Three ways to install

Way	Best for	Time	Guide
Docker	Trying PNLCS, or running it as one container	About 5 minutes	Commands
Your own server	A VPS or dedicated server without Docker: Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux or Rocky Linux	About 30 minutes	Commands
Inside a hosting panel	A server that already runs Panelica, cPanel or similar	About 20 minutes	Guide

Quick start with Docker

The official image bundles PHP-FPM 8.4, nginx, Node.js 20 and supervisor, and fetches the latest code on first start.

Start the containersReplace changeme with your own passwords first.
Wait 3 to 5 minutesThe first start installs dependencies and builds the frontend.
Open /installThe wizard checks requirements, creates your admin account, then locks itself.

Docker guide Image on Docker Hub

Terminal

$ docker network create pnlcs-net

$ docker run -d --name pnlcs-db --network pnlcs-net \
  -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=changeme \
  -e MYSQL_DATABASE=pnlcs -e MYSQL_USER=pnlcs \
  -e MYSQL_PASSWORD=changeme \
  mariadb:11

$ docker run -d --name pnlcs --network pnlcs-net \
  -p 8090:80 \
  -e DB_HOST=pnlcs-db -e DB_DATABASE=pnlcs \
  -e DB_USERNAME=pnlcs -e DB_PASSWORD=changeme \
  -e APP_URL=http://localhost:8090 \
  panelica/pnlcs-runtime:1.4

Install on your own server, without Docker

PNLCS runs as a normal Laravel application on PHP-FPM 8.4, MySQL or MariaDB and Nginx. The commands below cover Ubuntu 24.04, Debian 13 and AlmaLinux 9; Rocky Linux 9 uses the AlmaLinux commands. Replace example.com with your own address.

Full guide

Prepare the server

PHP 8.4 with its extensions, a database, Nginx, Node.js 20 to build the frontend, and Composer. Skip this if they are already installed.

Ubuntu 24.04 ships PHP 8.3, so PHP 8.4 comes from the ondrej PPA. Debian 13 has PHP 8.4 itself, ships MariaDB instead of MySQL and has no php8.4-imap package. On AlmaLinux and Rocky, PHP 8.4 comes from the Remi repository.

Terminal

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install -y software-properties-common git unzip curl cron
$ sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ondrej/php
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install -y php8.4-fpm php8.4-cli php8.4-mysql php8.4-mbstring \
  php8.4-xml php8.4-curl php8.4-zip php8.4-gd php8.4-bcmath php8.4-intl php8.4-imap
$ sudo apt install -y mysql-server nginx

$ curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash -
$ sudo apt install -y nodejs

$ curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
$ sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

Terminal

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install -y git unzip curl cron
$ sudo apt install -y php8.4-fpm php8.4-cli php8.4-mysql php8.4-mbstring \
  php8.4-xml php8.4-curl php8.4-zip php8.4-gd php8.4-bcmath php8.4-intl
$ sudo apt install -y mariadb-server nginx

$ curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash -
$ sudo apt install -y nodejs

$ curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
$ sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

Terminal

$ sudo dnf install -y epel-release https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-9.rpm
$ sudo dnf module reset php -y
$ sudo dnf module enable php:remi-8.4 -y
$ sudo dnf install -y php php-fpm php-mysqlnd php-mbstring php-xml php-gd \
  php-bcmath php-intl php-imap php-pecl-zip \
  mysql-server nginx git unzip cronie policycoreutils-python-utils

$ curl -fsSL https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo bash -
$ sudo dnf install -y nodejs

$ curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
$ sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer
$ sudo systemctl enable --now php-fpm mysqld nginx

Install the application

The PNLCS directory belongs to the web server user, and every composer, artisan and npm command runs as that user. The pn helper does this for you. If root owns the directory, the install wizard and later updates fail.

Choose one database password and use it in both the CREATE USER and the .env line. The pn helper lasts only for the current shell session; define it again after you log back in.

Do not run db:seed. The install wizard seeds the database and creates the administrator you choose.

Terminal

$ sudo git clone https://github.com/Panelica/pnlcs.git /var/www/pnlcs
$ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/pnlcs
$ cd /var/www/pnlcs
$ pn() { sudo -u www-data HOME=/tmp/pnlcs-home COMPOSER_HOME=/tmp/pnlcs-home/composer "$@"; }

$ pn composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader --no-interaction

$ sudo mysql -e "CREATE DATABASE pnlcs CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
  CREATE USER 'pnlcs'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'choose-a-strong-password';
  GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON pnlcs.* TO 'pnlcs'@'localhost'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES;"

$ pn cp .env.example .env
$ pn sed -i 's|^APP_URL=.*|APP_URL=http://example.com|; s|^DB_PASSWORD=.*|DB_PASSWORD=choose-a-strong-password|' .env
$ sudo chmod 640 .env

$ pn php artisan key:generate
$ pn php artisan migrate --force
$ pn npm ci
$ pn npm run build
$ pn php artisan storage:link
$ pn php artisan optimize

Terminal

$ sudo git clone https://github.com/Panelica/pnlcs.git /var/www/pnlcs
$ sudo chown -R apache:apache /var/www/pnlcs
$ cd /var/www/pnlcs
$ pn() { sudo -u apache HOME=/tmp/pnlcs-home COMPOSER_HOME=/tmp/pnlcs-home/composer "$@"; }

$ pn /usr/local/bin/composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader --no-interaction

$ sudo mysql -e "CREATE DATABASE pnlcs CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
  CREATE USER 'pnlcs'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'choose-a-strong-password';
  GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON pnlcs.* TO 'pnlcs'@'localhost'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES;"

$ pn cp .env.example .env
$ pn sed -i 's|^APP_URL=.*|APP_URL=http://example.com|; s|^DB_PASSWORD=.*|DB_PASSWORD=choose-a-strong-password|' .env
$ sudo chmod 640 .env

$ pn php artisan key:generate
$ pn php artisan migrate --force
$ pn npm ci
$ pn npm run build
$ pn php artisan storage:link
$ pn php artisan optimize

$ sudo semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t "/var/www/pnlcs/storage(/.*)?"
$ sudo semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t "/var/www/pnlcs/bootstrap/cache(/.*)?"
$ sudo semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t "/var/www/pnlcs/\.env"
$ sudo restorecon -R /var/www/pnlcs
$ sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect_db 1
$ sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1

Point Nginx at public/

The document root is the public/ directory, never the project root: the project root holds .env. Remove the default site so the server’s address does not keep showing the Nginx welcome page.

Apache and Caddy work too, with the same rules: document root public/, PHP through PHP-FPM 8.4, and every request that is not a file rewritten to index.php.

Terminal

$ sudo tee /etc/nginx/sites-available/pnlcs > /dev/null <<'EOF'
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;
    root /var/www/pnlcs/public;
    index index.php;
    charset utf-8;
    client_max_body_size 64M;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }
    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.4-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
    location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* { deny all; }
}
EOF
$ sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/pnlcs /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
$ sudo rm -f /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
$ sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

Terminal

$ sudo tee /etc/nginx/conf.d/pnlcs.conf > /dev/null <<'EOF'
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;
    root /var/www/pnlcs/public;
    index index.php;
    charset utf-8;
    client_max_body_size 64M;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }
    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm/www.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
    location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* { deny all; }
}
EOF
$ sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

Finish in the browser, then schedule and secure

Open http://example.com/install. The wizard checks the requirements, creates your administrator and then closes itself.

One cron line for the web server user drives invoices, reminders, suspensions, SSL checks and backups. Queued jobs need no separate worker; the same cron line processes them.

Terminal

$ cd /var/www/pnlcs
$ WEB_USER=www-data   # AlmaLinux, Rocky: apache
$ (sudo crontab -u $WEB_USER -l 2>/dev/null; echo '* * * * * cd /var/www/pnlcs && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1') | sudo crontab -u $WEB_USER -

$ sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx   # Ubuntu, Debian
$ sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com
$ pn sed -i 's|^APP_URL=http://|APP_URL=https://|' .env
$ pn php artisan optimize

Requirements

A small installation is comfortable on 2 GB of memory with the database on the same machine.

Full requirements

PHP	8.4 or newer
Database	MySQL 8.0 or MariaDB 10.6+
Web server	Nginx or Apache with PHP-FPM
Node.js	18+ (20 LTS recommended), only to build the frontend
Composer	2.x
Memory	1 GB works for a small install; 2 GB is comfortable
Disk	About 130 MB for the app; allow at least 2 GB free as data grows

After installing

Setup checklistCompany details, email, a gateway, a server and your first product.
Your first saleFrom an empty catalog to a paid, provisioned order.
Security checklistHTTPS, debug off, two-factor for staff, backups that leave the server.
UpdatingPull the latest release without losing data.
BackupsWhat to back up, including the application key.
FAQCommon questions.

Get PNLCS running

Three ways to install

Quick start with Docker

Install on your own server, without Docker

Prepare the server

Install the application

Point Nginx at public/

Finish in the browser, then schedule and secure

Requirements

After installing