Complete Guide to Installing Pterodactyl Panel

Written by Kocheng Team

Published on September 21, 2025 · 12 min read

Pterodactyl Panel is a robust, open-source game server management platform that allows administrators to deploy and control multiple game servers efficiently. This guide provides a complete, step-by-step tutorial for installing both the Pterodactyl Panel and the Wings daemon.

Important:Before beginning the installation, verify that you have a clean Linux server and backups of all important data.

Step 1 — Prepare Your Server

Select a supported operating system, such as Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or Debian 12, update all system packages, and make sure a non-root user is available.

Run sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
Create a new user: adduser ptero and assign sudo privileges.
Install essential packages: sudo apt install curl wget git tar unzip -y

Step 2 — Install Dependencies

Pterodactyl depends on PHP, a web server, a database, and other required software.

PHP 8.1 with extensions: BCMath, Ctype, Fileinfo, JSON, Mbstring, OpenSSL, PDO, Tokenizer, XML
MySQL or MariaDB database server
Nginx web server
Node.js and Composer for panel dependencies
Redis (optional but recommended for queues)

Step 3 — Configure Database

Set up a separate database and user account for Pterodactyl.

mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE pterodactyl;
CREATE USER 'ptero'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'strong_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON pterodactyl.* TO 'ptero'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Ensure to replace strong_password with a secure password.

Step 4 — Download and Install Panel

cd /var/www/
git clone https://github.com/pterodactyl/panel.git pterodactyl
cd pterodactyl
composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader

Set proper permissions:

chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/pterodactyl
chmod -R 755 /var/www/pterodactyl

Step 5 — Configure Environment

Copy the example environment file, then update it to match your database and domain settings.

cp .env.example .env
nano .env

Update DB_DATABASE, DB_USERNAME, DB_PASSWORD, and APP_URL values.

Step 6 — Run Migrations and Seeds

Run the database migrations and populate the default data.

php artisan key:generate --force
php artisan migrate --seed --force

Step 7 — Set Up Web Server

Set up Nginx to host the panel and activate SSL with Let's Encrypt.

Create a server block pointing to /var/www/pterodactyl/public
Enable the site and reload Nginx: sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/pterodactyl /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ and sudo systemctl reload nginx
Use Certbot to generate SSL certificate: sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com

Step 8 — Install Wings Daemon

Wings directly manages the game servers. Install Docker, then configure Wings:

Install Docker and Docker Compose
Create Wings configuration using the panel-generated API key
Start Wings service and ensure it runs on boot

Step 9 — Finalize and Test

Open the panel in a browser, set up an administrator account, and confirm that the Wings daemon is communicating properly. Then deploy a test server to verify that the entire configuration functions as expected.

Step 10 — Security and Maintenance

Regularly update the panel and Wings daemon
Secure your database and panel with strong passwords
Enable firewalls and monitoring for unusual activity
Schedule backups for both the panel and game server data

Conclusion

Following these steps carefully allows you to install the Pterodactyl Panel and Wings daemon successfully, establishing a stable and secure environment for efficiently managing multiple game servers. Thorough preparation, careful attention to detail, and compliance with best practices help ensure reliable, high-performance operation over the long term.