Panelica hosting accounts¶

Updated 22 October 2026

The panelica server module creates customer accounts on a Panelica server: one panel user per service, with the service's domain added as its first website and, if the product sells one, an app installed on it. Customers then manage their mailboxes, files, databases, FTP accounts, subdomains, cron jobs, DNS, backups and apps from their PNLCS service page, or sign in to the panel with one click.

Requirements¶

• A Panelica server PNLCS can reach on the panel's HTTPS port (8443 unless you changed it). All calls go to https://<server>:<port>/api/external.
• An API key and its secret, created in the panel under Settings → API Keys. The secret (sk_live_...) is shown only once there.
• Create the key on a root or admin account, with full access (*:*). The module works on every customer account on the server, and the Live Servers sign-in fails with "The API key needs full access (*:*) and must belong to a root or admin account" otherwise. A key with fewer scopes works only for what its scopes cover: apps need the docker:* scopes, and the mail certificate request needs the SSL scope.
• At least one plan on the panel, unless every product uses managed mode.

The panel's certificate is not verified, so a self-signed certificate works. Requests are signed with HMAC-SHA256 over the method, path, a timestamp and the body, using the secret, and carry the key in X-API-Key.

The module never installs Panelica, opens firewall ports or creates API keys.

Configure PNLCS¶

1. In Setup → Servers, add a server of type Panelica (see Connect a Server):
   • Hostname: the panel's host name, the name its certificate is for. The customer's webmail, phpMyAdmin and sign-in links are built from it.
   • IP Address (optional): when the host name does not resolve, or resolves to a different address, API calls go to this address instead.
   • Port: the panel port, 8443 by default.
   • API Key: the pk_live_... key. API Secret: the sk_live_... secret. Both are stored encrypted. Username is not used.
   • Nameservers: the servers customers' domains should use. Set up on my hosting points domains at them.
2. Press Test. It passes when the port answers within five seconds and the panel's server status (/v1/server/status) answers online to a signed request.
3. Create the product, below.

An active server cannot be saved without the API Secret. The message says "A PANELICA server signs in with an API key. Fill in the API key field": it is the API Secret box that is checked.

What Test reports¶

The product¶

On Setup → Products/Services, set Server Module to Panelica. Two parts of the form matter.

Plan on the server lists the panel's plans (read live from the first active Panelica server). This is the plan a new account is created on. Left on Use the server default, no plan is sent and the panel applies its own default, unless managed mode is on.

The Panelica Resources card holds the rest:

The apps options are described in Sell Docker Apps. A product that sells apps cannot be saved with Max Containers at 0.

Managed mode¶

With Managed mode ticked, each account creation first prepares a panel plan named pnlcs-p<product id>:

• If no plan of that name exists, it is created with the card's limits.
• If it exists, it is updated to the card's current limits.

The basic limits (disk, bandwidth, counts, SSH, backups) and the advanced ones (CPU, memory, processes, I/O, network, containers, inodes, IOPS, quota mode, SSH level, ModSecurity, PHP limits) are both sent. Disk I/O in MB/s is sent as bytes per second for reads and for writes; network in Mbit/s is sent as bytes per second. PHP's post size follows the upload size. Cron jobs are switched off on the plan when Max Cron is 0.

If any of these calls is refused, the account is not created: "Managed plan could not be prepared on the panel; the account was not created." The panel's answer is written to the log.

Package changes¶

A package change (an upgrade, a downgrade, or staff choosing another product) moves the account to the plan in the new product's Or use an existing panel plan ID field. It does not read Plan on the server and does not build a managed plan. A product without that field set refuses package changes with "New product does not have a panelica_plan_id configured." On products you upgrade between, set that field to the same plan as Plan on the server.

Creating an account¶

1. Checks before anything is created. The service needs a client and a domain (a container plan needs no domain). The domain must look like name.extension, and must not already exist on the server. A product that installs an app in managed mode with Max Containers at 0 is refused.
2. Username. The first label of the domain (for a container plan, the client's first and last name, or their email), lowercased, with everything but letters and digits removed, cut to 16 characters, followed by three random digits: example.com becomes for example example482.
3. Password. The service's password if it has one, otherwise 16 random hexadecimal characters. It is saved on the service, so it reaches the welcome email.
4. The account is created with the client's email and full name, on the product's Plan on the server, or on the managed plan in managed mode. The panel allows one account per email address: when it answers emailAlreadyExists, PNLCS tries once more with a tagged address, name+pnlcs<service id>@domain, which reaches the same inbox.
5. The domain is added to the account with PHP 8.3 and the nginx_only web server. If the panel refuses it, the account is deleted again.
6. The app, if the product installs one or the customer chose one. If it cannot be installed, the account is deleted again.

The service stores the panel user id, the domain id and, for an app, its container id. Every later action on the service uses the stored user id.

There is no recovery for a create whose answer was lost. If the account was made but PNLCS did not hear back, the next attempt stops at the domain check ("already exists on this server"); remove the account in the panel, or link the service to it (below).

Supported operations¶

• Create, as above.
• Suspend and unsuspend the panel account. The suspension reason is passed to the panel.
• Terminate: deletes the panel account. This removes the customer's account from the server. Take a backup first if you may need the data.
• Change password of the panel account. The new password is saved on the service.
• Change package: see Package changes.
• Usage, every hour: disk used and disk quota in MB, and this month's bandwidth in MB, for each active service. A service without a stored panel user id, or one the panel gives no figures for, is counted as an error. The customer's service page also reads disk, bandwidth, counts of domains, mailboxes, FTP accounts and databases, and, on panels that report it, the account's own CPU and memory use, live.
• Login to Control Panel: the customer's button asks the panel for a single-use sign-in link for their account. It is refused for a cancelled, terminated or fraud service and for a service with no server.
• Live Servers: staff sign in to the panel as the owner of the API key. See Live Servers.
• Link to an existing account: see Migrating existing accounts.
• Set up on my hosting: see below.

Sign-in links¶

The panel is asked for a link to its host-name address. A panel that lists several addresses has the one whose host is the server's Hostname chosen, then any host-name address. An older panel that returns a single link built on an IP address has that address replaced with the server's hostname and port when the IP is private, or when it is public and the hostname resolves to it, so the browser reaches a name the certificate covers.

Set up on my hosting¶

A customer with an active Panelica service can put a domain they hold in PNLCS on that account, from the domain's page (see Sell Domains). The domain is added to the account with the PHP version and web server of the account's first domain; a domain already on the account counts as done. The domain's nameservers are then set to the server's Nameservers.

The customer's tools¶

A service linked to a panel account shows these on its page: mailboxes, files, databases (with a phpMyAdmin link), FTP accounts, subdomains, cron jobs, DNS, backups, apps, and lists of the account's Laravel, Node.js and Python apps. A container plan shows apps only.

Every one of them is limited to the account's own resources. The API key can see every account on the server, so PNLCS checks each mailbox, database, record, file path, backup and container against the account's own domains or user id before acting, and refuses with "That … does not belong to this service".

What they cannot do from PNLCS:

• Restore a backup. Customers can list, take and delete backups; restoring stays in the panel.
• Create or deploy Laravel, Node.js or Python apps. These are listed only; the panel does the rest.
• Change the zone's own records. SOA and NS records, and A records for @ and www, are shown read-only. New records can be A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, SRV or CAA.

Limits are taken from the account's panel plan when PNLCS can read it, and left to the panel when it cannot.

When a domain gets its first mailbox, PNLCS asks the panel for the domain's mail certificate if it has none or the last attempt failed. Mail settings and the DNS records a customer may need are described under the Panelica tab of Connect a Server.

Migrating existing accounts¶

To bill an account that already exists on the panel, open the client, use Add Service, choose the Panelica server, leave Create the account on the server now unticked, and pick the account under Link to an existing account. The list shows the panel's customer accounts (role USER), sorted by username. PNLCS stores the panel user id and copies the username; from then on suspend, unsuspend, terminate, password and package changes and the customer's tools act on that account.

A linked service has no stored domain id, so the mail certificate status and the mail DNS help are not shown for it.

Error messages¶

Failed creates, suspends, unsuspends and terminates go to the module queue and are retried; see Scheduled Commands.

The module waits 10 seconds for the panel to accept a connection (5 seconds on a customer's own page) and 30 seconds for most answers. Installing an app waits up to five minutes.