel.

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

Now that this is done, you need to create a queue worker using systemd which keeps the queue process running in the background.

Create a new file for the worker, by running the following which will open up your nano editor.

nano /etc/systemd/system/pteroq.service

In here, copy and paste the following content:

# Pterodactyl Queue Worker File
# ----------------------------------

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

[Service]
# On some systems the user and group might be different.
# Some systems use `apache` or `nginx` as the user and group.
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
note

If you are using CentOS, you must replace redis-server.service with redis.service in the above file.

Once ready, you can save by pressing CTRL + X and Y to confirm the file to be saved.

Finally, you need to enable the redis service and the service you have created to run when your system boots by running the following commands.

sudo systemctl enable --now redis-server
sudo systemctl enable --now pteroq.service

You have successfully installed Pterodactyl on your server. You should be able to access the panel by the following url, replacing [your_serverip] with your own server's IP.

http://[your_serverip]

Optional: Configuring the Webserver​

As an additional feature, you may decide to configure your webserver. In this guide we used Nginx, therefore this section will explore how to adjust the configuration for this.

The benefits of further webserver configuration is that you will be able to set up the panel on your own domain and could setup an SSL certificate for your panel website.

Domain DNS Record​

In order for your server to be reachable by your domain, you must setup an A DNS record for that domain. This is highly dependent on the provider that you use, but it should be accessible through some sort of a DNS Panel area when managing your domain. The contents of the record should be the target IP address of your server that you are using.

image

Removing default configuration​

Begin by removing the default Nginx configuration. This is done simply by removing the file.

rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

At this point, you should use the contents below to create a new configuration file for your pterodactyl panel site. You should decide whether you wish to use SSL or not at this stage, as the configuration contents and steps necessary will differ slightly depending on the choice.

Setting up Certbot​

In order for your website to have an SSL certificate, you must setup a system which automatically manages and renews your certificates. In this case, you will use Certbot which is open-source.

First you must install Certbot to your server. For Nginx, you also need to install the python3 certbot pacakge.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y certbot
sudo apt install -y python3-certbot-nginx

Next you will have to setup verification in order to allow for generation of a certiciate. In this case, you will use a DNS challenge since this is more secure compared to an HTTP challenge.

You will have to create an TXT DNS record for the domain that you wish to use. This is highly dependent on the provider that you use, but it should be accessible through some sort of a DNS Panel area when managing your domain.

Run the following comamnd which is provide you with the content for your TXT DNS record. Replace [your_domain] with the domain that you wish to use.

certbot -d [your_domain] --manual --preferred-challenges dns certonly

Once you have setup your DNS record, you will have to setup auto renewal through the use of a cronjob. Firstly, open crontab by running sudo crontab -e and when open, run the following command to set the certificate to renew every day at 23:00 system time.

0 23 * * * certbot renew --quiet --deploy-hook "systemctl restart nginx"

Creating the Configuration File​

Now that you have your SSL certificate ready, you can begin creating your configuration file.

Simply run the following command to open nano editor at the designated target folder and the specified file name.

nano /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/pterodactyl.conf

Into the editor, copy the configuration file below. Make sure to replace [your_domain] with the domain that you have setup a DNS records for in previous steps.

warning

Make sure you have setup the SSL certificate, otherwise the the webserver will fail to start successfully.

server_tokens off;

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name [your_domain];
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name [your_domain];

    root /var/www/pterodactyl/public;
    index index.php;

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

    client_max_body_size 100m;
    client_body_timeout 120s;

    sendfile off;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/[your_domain]/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/[your_domain]/privkey.pem;
    ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:10m;
    ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
    ssl_ciphers "ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384";
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

    add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;
    add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";
    add_header X-Robots-Tag none;
    add_header Content-Security-Policy "frame-ancestors 'self'";
    add_header X-Frame-Options DENY;
    add_header Referrer-Policy same-origin;

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

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/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;
        include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
    }

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

Apply Configuration​

Now that you have performed the changes to your configuration, you must enable it by running the following.

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/pterodactyl.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/pterodactyl.conf # Not needed for CentOS

sudo systemctl restart nginx # Restart Nginx

With everything being done successfully, you should now be able to easily access your Pterodactyl panel by using the domain that you have setup in this section.

You have successfully configured your webserver to enable the use of your domain and add an SSL certificate to your website.