In today’s digital landscape, secure and efficient remote access is crucial for self-hosted applications. Many users rely on cloud-based solutions like Cloudflare Tunnel, Ngrok, or Tailscale. However, for those who prioritize self-hosting and control over their infrastructure, Pangolin offers a powerful open-source alternative. Pangolin allows users to set up a tunneled reverse proxy server while maintaining privacy and security. In this blog post, we’ll guide you through installing and configuring Pangolin on a Linux server.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, ensure you have the following:
- A Linux VPS running a recent version of Debian, Ubuntu, or another supported distribution.
- A domain name that you control.
- Access to your domain’s DNS settings to create required records.
- A public IP address assigned to your VPS.
- Docker Installed
- Basic knowledge of Linux commands and SSH access to your server.
Step 1: DNS Record Setup
Before installing Pangolin, you need to configure your DNS settings. In your DNS service, create A (or AAAA for IPv6) records pointing at your VPS hosting Pangolin.
Wildcards
You will need a wildcard subdomain for each level you want to create, and many providers do not support multiple consecutive wildcards. For example, if you want your resource’s domain to be app.example.com, then you should create *.example.com.
If you plan to use a base domain for a resource, you will need to create a separate A record for that domain.
The Root
If you intend to use the root of your domain, then you need an additional A record pointing at the IP of your VPS. For example, if you want to use example.com as a resource, you must create an A record for example.com pointing at your VPS.
Step 2: Install Docker
wget gist.githubusercontent.com/maheshpalamuttath/f454a85ca8704d75de5c7fb2eb803f61/raw/fd8e600eaee2845b716c28f6e15e12227eae21a6/install_docker.sh
sudo chmod +x install_docker.sh
sudo ./install_docker.sh
Step 2: Download and Install Pangolin
To install Pangolin, execute the following command in your terminal:
mkdir -p docker/pangolin
cd docker/pangolin
wget -O installer "https://github.com/fosrl/pangolin/releases/download/1.1.0/installer_linux_$(uname -m | sed 's/x86_64/amd64/;s/aarch64/arm64/')" && sudo chmod +x ./installer
sudo ./installer
The above command downloads the appropriate installer for your system architecture, grants execution permissions, and runs the installer.
Step 3: Basic Configuration
During installation, the setup wizard will prompt you for basic configuration details:
1. Define Base and Dashboard Domain Names
- Base Domain Name: Enter your root domain (e.g., example.com).
- Dashboard Domain Name: Specify the subdomain where Pangolin will be hosted (e.g., pangolin.example.com).
2. SSL Certificate Setup
Provide an email address for Let’s Encrypt SSL registration. Ensure you have access to this email.
3. Admin User Setup
You’ll be asked to create an admin user. Provide:
- Admin Email: (e.g., admin@example.com)
- Admin Password: Ensure it meets security requirements (at least 8 characters, including uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and special characters).
4. Security Settings
Signup Without Invite: Choose whether users can sign up without an invite (recommended to keep disabled for private deployments).
Organization Creation: Allow or restrict users from creating their own organizations.
Step 4: Email Configuration (Optional)
To enable email notifications and verification requests, configure SMTP settings:
- SMTP Host: Your mail server hostname
- SMTP Port: Default is 587
- SMTP Username: Your email username
- SMTP Password: Your email password
- No-reply Email: The email address used for outgoing messages
Step 5: Finalizing Setup
Once the installation is complete, restart the Pangolin service:
sudo systemctl restart pangolin
Then, open your browser and visit https://pangolin.example.com to log in with your admin credentials.
Reference: https://docs.fossorial.io/Getting%20Started/quick-install