First steps after installation

#Where to sign in

On a server install bipanel listens on two HTTPS ports. Both serve the same application; the port decides which interface you get.

Plain HTTP requests on ports 2086 and 2082 are redirected to 2087 and 2083. Unless you passed --without-firewall, the installer opens these ports in UFW or firewalld; if your provider has a cloud firewall, allow the same ports there as well.

A Docker or Railway container has no separate ports: Server Admin lives under /admin on your panel address and the user panel under /panel. See Docker and Railway for details.

#First sign-in

The administrator username is admin. On a server install the password is printed at the end of the installation and saved, together with the summary, to /root/bipanel-kurulum.txt, which only root can read:

$ cat /root/bipanel-kurulum.txt

In a container, the password is whatever you set in BIPANEL_ADMIN_PASSWORD. If you did not set it, a random one is generated, written to the log once on first start and saved to initial-admin.txt in the data directory. The variable is only used when the first administrator is created; once you change the password in the panel, the value in the environment no longer affects sign-in.

On a server install your browser shows a security warning on the first visit. That is because no valid certificate has been issued for the hostname yet, so the panel uses a temporary self-signed one. Accept it this once and get a real certificate with the steps below.

#Password and two-factor authentication

In Server Admin, open System > Password & Security.

1. Under Change password, enter your current and new password. Your other open sessions are signed out when the password changes.
2. Under Two-factor authentication, click Start setup, add the QR code or the secret key to an authenticator app (such as Google Authenticator, 1Password or Authy), enter the code it shows and click Enable.
3. The same page lets you set a contact email (used for notifications and password resets), language and theme, and review or sign out active sessions.

Security > Security Advisor reports a finding while the administrator account still uses the initial password from the installation. For the other protections, see Panel security.

#Hostname and SSL

The hostname (an FQDN such as server.example.com) is set during installation with --hostname. The panel address, the server certificate and the mail server identity all use it.

1. In your domain's DNS, create an A record for the hostname pointing to the server's IP address.
2. On Domains > SSL & AutoSSL, in the Hostname certificate section, click Get a Let's Encrypt certificate. The panel (2083/2087), phpMyAdmin and webmail use this certificate.
3. To change the name later, use the Hostname section on Server > Basic Setup. The new name must be an FQDN with at least three parts and cannot be a domain hosted by an account. On a server install the panel restarts for a few seconds; websites and email are not affected. Afterwards, update the reverse DNS (PTR) record of the server IP to the new name.

In container installs, TLS is terminated by the layer in front (Railway, or the reverse proxy in Docker Compose), so this button is not shown there. Everything about certificates is on the SSL certificates page.

#Nameservers and IP

On Server > Basic Setup, check the server IP address, the nameservers and the administrator contact email. The IP address goes into the A records of new DNS zones. If no nameservers are set, ns1 and ns2 names derived from the hostname are used. To run your own nameservers, create glue records for those names pointing to the server IP at your domain registrar. A container cannot run a local DNS server; use an external DNS service instead.

#Create a package

On Accounts > Packages, click Add a Package. A package sets the disk quota, monthly bandwidth, CPU, memory and process limits; the number of addon domains, databases, email and FTP accounts, cron jobs and Node.js / Python apps; the default PHP version; SSH / terminal access; and which tools the account sees in its panel. Limits left empty are unlimited, and changes apply to every account using the package.

File count (inode) and disk I/O limits, as well as Redis, Memcached and container quotas, are part of the Pro edition. More in Accounts and packages.

#Create the first account

On Accounts > Create Account, enter the domain, a username (2–16 characters, lowercase letters and digits), a password and the package. The password is used for the customer's panel, SSH and FTP logins; tick Require a password change at first sign-in to let the customer choose their own. Create account sets up the system user, home directory, PHP-FPM pool, Apache virtual host and DNS zone automatically.

The customer signs in at https://your-hostname:2083 with their own username. You can open their panel yourself with the Log in to the panel button on the account's detail page.

The Community edition allows at most 3 hosting accounts. More accounts and reseller accounts require a Pro license, which you enter on System > License. See Licensing and Pricing.

#Point the domain

A new zone contains NS records, an A record for the domain, CNAME records for www and ftp, an A record for mail, plus MX, SPF and DMARC records. Connect the domain in one of two ways:

Once DNS has propagated, AutoSSL issues Let's Encrypt certificates on a schedule for domains that have no valid certificate. The customer edits records on the Zone Editor page. See DNS.

#Email basics

Email is only available on server installs, and only when the installer ran without --without-mail. The customer creates mailboxes on Email Accounts, checks SPF, DKIM and DMARC on Email Deliverability and adds missing records to the zone from there. Webmail is at https://your-hostname/webmail. To keep mail out of spam folders, the PTR record of the server IP should point to the hostname. More in Email.

#Where to go next

• Pick an update channel on System > Updates: Updates.
• Schedule regular backups on the Backups screen: Backups and migration.
• See exactly what is sent to bipanel Hub on System > Installation Report; this report is active on every installation and cannot be turned off.
• Install components you skipped during setup from System > Components.