Pterodactyl

Pterodactyl is a free, open-source game server management panel built on PHP, Nginx, and Docker. It lets you deploy and manage game servers through a clean web interface, with per-server isolation handled by the Wings daemon. It powers game hosting for thousands of providers and self-hosters.

Software included

Component	Version
Pterodactyl Panel	v1.12.4
Wings	v1.12.3
PHP	8.3
Docker	Latest stable
Ubuntu	24.04 LTS

Getting started

1. Connect to your VM

ssh ubuntu@<your-vm-ip>

2. Wait for first-boot configuration

On the first boot, a setup script configures MariaDB and Redis, creates the administrator, runs the Panel migrations, and links Wings to a default node. This takes a few minutes. Track progress:

sudo journalctl -u pterodactyl-first-boot.service -f

The login message (MOTD) confirms when the Panel and Wings are ready. You can also verify the main services directly:

systemctl status nginx php8.3-fpm mariadb redis-server pteroq wings

3. Retrieve the administrator credentials

The generated credentials are stored in a root-only file:

sudo cat /root/.credentials/pterodactyl.txt

Field	Value
Email	Generated on first boot and stored in the credentials file above
Password	Generated on first boot and stored in the credentials file above

4. Access the Pterodactyl Panel

Open a browser and navigate to:

http://<your-vm-ip>

A default location named zmi and a default node named default are created and linked to Wings on the same VM. The node starts with one allocation on port 25565. Add allocations under Admin > Nodes > default > Allocations before creating servers that need other ports.

Managing Pterodactyl

# Check service status
systemctl status nginx php8.3-fpm mariadb redis-server pteroq wings

# Restart the Panel web services, queue worker, and Wings
sudo systemctl restart nginx php8.3-fpm pteroq wings

# View Panel queue logs
sudo journalctl -u pteroq -f

# View Wings logs
sudo journalctl -u wings -f

Path	Purpose
`/var/www/pterodactyl/.env`	Panel environment configuration
`/etc/pterodactyl/config.yml`	Wings configuration
`/var/lib/pterodactyl/volumes/`	Game server data
`/root/.credentials/pterodactyl.txt`	Generated credentials and setup details

Security

The Panel uses port 80, the Wings API uses port 8080, and Wings SFTP uses port 2022. UFW is enabled and allows SSH (port 22) plus ports 80, 8080, and 2022 by default. Game server ports, including the initial allocation on port 25565, are not opened automatically.

To restrict Panel access to a specific IP:

sudo ufw delete allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow from <trusted-ip> to any port 80

To restrict the Wings API and SFTP ports to a specific IP:

sudo ufw delete allow 8080/tcp
sudo ufw allow from <trusted-ip> to any port 8080
sudo ufw delete allow 2022/tcp
sudo ufw allow from <trusted-ip> to any port 2022

To access the Panel without leaving port 80 open, use an SSH tunnel:

# Run this on your local machine
ssh -L 8080:localhost:80 ubuntu@<your-vm-ip>

# Then open in your browser
http://localhost:8080

Restrict the Wings API and SFTP ports to trusted networks. Open only the game server ports your allocations require.

For production use, place the Panel behind a reverse proxy so you can serve it over HTTPS with a trusted TLS certificate, then update the application URL in /var/www/pterodactyl/.env to the public URL.