System Requirements
Panelica installs on a dedicated Linux server or VPS. This page lists exactly what the installer checks and what your server needs. These values come from the installer itself, not from estimates.
Supported operating systems
| OS | Supported versions |
|---|---|
| Ubuntu | 22.04, 24.04, 26.04 |
| Debian | 12, 13 |
| AlmaLinux | 9, 10 |
| Rocky Linux | 9, 10 |
The installer verifies the OS before doing anything else and stops with a clear error on anything unsupported.
Why older versions are not supported: Panelica's account isolation requires cgroup v2, which RHEL-family 8 (AlmaLinux 8, Rocky 8, CentOS 8) does not enable by default. The installer also requires glibc 2.34 or newer, which rules out Ubuntu 20.04 and Debian 11.
Hardware minimums
These are the exact thresholds the installer enforces:
| Resource | Minimum (enforced) | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| RAM | 1 GB (1024 MB) | 4 GB+ for a full stack with mail, databases and multiple sites |
| Free disk space | 15 GB free on the /opt filesystem |
40 GB+ depending on site data and backups |
| Architecture | 64-bit x86_64 |
If a check fails, the installation stops before any changes are made to your server.
Server state
- Root access is required: the installer must run as root (
sudo). - A fresh, minimal OS install is strongly recommended. The installer reserves the resources it needs and disables conflicting services (for example a distribution-installed web server occupying port 80), but a clean server avoids surprises and makes troubleshooting far simpler.
- A public IP address is required for hosting real domains; for testing, a LAN or VM IP works fine.
Network ports
Panelica's services use the following ports. If your provider has an external firewall (cloud security groups), open the ones you plan to use:
| Port | Service |
|---|---|
| 8443 | Panelica panel (HTTPS) |
| 8444 | Recovery Console (emergency access, works even when the panel is down) |
| 80, 443 | Customer websites (HTTP/HTTPS) |
| 21 | FTP |
| 22 | SSH (your distribution's standard SSH) |
| 53 | DNS (if you host DNS zones on this server) |
| 25, 465, 587 | Mail delivery and submission (SMTP) |
| 110, 143, 993, 995 | Mail retrieval (POP3/IMAP, plain and TLS) |
Tip: Only port 8443 is required to use the panel itself. Keeping 8444 reachable is strongly advised as well, so the Recovery Console can rescue you if the panel ever becomes unreachable. Everything else depends on which services you actually host.
Cloudflare compatibility
If your domains (or the panel's hostname) sit behind Cloudflare's proxy, keep in mind that Cloudflare only forwards traffic on a fixed set of ports:
| Protocol | Ports Cloudflare proxies |
|---|---|
| HTTPS | 443, 2053, 2083, 2087, 2096, 8443 |
| HTTP | 80, 8080, 8880, 2052, 2082, 2086, 2095 |
Panelica's default panel port 8443 is on Cloudflare's HTTPS list, so a proxied panel hostname works out of the box. Cloudflare disables caching on the non-standard ports (including 8443), which is exactly what you want for a control panel. Customer websites on standard 80/443 are unaffected.
Ready?
If your server matches the table above, installation is a single command. Continue to Installation.