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Install SmashPanel on your server

Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 LTS, a domain you control, and the commands below. The examples use example.com. There is no default admin password.

Install steps Install article

Requirements

What the server needs
Requirement	Detail
Operating system	Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
CPU architecture	64-bit x86 (amd64).
Memory	8 GB of RAM when you install mail. The installer warns below 4 GB.
Disk	100 GB is a practical starting size. The installer warns below 50 GB free.
CPU	2 vCPU or more.
Access	Root SSH, a public IPv4 address, and a domain you control.
Port 53	Must be free for authoritative DNS. On Ubuntu the installer releases it if the local resolver is holding it.
Dedicated IPs	Optional, for accounts that need their own address.

Copy the SmashPanel files onto the server. This website does not offer a separate download package. The commands below run from the directory you copied them into, shown here as <install-dir>.

Don't have the SmashPanel files yet? Contact support@smashhithosting.com for access.

DNS records

Create these before or just after install. SSL and public DNS work once the registrar points the names at the server.

DNS records for example.com. Point each A record at the server's public IPv4 address.
Record	Purpose
panel.example.com	Admin, reseller and client portals.
mail.example.com	Mailcow, if you install mail.
docker.example.com	Portainer. It redirects into the panel.
status.example.com	The bundled uptime tool. Monitors are not created for you.
host1.example.com	The server's own hostname.
ns1 and ns2	Optional glue records, when customer domains will use your nameservers.
PTR	Set at the server provider: the server IP address points at the mail hostname.

Ports

Ports the installer opens
Port	Service
SSH	22 by default, or the port you choose in the wizard.
80 and 443	HTTP and HTTPS. Certificate issuance needs port 80.
53	DNS, TCP and UDP, on the primary address.
22000–22999	One SFTP port per hosting account.
25, 465, 587, 993, 995, 4190, 143, 110	Mail, only when Mailcow is installed.
51820/udp	WireGuard, when VPN is in use.
1194/udp and 1195/tcp	OpenVPN, when VPN is in use.
500, 4500 and 1701/udp	IPsec and L2TP, when VPN is in use.

Install

Go to the directory that holds the SmashPanel files and start the installer.
```
cd <install-dir>
sudo bash scripts/host-setup/install.sh
```
Only needed if you copied the files from a Windows machine:
```
sudo bash scripts/fix-line-endings.sh
```
Answer the wizard. It asks for the base domain (example.com), the panel hostname (default panel.example.com), the server hostname (default host1.example.com), an admin email address for Let's Encrypt, the public IPv4 address, the network interface, the gateway, any extra dedicated IPs, whether to install Mailcow and its hostname, and the SSH port.
If the server's network is already correct, you can skip the network and package-upgrade steps.
```
sudo bash scripts/host-setup/install.sh --skip-network --skip-upgrades
```
Other flags: --yes, --reconfigure, --dry-run, --skip-mailcow, --skip-upgrades, --skip-network, --skip-dns-check, and --config FILE.
The installer runs twelve steps: preflight, base packages, SSH settings with fail2ban and time sync, network, firewall, Docker, system limits, directories, the host agent, the platform stack, post-install wiring (DNS, certificates, mail if you chose it, and the admin login), then a verify step. If a step fails, resume it:
```
sudo bash scripts/host-setup/setup.sh --step <step>
```

For an unattended run, write the answers first, check them, then install:

sudo bash scripts/host-setup/configure-host.sh --non-interactive
sudo bash scripts/host-setup/setup.sh --strict --validate-only
sudo bash scripts/host-setup/setup.sh

First login

Open the panel:

Admin: https://panel.example.com/admin
Client: https://panel.example.com/client
Reseller: https://panel.example.com/reseller

The generated admin username and password are written to a root-only file on the server. There is no default password. Read that file as root, sign in, and enrol two-factor authentication before you create hosting accounts. Admin two-factor authentication cannot be turned off.

After install

Sign in and enrol two-factor authentication. You need it before the panel will create clients.
Point the registrar A and NS records at the server so public DNS and certificates work.
Set the PTR record at the provider so the server IP address resolves to the mail hostname.
Optional: limit who can open the admin area by IP address.
If mail was installed and the admin health check for it is not OK, run the mail setup script, then reset the mail admin password from the panel:

sudo bash scripts/mailcow/ensure-panel-api-key.sh

Optional: connect GitHub under Admin, System, Integrations, so accounts can deploy from a repository.
Create the first hosting account under Admin, Clients, or from the shell:

bash scripts/clients/create-client.sh --username acme --domain example.com --with-db

Moving a site from cPanel?

The backup upload, the live SSH transfer and the command-line import are on the migrations page.

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