Hestia Control Panel (HestiaCP) - Web Hosting

This is a repackaged open source software product wherein additional charges apply for cloudimg support services.

## Overview

HestiaCP is a modern, open source web hosting control panel that lets you run a production web server entirely from the browser. From one clean dashboard it manages websites and their nginx + Apache + PHP-FPM stack, MariaDB databases, users, SSL certificates, cron jobs and the host firewall, and it exposes a REST API for automation. This image delivers HestiaCP fully installed and hardened, so a hosting server is online within minutes of launch.

## Why This Image Over Manual Installation

Installing HestiaCP by hand means provisioning an instance, setting a valid FQDN, running the installer non-interactively, choosing which services to enable, and securing the default administrator and database before the panel is exposed. This image closes that gap: a unique administrator password AND a unique MariaDB root password are generated on the first boot of every instance and written to a root-only file, so no default or shared credential ever ships in the image.

## Application Stack

The image ships a focused web hosting stack:

• nginx - panel front end and web proxy
• Apache 2.4 with PHP-FPM - web backend
• MariaDB - database engine on a dedicated data volume
• fail2ban + iptables - host firewall

The panel and its REST API run on port 8083 over TLS. Mail (Exim/Dovecot), DNS (BIND) and FTP (vsftpd/proftpd) are deliberately left off, removing an open SMTP relay and an open recursive resolver - the two worst network-exposure classes for a public cloud image.

## Manage Your Server From The Browser

• Create and host websites with the nginx + Apache + PHP-FPM stack and automatic Let's Encrypt SSL
• Create and manage MariaDB databases and their users
• Manage panel users, packages, cron jobs and backups
• Manage the host firewall and monitor system resources from one dashboard
• Automate everything through the built-in REST API

## Security and Hardening

On first boot a one-shot service derives a per-instance FQDN from the resolved public IP, regenerates the panel TLS certificate, rotates the MariaDB root password, mints a fresh administrator password unique to that instance, and records the credentials in a file only the root user can read. No default credential ships in the image. HestiaCP's own iptables firewall is default-deny and accepts only SSH, the web ports and the panel port. The base OS is fully patched with unattended security updates enabled, and the MariaDB databases live on a dedicated data volume.

## Concrete Use Cases

• Self-hosted web hosting: A freelancer hosts several client WordPress sites, each with its own database and Let's Encrypt certificate, managed from one dashboard.
• A cPanel alternative on your own instance: A small business runs its website and databases on a single EC2 instance it fully controls, without per-account hosting fees.
• Scriptable hosting via the API: A developer provisions web domains and databases programmatically through HestiaCP's REST API.

## AWS Integration

This image runs on standard EC2 instances. HestiaCP runs comfortably on an m5.large; size up if you host many sites or databases. Open port 8083 for the panel (and 80/443 for websites) in your security group. MariaDB data resides on a dedicated EBS volume for snapshot-based backups and easy resizing.

## Ready To Use

Retrieve the generated credentials from the instance, browse to https://:8083/, and sign in as admin - the panel, web stack and database are already running.

## About cloudimg

Hestia Control Panel is one of the most widely adopted open source web hosting panels, with a large global community. cloudimg provides 24/7 technical support including deployment assistance, performance tuning, and troubleshooting so you can focus on hosting rather than infrastructure management.