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.

bash


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.

bash


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.

bash


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.

bash


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:

sql


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

bash


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

bash


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.

bash


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:

bash


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

nginx


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:

bash


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 [email protected] --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):

ini


[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

bash


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.

bash


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):

ini


[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:

bash


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:

bash


                        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.

How to Install Pterodactyl Panel on Ubuntu 24.04

Requirements & Server Specifications

What Is Pterodactyl Panel?

Step 1 — Update the System

Step 2 — Install Required Dependencies

Step 3 — Install PHP 8.3

Step 4 — Install MariaDB & Create the Database

Step 5 — Install Redis

Step 6 — Install Composer

Step 7 — Download & Configure the Panel

Step 8 — Configure Nginx & SSL

Step 9 — Set Up the Queue Worker & Cron

Step 10 — Install Docker & Wings

Step 11 — Link Wings to the Panel

Step 12 — Add Your First Game Server & Firewall Setup

Ready to Host Your Game Servers?

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