OpenPanel¶

In this article

• OpenPanel. Key Features
• Deployment Features
• OpenPanel Password Considerations
• Getting Started with OpenPanel After Deployment
• Adding a New User
• Setting up a New Web Hosting with OpenAdmin
• Opening SMTP Ports for Corporate Email Service
• Ordering OpenPanel using the API
• Self-Installing OpenPanel on Ubuntu
• Easy Setup with a Bash Script (SSH and Invapi Deployment)

OpenPanel. Key Features¶

• User Account Management: Enables the creation, editing, and deletion of user accounts. Administrators can allocate various hosting packages with disk space, traffic, and other parameter restrictions, as well as configure resource quotas for each user, such as processor time, memory, and more.
• Domain Management: Facilitates the addition, editing, and deletion of domains, assigning them to users, configuring parked pages, and redirecting domains. Subdomains and wildcard domains are supported.
• MySQL Databases: Provides tools for creating, editing, and deleting MySQL databases, assigning them to users. Administrators can manage database users and privileges, create backups, and restore databases.
• Script Installer: Simplifies the installation of popular Content Management Systems (CMS) such as WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal, forums like phpBB and SMF, galleries, blogs, stores, and other web applications.
• FTP Management: Enables the creation and management of FTP user accounts, configuring permissions and quotas for FTP access.
• Security: Includes protection against brute force attacks, IP address management (blocking, allowed lists), SSH key management for secure access, and support for SSL/TLS encryption to safeguard traffic.

Deployment Features¶

• Installation time is approximately 15-30 minutes, inclusive of OS installation.
• Access to OpenPanel is facilitated through the system utility OpenAdmin. Following successful login to OpenAdmin, a new user account must be manually created for access to OpenPanel.
• Web panel management resides on port 2083. Panel management can also be performed from the host's command line using the opencli utility. Detailed documentation on utilizing the web panel and opencli is available on the official website.
• Upon installation, navigate to: https://<Server_ID_from_Invapi>.hostkey.in:2087

OpenPanel Password Considerations¶

When working with OpenPanel, there's a distinction between passwords for root server access and passwords for logging into the web interface.

How it Works:¶

1. Server Root Password:

   • Stored in its original form, including all special characters;
   • Example: AsD!@#DsA;
   • Used for direct server access.

2. OpenPanel Web Interface Password:

   • Requires a version of the password without special characters;
   • Example: AsDDsA;
   • Password length must be between 5 and 20 characters;
   • Only used for logging into the web interface.

Password Creation Rules:¶

• ✅ Uppercase letters allowed;
• ✅ Lowercase letters allowed;
• ✅ Numbers allowed;
• ❌ Special characters (!@#$% etc.) are not supported in the web interface.

Password Transformation Example:¶

Server Root Password: AsD!@#DsA
Web Interface Password: AsDDsA

Getting Started with OpenPanel After Deployment¶

After payment for the order received on the email address registered during registration, you will receive a notification about the server's readiness to work. This notification will include the VPS IP address as well as login and password credentials for connection. Our company's clients manage their servers through the servers control panel and API — Invapi.

After clicking on the webpanel link, you will be directed to an authentication window. Here, please use the credentials provided in the Info >> Tags tab. The login is root, and the password is specified in the opencli_root tag.

The authentication data can be found either in the Info >> Tags tab of the server management panel or in the email sent:

• Link for accessing OpenPanel web interface: in the webpanel tag. The exact link, in the format https://<Server_ID_from_Invapi>.hostkey.in:2087, is sent via email upon server delivery;
• Login: admin;
• Password: Sent to your email address after the server is ready for use following software deployment.

After clicking on the link, you will need to authenticate in OpenAdmin:

The startup menu of OpenAdmin contains the following categories:

• Dashboard: The main page of the control panel, providing an overview of the system, including user accounts, installed packages, resource usage, and operational notifications.
• Users: A section for managing user accounts. Here, you can create, edit, or delete accounts, assign hosting plans, set resource limits, manage domains and databases, and more.
• Plans: Allows you to configure and manage hosting plans that define limits and resources for user accounts, such as disk space, traffic, database quantity, and other parameters.
• Backups: A tool for creating backups of user accounts, websites, databases, and the entire system. You can also restore from backups and schedule automatic backups here.
• General Settings: Global settings for the control panel, including language preferences, email settings, firewall configurations, DNS settings, FTP settings, and other global configurations.
• Docker: A section for managing Docker containers, allowing you to create, start, stop, or delete containers on your server.
• OpenPanel: Settings and information related to the OpenPanel itself, including updates, licenses, security parameters, and event logs.
• Firewall: Management of your server's firewall, setting rules for the network, blocking or allowing IP addresses, and more.
• ModSecurity: Configuration and monitoring of ModSecurity, a web application module designed to enhance security against attacks.
• OpenAdmin: The OpenAdmin utility for managing your Linux system at a lower level, allowing you to control services, processes, file systems, and other system components.

Adding a New User¶

To create a new user, you need to:

1. Select the Users section from the main menu.
2. On the page listing users, click the New User button.
3. In the opened form, fill in the following fields:
   • Email: Enter a valid email address for the user.
   • Plan: Choose a suitable hosting plan from the dropdown list that defines limits on disk space, traffic, and more.
   • Username: Enter a unique username for the new account.
   • Password: Create and enter a secure password for the account.

After filling in all the necessary fields, click the Create User button to create the account. The new user will be added and appear in the list of users. The login credentials for the new user to access OpenPanel are:

Setting up a New Web Hosting with OpenAdmin¶

On the startup page of the OpenPanel web interface, you will find an interface for setting up a new hosting plan:

The process of setting up consists of several steps:

• Set custom domain instead of IP address: Instead of using a numerical IP address that is difficult to remember, this step allows you to assign a user-friendly and memorable domain name to your website or server. By default, it is set to <Server_ID_from_Invapi>.hostkey.in;
• Set at least 2 nameservers: This step assumes setting up at least two name servers (DNS servers) for ensuring fault tolerance. Name servers respond to domain name resolution and IP address mapping;
• Create new Plan and create User account: Here, you need to create a new hosting plan that defines limits and resources for the user account (disk space, traffic, databases, etc.). After that, you must create a user account and assign it this plan;
• Install & Enable ModSecurity WAF for domains: ModSecurity is a web application firewall (WAF) designed to protect websites from various attacks such as cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injections, and other vulnerabilities. This step assumes installing and activating ModSecurity for ensuring the security of hosted domains;
• Schedule remote Backups: On this step, you need to set up regular creation of backup copies of user accounts, websites, and databases on a remote storage for enhancing reliability and data restoration in case of failures.

Opening SMTP Ports for Corporate Email Service¶

To ensure security and prevent spamming, outgoing TCP ports (25, 24, 2525, 387, 465, and 587) and UDP port (5060) are blocked by default on all VPS servers. To unblock these ports, follow these steps:

1. Register your domain zone. An A-record for the domain must point to the IP address of your server at HOSTKEY.

2. Submit a request to our technical support, specifying that you need to open outgoing SMTP ports for sending email and providing the domain (or subdomain) from which it will be sent.

   Attention

   We reserve the right to ask additional questions about your domain name and its usage scenarios.

3. After analyzing your domain name, we will make a decision on opening the ports for SMTP operation and notify you.

Ordering OpenPanel using the API¶

To install this software using the API, follow these instructions.

Self-Installing OpenPanel on Ubuntu¶

1. Download the Installation Script

   wget https://openpanel.org -O /root/installation_script.sh
   chmod +x /root/installation_script.sh
   

2. Replace Tabs with Spaces

   sed -i 's/\t/    /g' /root/installation_script.sh 
   

3. Modify the Docker Command

   if grep -q 'debug_log docker run -it --rm' /root/installation_script.sh; then
       sed -i 's/debug_log docker run -it --rm \'/debug_log docker run --rm \'/ /root/installation_script.sh 
   fi
   

4. Run the Installation Script

   Install with IP-adress onlyInstal with Hostname

   bash /root/installation_script.sh --username=admin --password=<admin_pass>
   

   bash /root/installation_script.sh --hostname=<hostname> --username=admin --password=<admin_pass>
   

Remember to replace:

• <admin_pass>: Your admin password for authentication.
• <hostname>: Hostname for you server in FQDN format. Example: 35648.hostkey.net.

See full list of the install options here

Easy Setup with a Bash Script (SSH and Invapi Deployment)¶

#!/bin/bash

# Download installation script
wget https://openpanel.org -O /root/installation_script.sh

# Make the script executable
chmod +x /root/installation_script.sh

# Replace tabs with spaces
sed -i 's/\t/    /g' /root/installation_script.sh

# Remove "-it" from Docker command
sed -i "s/debug_log docker run -it --rm /debug_log docker run --rm /g" /root/installation_script.sh

# Run the installation script
bash /root/installation_script.sh --username=admin --password=<admin_pass>

echo "OpenPanel installation completed!"

Use script on BASH commandline¶

• Connect to your server via SSH.
• Save the script as a .sh file (e.g., install.sh) and set admin password <admin_pass>.
• Make it executable: chmod +x install.sh.

• Run the script on your server: ./install.sh.

• See in comandline text like this:

  User admin has been successfully added.
  ● OpenAdmin is running and is available on: http://91.237.249.214:2087/
  - Username:  admin
  - Password:  admin
  

• Obtain URL (in our example http://91.237.249.214:2087/) for OpenAdmin connect and use it in browser.

Using the Script During Server Reinstallation¶

• Select the desired OS in the Reinstall >> Operating System tab.
• Paste the script for the supported OS into the Post-install script field in the Advanced options tab.
• Start the reinstallation by clicking the button Reinstall this server