Installation

Installation #

Preparing for the installation #

Our software is only as reliable as your infrastructure. Please make sure that your servers, switches, and other infrastructure are reliably reachable from the SynergyCP master installation.

Confirm your deployment is supported #

We have a list of supported servers and switches here. Other switches and servers may be functional at a less-than-expected feature level.

Server Requirements #

SynergyCP must be installed on a 64-bit Debian 11 server with no other software installed.

If you wish to install a developer version of SynergyCP (do not do this in production environments as it exposes utilities such as a database management UI) so that you can work on a SynergyCP package, please follow the instructions in our [Developer Wiki}(https://github.com/synergycp/scp-package-seed/wiki).

A virtual machine is OK, keeping in mind the statements below about fast storage. 

Minimum Hardware Specifications:

  • 8GB RAM
  • 50GB free SSD space
    • An 8GB Swap Partition is required on servers that have less than 8GB of RAM, but recommended for all servers.
    • We strongly recommend using the fastest NVME or SSD possible for storage as the database is stored on disk.
    • When installing, make sure at least 50GB is allocated to /var/ folder. The easiest way to do this is to just use a single root partition instead of separate ones for /, /var, and /home. Some automated installers will setup custom partition sizes, in which case these will need to be overridden if possible or resized after the initial boot of the server.
  • Dual-core CPU

Recommended Hardware Specifications:

  • 16GB RAM
  • 100GB free SSD space (more for 250+ servers)
    • 8GB Swap Partition
  • Quad-core CPU
  • Gigabit port speed

Setup DNS #

Pick a domain at which your clients will access SynergyCP, for example, dedicated.example.org.

.dev and other domains forced to HTTPS cannot be used as the app needs to be accessible to set up HTTPS, and the forced redirect to HTTPS on these domains cannot be turned off. Please use a regular TLD for SynergyCP.

Register the following DNS entries to point to your SynergyCP server’s public IP:

    api.{domain}
    admin.{domain}
    {domain}

Example using dedicated.example.org above:

    api.dedicated.example.org
    admin.dedicated.example.org
    dedicated.example.org

Please note that these settings are mandatory. admin.{domain} will be used to access the admin interface, and the application communicates with itself on api.{domain}. Your customers will use {domain}.

CNAMEs are OK.

Setup DHCP #

You will need to configure your network to use the IP of the SynergyCP server for DHCP network boot requests. In most setups, this is done using DHCP relay on your core router. Your network administrator should know how to set this up.

Installing the Application #

Please ensure you’ve set up DNS as noted above. Failure to do so will result in a non-functional installation. The application cannot be installed or accessed via IP address.
The SynergyCP application is secure on its own, but it makes no attempt to secure the host machine that it is running on! We recommend locking down SSH on the host machine to only accept private keys - otherwise, you will be vulnerable to brute-force attack.

Run this shell script as the root user on the machine that will run SynergyCP:

    cd /tmp && wget https://install.synergycp.com/bm/app.sh && bash app.sh

If the installation has errors or does not finish, please try the troubleshooting documentation. When the installation finishes, it will tell you the URL to visit to finish configuring SynergyCP. Once finished, follow the checklist at the bottom left side of the screen to get your first operating system reload running.

  • We recommend configuring SSL from the System > Settings > HTTP page. This will install a Let’s Encrypt certificate on your installation. It’s free and installation and renewal is fully automated!
  • Follow the checklist on the bottom left corner of the SynergyCP Application to get your hardware added and your first OS install running.
  • Check out the Theme Settings available from the user drop-down at the top right of the SynergyCP application. Most power users prefer to have the Navigation on Top.
  • Enable Two Factor Authentication on your account via the Account Settings available from the user drop-down. 
  • Set up the automated DB backups add-on package and look at the other packages we have available.
  • If your servers are located in multiple data centers, you can add those locations.
  • Configure SMTP for improved email deliverability from the System > Settings > Email page. If you don’t have an SMTP server, SendGrid is recommended.
  • If you wish to offer Windows Server OS reloads or another OS that does not come with the software, follow the instructions here.