Manage Your VPS Visually with aaPanel: Install and Secure It

If you are not comfortable with the Linux command line, a web control panel like aaPanel lets you build sites, install databases, configure SSL and monitor your server entirely from a browser. This article covers installation and the security hardening you must not skip.

Before installing

Install on a clean, fresh OS (Ubuntu 22.04 or Debian 12). If you previously installed Nginx or MySQL by hand, remove them first — otherwise the panel installer will hit port conflicts.

Installation steps

Log in via SSH and run the official install script (check the aaPanel website for the current command). After a few minutes the terminal prints the panel URL, username and initial password — copy and save them. Open the panel URL in your browser, then follow the prompt to install the LNMP stack (Nginx + MySQL + PHP), choosing the stable versions.

Mandatory security hardening

The panel is exposed to the public internet and default settings attract scanners and brute-force bots. All four steps below are required:

• Change the default port to a random port above 10000;
• Set a security entrance path — a random URL path without which the login page is invisible;
• Enable panel SSL, set a strong password and turn on two-factor login;
• Firewall allowlist: if your office IP is static, open the panel port to your own IP only.

What you can do with the panel

Everything common lives in the left menu: "Website" creates a site and issues free SSL in one click; "Databases" creates MySQL databases; "Files" is an online file manager; "Cron" schedules automatic backups; "Monitoring" shows CPU, memory and traffic charts. If the panel fails to install or load, contact 00Shark support and we will help you debug it.