How to Install aaPanel on Ubuntu

aaPanel is an open-source solution that is used for monitoring and control over a server resource. It supports database, website, file, and security management, and many more features like WordPress, Docker, Logs, and Cron jobs management. This is the perfect solution if you are looking to have more control over your server.

In this article, we will learn how to install aaPanel on Ubuntu and update and maintain it.

Requirements

aaPanel comes with minimal and recommended hardware requirements. The minimal requirements are the following:

• 1 core CPU
• 512MB RAM

The recommended requirements are: 

• 1 core CPU
• 1GB RAM

You will also need to have at least 20 GB of space on the machine, and sudo or root permissions.

This tutorial installs aaPanel Stable 7.0.11 on a Hostman cloud server with the following hardware characteristics: 1 x 3 GHz CPU • 1 GB RAM • 25 GB NVMe, running Ubuntu 22.04.

Once these requirements are satisfied and you have set up your remote machine, we can download and install aaPanel.

Download and Install aaPanel

Installing aaPanel can be done using the installation script provided. First, ensure that the package source list is up to date and the existing packages are up to date.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

After that, download and install aaPanel:

wget --no-check-certificate -O install_7.0_en.sh https://www.aapanel.com/script/install_7.0_en.sh
sudo bash install_7.0_en.sh

This will prompt you to confirm the location of the installation. Enter y to continue.

After the installation is done, you will see on your screen the URL to the aaPanel web interface, the username, and the password. The output will look like this:

URL, username, and password

Gather the URL, username, and password as they will be used to access the aaPanel.

Access aaPanel

Copy and paste the URL into your browser and you will have access to a similar page.

Login page for the aaPanel dashboard

Enter your login and password to access the dashboard homepage. You will have a modal confirming the installation of aaPanel. After closing the modal, aaPanel will recommend you to install essential software packages from LNMP or LAMP stack like Nginx, MySQL, PHPMyAdmin, and much more. You should choose the required ones and select other packages listed if any.

For this tutorial, we are choosing the LNMP stack, but feel free to choose according to your requirements and needs.

Installing software packages

The installations can run in the background. On your homepage now, you have access to the dashboard and the numerous services aaPanel has to offer.

aaPanel’s homepage

With aaPanel installed, it is important to keep maintaining the software and update it regularly. Let’s see how we can achieve it.

Update and Maintain aaPanel

You can update and maintain aaPanel in many different ways. However, before updating your installation, you should ensure to have backups for services like databases in case things go wrong while updating for example, or any incident.

Using the cron feature, you can create periodic tasks to backup files or services. 

You have many options for backups so it is up to your requirements and needs. 

aaPanel’s crons configuration

Now that we can make backups, let’s see how to update aaPanel.

Updating aaPanel

aaPanel allows you to directly update the software from the dashboard. On the top right of the dashboard, you will find an update button.

aaPanel’s Update button

Clicking on this button may trigger the display of two different models. The first one will tell you that your software is up to date, but you can always try beta versions. 

aaPanel’s current version modal

The other modal will show you the new available version, with the changes, so you can update. 

It is important to update aaPanel frequently, mostly to ensure security fixes are added to your installation as soon as possible. 

Instead of using the dashboard, you can also make an update from the server shell. Downloading the script of the most recent version, and running the installation script will update aaPanel.

curl -sSL https://www.aapanel.com/script/update_en.sh | sudo bash

Maintaining aaPanel is not only about the updates and backups. It is also about security, monitoring, regular cleaning, and optimization. 

Maintaining aaPanel

To maintain aaPanel, you can follow the following recommendations. 

1. Update Installed Packages and Services

Regularly updating packages is key to maintaining a secure, compatible system.

• Go to aaPanel App Store to review and update applications (e.g., PHP, MySQL, Apache).
• Test critical updates in a staging environment before deploying to production.

2. Enable and Monitor Security Settings

Configure security settings to safeguard your server against unauthorized access or make it more strong.

• Firewall: Set IP restrictions in aaPanel Security to control access, especially for SSH.
• SSL Certificates: Ensure certificates are valid and renew any expired ones in the SSL section.
• System Security: Set strong passwords for admin and database accounts. This can be done on the dashboard, in the global settings page. 

Global settings page

3. Clean Up and Optimize Server Resources

Regular cleanups and optimizations help maintain efficient performance and resource use.

• Remove Unused Files: Use File Manager to delete old backups, logs, and unneeded files.

4. Monitor Server Health

The aaPanel Dashboard provides a comprehensive view of server health, displaying metrics such as CPU, memory, and disk usage. High usage in these areas can indicate processes that require optimization, resource-intensive applications, or potential security threats.

• Track CPU, memory, and disk usage in the aaPanel Dashboard.
• Set alerts in the panel to be notified about unusual resource usage. This can be done under the Alarm tab on the aaPanel global settings.

aaPanel’s alarms

For example, the configuration above allows us to be notified about some unexpected resource usage, via email or other applications.

The alarm setting allows you to set configurations for the alarm modules.

aaPanel’s alarms sources

5. Schedule Regular Maintenance

Automate regular maintenance tasks to improve server reliability and manage resources.

• Automated Backups: Schedule backups for websites, databases, or files for reliable data recovery.
• Log Rotation: Configure log rotation to prevent logs from taking up excessive disk space. You can set a Cut log task in the cron tabs, for example, to compress logs regularly so they don’t become very large and difficult to analyze.

Conclusion

Installing and maintaining aaPanel on Ubuntu provides a powerful, secure, and user-friendly way to manage server resources and applications.

From automated backups and package updates to security settings and monitoring, aaPanel offers a complete toolkit for IT admins and cloud developers looking for efficient server control. Routine maintenance tasks, like cleaning up unused files and monitoring system health, are important to further enhance server performance and stability.