Installation

Install OSS Panel on a fresh Ubuntu server with one command, and understand every step it runs.

Installation is a single shell script. It is safe to re-run: every step checks whether its work is already done and skips it, so a failed install is fixed by fixing the cause and running the same command again.

Before you start, check Requirements.

1. Run the installer

SSH into the server as a user with sudo, then:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DipaliRadadiya/open-source-sa/main/install.sh \
  | sudo bash -s -- --stack=lemp

--stack is required in this form. Piping into bash leaves no terminal for the installer to ask on, so without the flag it silently defaults to lemp.

If you would rather read the script first — a reasonable thing to do with something that runs as root:

curl -fsSL -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DipaliRadadiya/open-source-sa/main/install.sh
less install.sh
sudo bash install.sh

Run that way, with a terminal attached, it asks which stack to build instead of guessing.

2. Choosing a stack

The stack decides the web server, and the web server serves the panel itself — so it cannot be changed from inside the panel later without taking the panel down with it. Pick deliberately.

Flag	Web server	Runtime	Use it for
`--stack=lemp`	nginx	PHP 8.4	The default. PHP applications — WordPress, Laravel, anything else.
`--stack=lamp`	Apache	PHP 8.4	PHP applications that need `.htaccess` or an Apache module.
`--stack=mern`	nginx	Node 24	Node applications, reverse-proxied.
`--stack=ols`	OpenLiteSpeed	LSPHP 8.4	PHP with LiteSpeed caching.
`--stack=docker`	nginx	Docker	Containers, reached through a reverse proxy.

On the OpenLiteSpeed stack

There is no per-site PHP isolation on ols — every site shares one PHP build, with no per-site pools. The 8G firewall and the bot blocker both work. The installer prints this at stack selection, not afterwards.

3. Options

  --stack=lemp                 Which stack to build:
                                 lemp    nginx + PHP        (default)
                                 lamp    Apache + PHP
                                 mern    nginx + Node
                                 ols     OpenLiteSpeed + PHP
                                 docker  nginx + Docker
                               Asked interactively when not given and a terminal
                               is available. Required for `curl | bash`, which
                               has no terminal to ask on.
  --domain=panel.example.com   Use your own domain instead of a nip.io name.
                               Point its A record at this server first.
  --email=you@example.com      Address for Let's Encrypt expiry warnings.
  --branch=main                Branch to install from.
  --no-ssl                     Serve plain HTTP. Fine behind another proxy.
  --dry-run                    Print the steps without touching anything.

Using your own domain

sudo bash install.sh --stack=lemp \
  --domain=panel.example.com \
  --email=you@example.com

Point the A record at the server first. If the name does not resolve to this server when the installer reaches the TLS step, Let's Encrypt cannot validate it and you fall back to a self-signed certificate.

Without a domain

Leave --domain off and the panel gets a nip.io address built from the server's public IP:

[03] Working out the address
     ✓ panel: https://panel.203-0-113-10.nip.io
     ✓ api:   https://api.203-0-113-10.nip.io

Two names, one shared parent. That is load-bearing: panel. and api. are children of 203-0-113-10.nip.io, so a single session cookie can cover both. A dash instead of that dot would make them unrelated siblings and logging in would not work.

Behind another proxy

--no-ssl serves plain HTTP and skips certificate issuance. Use it only when something in front of the server already terminates TLS.

Seeing what it would do

--dry-run prints every step and every command without touching the server. Worth running once on a box you care about.

4. What it does

Roughly twenty numbered steps, in this order:

Checking this server — OS, architecture, ports 80 and 443, free space on /var, systemd.

Choosing the stack — from --stack, your answer, or the lemp default.

Working out the address — your domain, or a nip.io name from the public IP.

Checking memory — creates a 1 GB swapfile if the server has none.

Installing packages — the web server, PHP or Node, Redis, SQLite, supervisor, Composer and the build toolchain.

Installing Node (fnm) and creating the panel account.

Fetching the panel into /var/www/panel.

Securing Redis with a generated password.

Setting up the API and building the panel web interface.

Configuring PHP-FPM and the web server vhost.

Installing services — panel-frontend, panel-fpm, panel-queue.

Granting the panel its privileges — one narrow sudoers rule.

Checking the firewall — adds ufw rules for SSH, 80 and 443 without enabling ufw.

Setting up HTTPS — Let's Encrypt, falling back to self-signed.

Finishing up and checking the installation — runs the panel's own doctor as the unprivileged account, to prove the panel actually works before claiming success.

Progress looks like this:

[01] Checking this server
     ✓ Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS
     ✓ architecture x86_64
     ✓ 82876 MB free on /var
     ✓ logging to /var/log/panel-install.log

[02] Choosing the stack
     ✓ lemp — nginx, PHP 8.4, Node 24

[03] Working out the address
     ✓ panel: https://panel.203-0-113-10.nip.io
     ✓ api:   https://api.203-0-113-10.nip.io

[04] Checking memory
     ✓ 5925 MB RAM + 1023 MB swap, already enough

Everything is logged to /var/log/panel-install.log.

5. When it finishes

 The control panel is installed

  Panel:   https://panel.203-0-113-10.nip.io
  API:     https://api.203-0-113-10.nip.io
  Stack:   lemp (nginx)
  Log:     /var/log/panel-install.log
  Files:   /var/www/panel

  Open the panel and register — the first account becomes the
  administrator, and registration closes behind it.

  Do that now. Until you do, anyone who reaches this address can
  claim the administrator account.

  Then use the setup page to install a database engine and anything
  else you need.

Between the end of the install and your first registration, the panel is open: the first person to reach that URL becomes its administrator. Do not leave a freshly installed panel unregistered.

Continue to First login.

Troubleshooting

The install stopped. Read the cause it printed, fix it, and run the same command again — the installer skips work that is already done.

sudo cat /var/log/panel-install.log

The browser warns about the certificate. Let's Encrypt did not issue one — usually a DNS record that does not point here yet, or a rate limit. The panel is installed and working behind a self-signed certificate. Once the cause is fixed:

sudo certbot --nginx -d panel.example.com

Some checks failed at step 19. The panel is installed, but parts of it will not work until those are fixed. The panel's own doctor screen reports the same checks from inside the interface.

A known cosmetic error at 'Installing services'

On v1.0.14 the installer prints line 3108: default: command not found and a red "Install stopped (exit 127)" block during Installing services, then carries on and completes normally. It is a quoting bug in a comment, not a failed install. Check the final summary: if it printed "The control panel is installed", it did.

Installation

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