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System Requirements

Before installing Pterodactyl Panel, ensure your server meets the minimum requirements for both the Panel and Wings daemon. This guide covers all necessary dependencies and recommended configurations.

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Panel Requirements

The Panel is the web interface and management system. It can be installed on a separate server from your game servers.

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Operating System

Supported

  • Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, 24.04
  • Debian 11, 12
  • CentOS 8, 9 Stream
  • Rocky Linux 8, 9
  • AlmaLinux 8, 9

Not Supported

  • Windows Server
  • Shared hosting
  • OpenVZ/LXC containers (without Docker support)
  • 32-bit operating systems
Pterodactyl does not run on Windows. You must use a Linux-based operating system.

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PHP Requirements

Pterodactyl requires PHP 8.2 or PHP 8.3. Older versions are not supported.

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Required PHP Extensions

The following PHP extensions are required:
  • cli
  • openssl
  • gd
  • mysql (or pdo_mysql)
  • pdo
  • mbstring
  • tokenizer
  • bcmath
  • xml or dom
  • curl
  • zip
  • fpm (if using NGINX)
  • json
  • posix
Most Linux distributions include these extensions by default when installing PHP from official repositories.

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Installing PHP 8.2

# Add PHP repository
apt -y install software-properties-common curl apt-transport-https ca-certificates gnupg
LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 add-apt-repository -y ppa:ondrej/php
apt update

# Install PHP 8.2 and required extensions
apt -y install php8.2 php8.2-{common,cli,gd,mysql,mbstring,bcmath,xml,fpm,curl,zip}

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Database Requirements

Minimum Version: MySQL 5.7.22 or higherRecommended: MySQL 8.0+MySQL is the recommended database for Pterodactyl.
Do not use the root MySQL user for the Panel. Create a dedicated database user with appropriate permissions.

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Web Server Requirements

You need a web server to serve the Panel. Both NGINX and Apache are supported.

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Additional Software

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Composer

Required Version: Composer 2.x Composer is required to install PHP dependencies. 
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

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Redis

Recommended Version: Redis 6.x or newer Redis is used for caching and queue management.
Ubuntu/Debian
apt install -y redis-server
systemctl enable --now redis-server
While Redis is optional, it is highly recommended for production environments to improve performance.

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SSL Certificate

Always use HTTPS in production. Let’s Encrypt provides free SSL certificates.
  • SSL certificate (Let’s Encrypt recommended)
  • Valid domain name pointing to your server
  • Port 80 and 443 accessible

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Wings Requirements

Wings is the server control daemon that manages Docker containers. It must be installed on every machine where you want to run game servers.

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Operating System

Supported

  • Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, 24.04
  • Debian 11, 12
  • CentOS 8, 9 Stream
  • Rocky Linux 8, 9
  • AlmaLinux 8, 9

Required Kernel

  • Linux Kernel 5.10 or newer
  • Kernel headers installed
  • Docker support enabled
Wings requires Docker and will not work on OpenVZ or other container systems that don’t support Docker.

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Docker Requirements

Required Version: Docker 20.10.0 or newer (Docker 24+ recommended) Docker is the container runtime used to isolate game servers.

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Installing Docker

curl -sSL https://get.docker.com/ | CHANNEL=stable bash
systemctl enable --now docker

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Docker Configuration

  • Docker daemon running on startup
  • User permissions configured (if needed)
  • Storage driver: overlay2 (recommended)
  • IPv4 forwarding enabled in kernel

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Firewall Configuration

1

Allow Panel Communication

Wings communicates with the Panel on port 8080 (configurable)
2

Allow SFTP Access

SFTP server runs on port 2022 by default
3

Allow Game Server Ports

Open the port range allocated for game servers (e.g., 25565-25665)

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Example Firewall Rules (UFW)

# Allow SSH
ufw allow 22/tcp

# Allow Wings communication with Panel
ufw allow 8080/tcp

# Allow SFTP
ufw allow 2022/tcp

# Allow game server ports (example range)
ufw allow 25565:25665/tcp
ufw allow 25565:25665/udp

# Enable firewall
ufw enable

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Network Requirements

  • Static IP address or dynamic DNS
  • Adequate bandwidth for game servers
  • Low latency connection to Panel (if separate servers)
  • No NAT restrictions for allocated ports
  • Reverse DNS (rDNS) recommended but not required

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Hardware Requirements

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Panel Hardware

The Panel has minimal resource requirements:

CPU

Minimum: 1 coreRecommended: 2+ cores

RAM

Minimum: 1 GBRecommended: 2 GB+

Storage

Minimum: 5 GBRecommended: 10 GB+
Panel resource usage scales with the number of users and servers. Large installations may require more resources.

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Wings Hardware

Wings resource requirements depend entirely on the game servers you run:

CPU

Minimum: 2 coresRecommended: 4+ coresVaries by game server load

RAM

Minimum: 2 GB + game server needsRecommended: 4 GB + game server allocation

Storage

Minimum: 20 GBRecommended: 50 GB+ SSDDepends on number and size of servers
Storage Recommendation: Use SSD storage for Wings nodes to improve game server performance, especially for I/O-intensive games like Minecraft.

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Example Configurations

  • CPU: 2-4 cores
  • RAM: 4-8 GB
  • Storage: 50 GB SSD
  • Network: 100 Mbps
Suitable for personal use or small communities.

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Production Environment

1

Separate Panel and Wings

Run the Panel on one server and Wings on separate game server nodes
2

Use Redis

Install Redis for caching and queue performance
3

Enable SSL

Use Let’s Encrypt for free SSL certificates
4

Configure Backups

Set up S3 or local backup storage
5

Monitor Resources

Use monitoring tools to track server health

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Development Environment

For local development and testing:
  • Node.js: v22 or newer (for asset building)
  • Yarn: v1.x.x (package manager)
  • Go: 1.17.x or newer (for Wings development)
Development requirements are only needed if you plan to modify the Panel’s React frontend or Wings daemon. Pre-built releases include compiled assets.

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Compatibility Notes

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Cloud Providers

Pterodactyl works on all major cloud providers:
  • AWS (EC2)
  • Google Cloud Platform (GCE)
  • Microsoft Azure
  • DigitalOcean
  • Vultr
  • Linode/Akamai
  • OVH
  • Hetzner
Oracle Cloud Free Tier: Some users report issues with Docker on Oracle Cloud’s ARM instances. Use x86_64 instances for best compatibility.

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Virtualization

  • KVM
  • VMware
  • Xen HVM
  • Hyper-V
  • Proxmox (KVM-based)

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IPv6 Support

Pterodactyl fully supports IPv6:
  • IPv6 allocations for game servers
  • Dual-stack (IPv4 + IPv6) configurations
  • IPv6-only setups (with proper configuration)

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Quick Checklist

Before proceeding to installation, verify:
  • Linux server with kernel 5.10+
  • PHP 8.2 or 8.3 with required extensions
  • MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.6+
  • Web server (NGINX or Apache)
  • Composer 2.x installed
  • Redis installed and running
  • Docker installed (for Wings)
  • Domain name with DNS configured
  • Firewall rules configured
  • Adequate CPU, RAM, and storage

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Next Steps

Installation Guide

Ready to install? Follow our comprehensive installation guide to get Pterodactyl up and running.

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