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Before installing Wings, ensure your system meets the following requirements. Wings is designed to run on modern Linux distributions with Docker support.

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Operating System Requirements

Wings supports the following Linux distributions:

Supported Systems

  • Ubuntu 20.04+
  • Debian 11+
  • CentOS 8+ / Rocky Linux 8+
  • Alpine Linux (with modifications)

Architecture

  • x86_64 (amd64)
  • ARM64 (aarch64)
Wings is built with Go 1.24+ and requires a Linux kernel with Docker support. Alpine Linux users need to use the adduser command syntax (see config/config.go:530).

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Docker Requirements

Wings requires Docker to manage game server containers.

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Docker Version

  • Minimum: Docker 20.10+
  • Recommended: Docker 24.0+
  • Docker Compose: Not required for Wings operation

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Required Docker Features

Wings uses the Docker Engine API to create and manage containers. Ensure the Docker daemon is running and accessible.
Wings creates a custom Docker network (default: pterodactyl_nw) using the bridge driver. The default configuration uses:
  • IPv4: 172.18.0.0/16 with gateway 172.18.0.1
  • IPv6: fdba:17c8:6c94::/64 with gateway fdba:17c8:6c94::1011
Wings mounts server data directories into containers. Ensure your filesystem supports bind mounts.

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Hardware Requirements

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Minimum Requirements

ComponentRequirement
CPU1 core (2+ recommended)
RAM1 GB (2 GB+ recommended)
Storage10 GB free space
Network100 Mbps
ComponentRequirement
CPU4+ cores
RAM4 GB+ (depends on hosted servers)
StorageSSD with 50 GB+ free space
Network1 Gbps
Memory requirements scale with the number of servers. Each game server requires its own memory allocation plus Wings overhead (default: 5-15% depending on server memory, see config/config_docker.go:154).

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Network Requirements

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Required Ports

Wings requires the following ports to be accessible:
PortProtocolPurpose
8080TCPWings API (configurable)
2022TCPSFTP server (configurable)
DynamicTCP/UDPGame server allocations
The Wings API port (default: 8080) must be accessible from the Panel server. The SFTP port (default: 2022) should be accessible to users who need file access.

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Firewall Configuration

Ensure your firewall allows:
  1. Inbound connections to Wings API port from Panel IP
  2. Inbound connections to SFTP port from user IPs
  3. Inbound/outbound connections on game server allocation ports
  4. Outbound connections for Docker image pulls
# Allow Wings API
sudo ufw allow 8080/tcp

# Allow SFTP
sudo ufw allow 2022/tcp

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

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System User Requirements

Wings automatically creates a system user for managing server files:
  • Default username: pterodactyl
  • Default UID/GID: 988 (when running in Docker)
  • Shell: /usr/sbin/nologin or /sbin/nologin
The user creation is handled automatically during Wings startup (see config/config.go:480). On Alpine Linux, the user is created with adduser -S instead of useradd.

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Storage Requirements

Wings uses several directories for operation:
DirectoryDefault LocationPurpose
Root/var/lib/pterodactylBase data directory
Servers/var/lib/pterodactyl/volumesServer files
Backups/var/lib/pterodactyl/backupsLocal backups
Archives/var/lib/pterodactyl/archivesServer transfers
Logs/var/log/pterodactylWings logs
Temp/tmp/pterodactylTemporary files
Ensure these directories are on a filesystem with adequate space. Server data can grow significantly depending on the games hosted.

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Optional Requirements

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SSL/TLS Certificates

For production environments, configure SSL/TLS:
  • Self-signed certificates: Suitable for testing
  • Let’s Encrypt: Auto-TLS support built into Wings
  • Custom certificates: Manual SSL configuration

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Log Rotation

Wings automatically configures log rotation if /etc/logrotate.d/ exists (see config/config.go:695). The default configuration:
  • Rotates logs at 10 MB
  • Compresses old logs
  • Keeps logs for 7 days

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SELinux

If using SELinux, ensure proper contexts for Wings directories, especially:
  • /run/wings/etc (passwd files)
  • /run/wings/machine-id (machine-id files)
These directories are mounted into containers and require appropriate SELinux contexts.

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Checking Your System

Verify your system meets the requirements: 
# Check Docker version
docker --version

# Verify Docker is running
sudo systemctl status docker

# Test Docker functionality
sudo docker run hello-world
Once your system meets all requirements, proceed to Installing Wings.

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