How to Set Up Pterodactyl Game Server Panel

What Is Pterodactyl?

Pterodactyl is an open-source game server management panel built with PHP, React, and Go. It provides a web-based interface to create, manage, and monitor game servers with user isolation through Docker containers.

Requirements

• A Breeze with at least 4 GB RAM
• Ubuntu 22.04
• A domain name pointing to your server

Step 1: Install Dependencies

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y php8.2 php8.2-{cli,common,gd,mysql,mbstring,bcmath,xml,fpm,curl,zip} \
  nginx mariadb-server redis-server curl tar unzip git composer

Step 2: Install the Panel

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/

Step 3: Set Up the Database

sudo mysql -u root -e "CREATE DATABASE panel;
CREATE USER 'pterodactyl'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password';
GRANT ALL ON panel.* TO 'pterodactyl'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;"

Step 4: Configure the Panel

cp .env.example .env
composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
php artisan key:generate --force
php artisan p:environment:setup
php artisan p:environment:database
php artisan migrate --seed --force
php artisan p:user:make

Step 5: Set Up the Web Server

Configure Nginx with SSL (use Certbot for Let's Encrypt):

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

Step 6: Install Wings (Node Daemon)

Wings runs on each game server node and manages Docker containers:

sudo 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

Step 7: Configure Wings

In the Pterodactyl panel, go to Admin → Nodes → Create Node, then copy the configuration YAML into /etc/pterodactyl/config.yml.

Step 8: Start Wings

sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/wings.service <<EOF
[Unit]
Description=Pterodactyl Wings Daemon
After=docker.service

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/wings
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

sudo systemctl enable --now wings

Creating a Game Server

1. Go to Admin → Servers → Create Server
2. Select the game egg (Minecraft, CS2, Valheim, etc.)
3. Assign resources (CPU, RAM, disk)
4. The server is created in a Docker container with full isolation