Pterodactyl is a free, open-source, Docker-based game server management panel. This guide walks you through a complete, production-ready installation on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS — covering PHP 8.3, MariaDB, Redis, Nginx, Let's Encrypt SSL, and the Wings daemon.
Published: 25 May 2026 · Reading time: ~15 minutes · Difficulty: Intermediate
Requirements & Server Specifications
Before you begin, make sure your dedicated server meets the minimum specifications. Running Pterodactyl on shared hosting or a low-resource VPS will result in instability under load.
- Operating System: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
- CPU: 4+ cores recommended
- RAM: 8 GB+ recommended
- Storage: 100 GB+ NVMe SSD recommended
- PHP Version: PHP 8.3
- Domain Name: Required — you need a domain pointed to your server IP for SSL
PHP 8.1 is not supported: Pterodactyl Panel 1.11+ requires PHP 8.2 or 8.3. Do not follow guides that use PHP 8.1 — they will not work on a current installation.
What Is Pterodactyl Panel?
Pterodactyl consists of two parts: Panel (The web interface) and Wings (The daemon installed on each node that monitors game servers inside Docker containers). Because each game server runs in its own Docker container, a crashing modpack cannot affect other servers. This makes Pterodactyl an excellent fit for a bare-metal dedicated server.
Step 1 — Update the System
Always start with a fully updated system. Run all commands as root.
apt update && apt upgrade -y
apt install -y curl wget git unzip tar software-properties-common apt-transport-https ca-certificates gnupg lsb-release
Step 2 — Install Required Dependencies
Install Nginx and set up the PHP 8.3 repository via the Ondřej Surý PPA.
apt install -y nginx
LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 add-apt-repository -y ppa:ondrej/php
apt update
Step 3 — Install PHP 8.3
Install PHP 8.3 and all required extensions, then enable PHP-FPM.
apt install -y php8.3 php8.3-fpm php8.3-cli php8.3-common php8.3-mysql php8.3-mbstring php8.3-bcmath php8.3-xml php8.3-curl php8.3-zip php8.3-gd php8.3-tokenizer php8.3-intl
systemctl enable php8.3-fpm
systemctl start php8.3-fpm
Step 4 — Install MariaDB & Create the Database
Install MariaDB and secure the installation.
apt install -y mariadb-server mariadb-client
systemctl enable mariadb
systemctl start mariadb
mysql_secure_installation
Log in to MySQL (mysql -u root -p) and create the database:
CREATE DATABASE pterodactyl;
CREATE USER 'pterodactyl'@'127.0.0.1' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword123!';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON pterodactyl.* TO 'pterodactyl'@'127.0.0.1';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;
Step 5 — Install Redis
curl -fsSL https://packages.redis.io/gpg | 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 $(lsb_release -cs) main" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/redis.list
apt update
apt install -y redis-server
systemctl enable redis-server
systemctl start redis-server
Step 6 — Install Composer
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
Step 7 — Download & Configure the Panel
Set up the web directory and install Laravel dependencies.
mkdir -p /var/www/pterodactyl
cd /var/www/pterodactyl
curl -Lo panel.tar.gz https://github.com/pterodactyl/panel/releases/latest/download/panel.tar.gz
tar -xzvf panel.tar.gz
chmod -R 755 storage/* bootstrap/cache/
cp .env.example .env
composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
php artisan key:generate --force
Run the environment setup wizard and create your admin user:
php artisan p:environment:setup
php artisan p:environment:database
php artisan migrate --seed --force
php artisan p:user:make
chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/pterodactyl/*
Step 8 — Configure Nginx & SSL
Create an Nginx configuration file: nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/pterodactyl.conf
server {
listen 80;
server_name panel.yourdomain.com;
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}
server {
listen 443 ssl http2;
server_name panel.yourdomain.com;
root /var/www/pterodactyl/public;
index index.php;
access_log /var/log/nginx/pterodactyl.access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/pterodactyl.error.log error;
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/panel.yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/panel.yourdomain.com/privkey.pem;
ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:10m;
ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.3-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_read_timeout 300;
}
location ~ /\.ht {
deny all;
}
}
Enable the site and install SSL via Certbot:
ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/pterodactyl.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx
certbot certonly --nginx -d panel.yourdomain.com --email you@yourdomain.com --agree-tos -n
systemctl reload nginx
Step 9 — Set Up the Queue Worker & Cron
Create the queue worker service (nano /etc/systemd/system/pteroq.service):
[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
systemctl enable pteroq.service
systemctl start pteroq.service
(crontab -u www-data -l 2>/dev/null; echo "* * * * * php /var/www/pterodactyl/artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1") | crontab -u www-data -
Step 10 — Install Docker & Wings
Install Docker and download the Wings daemon.
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list
apt update
apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-compose-plugin
systemctl enable docker
systemctl start docker
mkdir -p /etc/pterodactyl
curl -L -o /usr/local/bin/wings "https://github.com/pterodactyl/wings/releases/latest/download/wings_linux_amd64"
chmod u+x /usr/local/bin/wings
Create the Wings service (nano /etc/systemd/system/wings.service):
[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
Step 11 — Link Wings to the Panel
Log in to your Panel. Go to Admin Panel → Nodes → Create New. Fill in the details, save, and go to the Configuration tab. Copy the auto-deploy command and run it on your server:
cd /etc/pterodactyl && wings configure --panel-url https://panel.yourdomain.com --token your_token_here --node 1
systemctl enable wings
systemctl start wings
Step 12 — Add Your First Game Server & Firewall Setup
Go to Admin Panel → Servers → Create New Server. Finally, ensure your firewall allows the necessary ports:
ufw allow 22/tcp
ufw allow 80/tcp
ufw allow 443/tcp
ufw allow 8080/tcp
ufw allow 25565/tcp
ufw allow 27015/udp
ufw allow 7777/udp
ufw enable
Ready to Host Your Game Servers?
Pterodactyl performs best on bare-metal dedicated hardware — full CPU access, NVMe storage, and no noisy neighbours competing for your game server's resources. eServers provides DDoS-protected, low-latency dedicated servers from UK data centres.
Need a more powerful hosting solution? Contact the eServers team today for 24/7 expert support.
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