Introduction
AidiPanel is a lightweight server control panel for Ubuntu and Debian VPS instances. It installs and manages an Nginx, PHP-FPM, MariaDB/MySQL, Redis, and Certbot stack through a web panel and CLI.
Design principles
- FastCGI Cache stays in Nginx. Cache hits avoid PHP entirely, with per-site controls and WordPress-aware bypass rules.
- Isolation is the default. Every site receives a dedicated no-login Linux user and PHP-FPM pool.
- The panel has its own runtime. The UI runs as the dedicated
aidipanelaccount through/run/aidipanel-fpm.sock; Nginx continues to run aswww-data. - Operations remain inspectable. The
aidipanelCLI covers sites, files, databases, cache, PHP, SSL, backups, SFTP, security, users, and diagnostics. - Security-sensitive changes are narrow. The web panel reaches privileged operations through one root-owned wrapper instead of running the application as root.
Features
AidiPanel provides site creation and guarded deletion, a file manager, isolated phpMyAdmin access, cron management, PHP tuning, local and scheduled S3-compatible backups, jailed SFTP, Basic Auth, IP blocking, Cloudflare-only origin access, panel roles, two-factor authentication, and server diagnostics.
It is intended for developers, WordPress builders, agencies, VPS operators, and self-hosters managing PHP applications. It is not a billing, mail-hosting, DNS-authority, reseller, or multi-node platform.
Stack at a glance
| Layer | Software | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Web server | Nginx | Static files, TLS, reverse proxying, and FastCGI Cache |
| Site runtime | PHP-FPM | Dedicated pool per PHP site |
| Panel runtime | PHP-FPM | Dedicated aidipanel service and socket |
| Database | MariaDB or MySQL | Selectable during installation |
| Object cache | Redis | Optional per-site WordPress object caching |
| TLS | Certbot | Let's Encrypt certificates and renewal |
| Security | UFW + Fail2ban | Firewall and brute-force protection |
| Management | Web panel + aidipanel | Browser and SSH workflows |
Where to go next
Installation → Prepare a fresh server and install the latest stable release.
Quick Start → Create your first isolated site and issue its certificate.
Architecture → Understand users, services, sockets, privilege boundaries, and request flow.