nimbopanel
English
Features NimboBilling Pricing About Docs Blog Log in Start free
Docs / Installing Nimbopanel

Installing Nimbopanel

Requirements

Nimbopanel installs on a fresh Linux server you control (a VPS or dedicated box) — not on shared hosting. You need:

  • A freshly provisioned x86_64/arm64 (64-bit) server running a supported OS:

    • Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or 24.04 LTS — tested end to end, and what we run ourselves.
    • Debian 12 — tested end to end.
    • AlmaLinux 8, 9 and 10 — tested end to end.
    • Rocky Linux 9 — tested end to end. RHEL 9 is the same family and is expected to behave identically.
    • CloudLinux 9 — tested end to end, with per-account LVE resource limits honoured where the CloudLinux kernel provides them.
    • ARM (aarch64) is not supported yet.

    The installer does not stop you on an untested combination — it warns and continues.

  • Root (or sudo) access.

  • A domain or subdomain pointed at the server's IP for the panel (e.g. panel.yourdomain.com).

  • At least 1 GB RAM for a small host; more as you add accounts.

One-line install

Sign in to your account, open the Dashboard, and copy the install command shown there — it already contains your license key:

curl -fsSL https://nimbopanel.com/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- --license NIMB-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX

The exact, ready-to-run command with your own key is shown on your Dashboard and on Downloads after you sign in. Copy it from there rather than typing this one — it carries the right key for your account.

The installer opens a short browser setup wizard (it prints a link and waits), where you confirm your license, create the admin account, and name the panel hostname. This is the normal path and it runs whether or not you pass --wizard; the key on the command line only pre-fills the field.

It then sets up the control panel, the web server, PHP, the mail stack, DNS, and the database services, and finishes by printing the panel URL and admin login. The whole run is logged to /var/log/nimbopanel-install.log.

No key yet? Leave --license off. The server installs and runs on the Free entitlements — one website, no addon domains — and you can enter a key from the panel later.

Before you install (if you have a domain)

To get HTTPS automatically during install, do this first:

  1. Create an A record for your panel hostname (e.g. panel.yourdomain.com) pointing at your server's IP — plus ns1, ns2, and mail records if you'll host DNS/email.
  2. In your cloud firewall (DigitalOcean, Vultr, AWS, …), open ports 80 and 443.

No domain yet? You can install on the bare server IP and add a domain + HTTPS later.

Already gave your server a name (hostname) that points at it, such as srv1.yourdomain.com? The wizard notices and offers it as the panel address — no DNS step at all.

After installing

  1. Open the panel URL and sign in with the admin credentials shown at the end of the install.
  2. HTTPS is automatic. If your panel hostname's DNS was already pointing at the server, the installer issues a real Let's Encrypt certificate for you — the final summary confirms it. If the domain wasn't pointed yet, the panel stays on http:// and HTTPS switches on by itself within ~5 minutes once you point the DNS. To force it immediately, SSH in as root and run sudo nimbopanel-enable-https.
  3. Create your first hosting account, or import an existing cPanel account — see Migrating from cPanel. Every hosting domain you add gets its own free Let's Encrypt certificate automatically once it points at the server.

What differs on the RHEL family

AlmaLinux, Rocky, CloudLinux and RHEL run the same panel and the same feature set, with three bundled components the installer does not set up there:

  • phpMyAdmin and Roundcube webmail are Debian/Ubuntu only. Your customers' panels hide both tiles automatically on a server that does not have them, so nobody is sent to a page that is not there — but if either matters to you, choose Debian or Ubuntu.
  • rspamd spam filtering is not installed on the RHEL family. Its repository signs packages with a key RHEL 9 rejects, and installing a root daemon from an unverified repository is not a trade worth making.

Everything else — mail, DNS, databases, PHP, backups, SSL — is the same on both families.

Licensing and offline tolerance

Your server checks in with the license server from time to time. If it can't reach the license server — an outage, a network blip — your hosting keeps running. Nimbopanel is deliberately never "fail-closed". See How licensing works for the details.

Updating

Updates ship as a new release. Run the same installer again (or the built-in updater) to move to the latest version; your accounts and data are preserved.

← All docs Need help? Contact us →