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Self-Hosting Pangolin with the Official Installer

Introduction

Pangolin is a self-hosted tunneling solution, providing secure access to your internal services and serving as an alternative to Cloudflare Tunnels. It features built-in authentication, role-based access control, and automatic SSL provisioning via Let's Encrypt.

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Prerequisites

  • Linux system with root access and public IP (Ubuntu/Debian recommended)
  • Domain pointing to server IP (including a wildcard A record for service subdomains)
  • TCP ports 80, 443, and UDP port 51820 open
  • Email address for Let's Encrypt SSL certificate registration
  • (Optional) SMTP server details for transactional emails

Installation Steps

1. Download and Run the Installer

Download the installer for your system:

wget -O installer "https://github.com/fosrl/pangolin/releases/download/1.2.0/installer_linux_$(uname -m | sed 's/x86_64/amd64/;s/aarch64/arm64/')" && chmod +x ./installer

Run the installer with root privileges:

sudo ./installer

2. Basic Configuration

Provide the following when prompted:

  • Base Domain Name: Your main domain (e.g., example.com)
  • Dashboard Domain Name: Domain or subdomain for accessing Pangolin (e.g., pangolin.example.com)
  • Let's Encrypt Email: Your email for SSL registration
  • Tunneling: Choose whether to install Gerbil tunneling or run Pangolin as a standard reverse proxy

3. Admin User Setup

Configure your initial admin user credentials:

  • Admin Email: Custom or default (e.g., [email protected])
  • Admin Password: Must include:
  • At least 8 characters
  • One uppercase letter
  • One lowercase letter
  • One digit
  • One special character

4. Security Settings

Choose security options:

  • Signup Without Invite: Disable recommended for private setups
  • Organization Creation: Enable or disable as needed

5. Email Configuration

Configure SMTP settings for transactional emails (optional):

  • SMTP host
  • SMTP port (default 587)
  • SMTP username/password
  • No-reply email address

6. Docker Installation

If Docker isn't installed, the installer will automatically set up Docker for your distribution.

7. Container Deployment

The installer automatically pulls necessary Docker containers, creates directories, generates config files, and deploys the containers via Docker Compose.

Post-Installation

Once completed:

  • Access Pangolin at your dashboard domain
  • Log in using the configured admin credentials

Feedback

For any issues or suggestions, please raise an issue on GitHub.