Overview
What OSS Panel is, where it runs, and what it manages.
OSS Panel is a server management panel you install on the server it manages. One command turns a plain Ubuntu box into a host that can run web applications, databases, cron jobs, backups and TLS certificates, and gives you a web interface to drive all of it.
It is the open-source core of ServerAvatar. The same panel is what Central drives when you manage a fleet of servers from one place.
Where it runs
The panel runs on the server, not beside it:
- It installs into
/var/www/paneland runs as a dedicated unprivilegedpanelsystem account. - Three systemd services carry it —
panel-frontend(the web interface),panel-fpm(its own PHP-FPM master) andpanel-queue(the background worker). - It shares the server's web server (nginx, Apache or OpenLiteSpeed) with the sites it creates, adding one vhost of its own.
- Privileged work goes through a single narrow
sudoersgrant written at install time, not by running the panel as root.
There is no agent and no phone-home. Nothing is reported to an external service, no account is required, and the panel keeps working if it has no outbound internet access — except for the jobs that genuinely need it, like issuing a Let's Encrypt certificate or pulling a Git repository.
The consequence worth planning for: because the panel lives on the server it manages, rebuilding that server rebuilds the panel. Send backups to remote storage rather than leaving them on the box.
What it manages
| Area | What the panel does |
|---|---|
| Applications | Creates and provisions sites — PHP, Node, static, WordPress and more — each with its own system user, domains, SSL, and deployment settings. |
| Databases | Installs one SQL engine (MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL) plus optional MongoDB, then manages databases, users and remote access. |
| Server | System users, firewall, Fail2ban, cron jobs, services, PHP and Node versions, Docker, logs and disk cleanup. |
| Backups | Scheduled application and database backups to local or remote storage, with restore history. |
| Integrations | Git providers, container registries, and object storage for backups. |
| Administration | Panel users, roles and permissions, an activity log, a built-in doctor, and in-place panel updates. |
Each of those has its own section in this guide.
Interfaces
- The web panel — everything in this guide.
- The OSS Panel API — the same operations over HTTP, for scripting and integrations.
Pre-1.0
OSS Panel is pre-1.0 and has no licence file yet, which means the usual copyright default applies. See the project README for what has and has not been exercised on real hardware before you put anything you care about on it.
Next
- Requirements and supported platforms — what the server needs before you start.
- Installation — the install command and what it does.
- First login — claim the administrator account and finish setup.
- Dashboard tour — what every part of the main screen means.