Requirements and network access

Control is intended for a dedicated or deliberately prepared Linux server where you have administrative SSH access.

Supported operating systems

• Ubuntu LTS is the primary supported platform. Ubuntu 26.04 is the current reference environment.
• Debian stable is the secondary supported platform.
• Ubuntu/Debian derivatives and unrelated Linux distributions are not implicitly supported.

Use a normal systemd-based installation with APT package management. Before installing Control on a newly provisioned server, update the operating system and reboot if the operating system reports that one is required. The Install Control guide includes the recommended commands and SSH checks.

Access you need

You need root access or an account that can use sudo for installation, recovery and host-level maintenance. Keep working SSH access available while changing firewall or management-access settings.

Choose a dedicated management hostname such as panel.example.com. Do not use the same hostname for a hosted Site.

Network access

• Initial management access normally uses HTTPS on TCP 8443. Production management normally uses TCP 443 after TLS setup.
• Public Let's Encrypt HTTP-01 validation requires the management or Site hostname to resolve to this server and TCP 80 to be reachable.
• SFTP requires the server's SSH port to be reachable from the networks that need access.
• Native authoritative DNS requires the normal DNS service ports when you choose to run it.
• Provider firewalls or security groups are separate from firewall policy inside Control.

Existing servers

If the host already serves websites or other services, read Using Control on an existing server before installation. Existing configuration is not silently adopted as managed Control state.