# Start here > Source: https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/start-here > Markdown for agents: https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/start-here.md > Publisher: AllsWeb (www.allsweb.com) Part of: SixPanel documentation **What this page is for.** It explains what SixPanel does, what you need before you begin, and the order to read the other pages in. **You need** - A server you rent (a VPS — a computer in a data centre that only you use), running **Ubuntu 26.04 LTS**, **Ubuntu 24.04 LTS** or **Debian 13 (trixie)**. Nothing else is supported; Ubuntu 26.04 LTS is the one to pick for a new server. - The login details for that server, as the `root` user. - A domain name, and the ability to edit its DNS records (the settings that say which server a name points to). - A phone with a free authenticator app on it. The panel asks for a 6-digit code every time you log in. You can skip that at your first login if you have no phone to hand, but then your password is the only lock on the server. - Your 6ammart code — either the zip you downloaded from CodeCanyon, or that code in a **private** git repository. Both work. Git gives you one-button updates and rollback, so it is worth the twenty minutes: **[Put your code in a git repository](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/put-your-code-in-git)**. --- ## What SixPanel is You bought the 6ammart script. It is a set of files. Before it can serve customers, someone has to install a web server, a database, PHP, a cache, a background worker, and an HTTPS certificate — and then keep all of that alive. SixPanel does that part. You run one command on a fresh server. It installs everything the script needs **directly on the machine**, then gives you a web control panel to run it from. From that panel you connect your domain, get free HTTPS, install your 6ammart code, update it, back it up, and see what is broken when something breaks. Everything runs on **your** server. Your database, your images, your customers' data. Nobody else holds a copy. **There are no containers here.** nginx, PHP-FPM, MariaDB and Redis are ordinary system services, started and stopped by systemd. Your project's PHP runs under its own Linux user in its own PHP-FPM pool, and the database is reached over a local socket on the machine. If you have ever administered a Linux web server, everything is exactly where you expect it. ## What SixPanel is not - **It does not sell you the 6ammart script.** You buy that separately from CodeCanyon. SixPanel installs the code you already own. - **It is not shared hosting.** There is no cPanel account, no other websites on the machine. SixPanel expects the whole server. - **It does not run your shop for you.** Prices, products, drivers and orders are managed inside 6ammart's own admin panel, not here. ## What your server must be The installer checks all of this and stops if something is wrong. | Item | What is allowed | |---|---| | Operating system | **Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, or Debian 13 (trixie)** — and only those. Not 22.04, not Debian 12, not anything else. | | Processor type | x86_64, or arm64 (also called aarch64) | | Memory (RAM) | 2 GB is the practical minimum. Below about 1.2 GB the installer refuses. | | Comfortable size | 2 processor cores and 4 GB RAM for one project | | State of the server | **Fresh.** No aaPanel, CloudPanel, cPanel or Plesk, and nothing already using port 80 or 443. | **Why only those three.** The whole serving stack — nginx, MariaDB, PHP, Redis, certbot — is installed from your release's own package archive, at the versions it ships and supports. No extra software sources are added for it. That is what makes the machine boring to run: security fixes arrive from the distribution on the distribution's schedule, and nothing on this server depends on a third party keeping a repository alive. The price of that is a hard rule, and the installer enforces it before it downloads anything. A release only joins that list once its archive carries a PHP this app can run, with security support behind it. Security updates run until **April 2031** for Ubuntu 26.04, **May 2029** for Ubuntu 24.04, and **August 2028** for Debian 13. **Debian 12 is not on the list, and the installer refuses it by name.** Its own security support ended in July 2026, and the only PHP its archive carries is 8.2, whose upstream security support ends in December 2026 — so a server built on it today would be running an unsupported PHP within months. Debian 13 is the replacement: same family, and its archive serves PHP 8.4. A "fresh" server matters too. SixPanel takes over ports 80 and 443 and manages the machine's nginx, PHP and database configuration. A server that already runs another control panel will fight with it. --- ## The path from nothing to a live project Do these in order. Each page tells you when it is finished. **Step 2 must come before step 3.** The panel listens on a random high port. Until that port is allowed at your hosting provider, the panel address does not open in a browser, however well the install went. That is the number one cause of "the panel will not open", and it is the one thing the server cannot detect for you. 1. **[Install SixPanel](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/install)** — run one command on the fresh server, and save the panel link, the username and the password it prints. 2. **[The three ports](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/firewall)** — open them at your hosting provider, not on the server itself. 3. **[First login](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/first-login)** — open the secret panel address, set up two-factor login on your phone, and walk through the setup steps. 4. **[Domains and HTTPS](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/domain-ssl)** — point your domain at the server and get a free certificate, so visitors see the padlock. 5. **[Install your 6ammart code](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/install-app)** — upload your CodeCanyon zip, or let the panel download the code from git. Your project is live at the end of this step. 6. **[Backups](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/backups)** — send a copy of your data somewhere that is not this server, save the backup password, and let the panel prove the backup can actually be restored. 7. **[Security](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/security)** — give the panel its own domain, check who is signed in, and read the activity log. Then read **[The panel, page by page](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/panel-tour)** once. It is short, and it saves you hunting for buttons later. Planning to install from git rather than a zip? Do **[Put your code in a git repository](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/put-your-code-in-git)** on your own computer before step 5. Once your project is live, put it behind **[Cloudflare](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/cloudflare)**. It hides your server's address from the internet, absorbs attacks before they reach you, and serves your product photos from a machine near each customer. The panel does the whole setup from one page — and if you connect Cloudflare during the first-run wizard, it also creates your DNS records and gets your certificates without you touching a DNS dashboard at all. Already running 6ammart on another server? Read **[Move an existing site here](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/move-existing-site)** instead of step 5. > **Do this first** — if you are not going to connect Cloudflare, create your > domain's DNS **A record** now, pointing at your server's IP address. DNS > changes can take a few minutes to a few hours to spread across the internet. > Doing it first means the certificate step later works on the first try. ## The rest, for when you need it Everything below is reference. Read a page on the day you need it. **Running the project** - **[Deploy and update your code](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/deploy-update)** — the Update button, a new zip, deploys on every `git push`, rollback. - **[Rename a project](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/project-name)** — change the label this panel shows for a project, and where the name your customers see really lives. - **[The customer website](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/customer-website)** — the storefront your customers browse. - **[Live order updates](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/live-updates)** — real-time order pings. - **[More than one project](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/multiple-projects)** — a second or third 6ammart install on the same server. **Keeping it safe and current** - **[Let someone else in](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/share-access)** — a temporary login for a developer, and the read-only demo login. - **[Update SixPanel itself](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/update-sixpanel)** — the panel and the serving stack. - **[Server updates and restarts](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/server-updates)** — Linux security fixes, and restarting the machine. - **[Cloudflare](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/cloudflare)** — one token, and the panel sets about twenty Cloudflare options for you. **When you are stuck** - **[SixPreflight](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/preflight)** — what the settings inside your project look like, as opposed to the server SixPanel looks after. - **[When something is broken](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/troubleshooting)** — symptoms, in the order they actually happen. - **[The `sixpanel` command line](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/cli)** — running the server from SSH, especially when the panel will not open. - **[Questions people ask](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/faq)**. ## How long it takes Most of the work is waiting. The install command runs for a few minutes while it fetches and configures packages — there is nothing to build, so it is quicker than you may expect. Getting a certificate takes under a minute once DNS is correct. Installing your 6ammart code takes a few minutes more. Set aside an hour for a first server, and you will probably finish sooner. ## Where to get help 1. Open the **Server** page in the panel and its **Health** tab. It runs more than thirty checks and prints the fix under each failure. 2. Read **[When something is broken](https://www.allsweb.com/sixpanel/docs/troubleshooting)**. 3. If you are still stuck, log in to the server over SSH and run: ```bash sudo sixpanel support-bundle ``` It writes one file with versions, health results, service states and recent logs. Before it writes that file: your settings file is reduced to key names only, the panel's own state file is not included at all, and the secret code in your panel link plus common password-looking values are masked in the collected logs. Send that one file with your support request. It usually saves a whole day of questions and answers.