Installing ISPmanager 6 takes 10–15 minutes. The installer automatically sets up Nginx, Apache, PHP, MySQL/MariaDB, a mail server, and all necessary software.

Preparing the Server

# Update the system
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

# Make sure ports 25, 80, 443 are not in use
sudo ss -tlpn | grep -E ':25|:80|:443'

⚠️ Install ISPmanager only on a clean server. If Apache/Nginx are already installed — remove them before installing.

Installing ISPmanager 6

# Download and run the installer
curl -s https://download.ispmanager.com/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- --release 6

# Wait for it to finish (~10–15 minutes)
# At the end the installer will show the login URL

Choosing an Edition During Installation

The installer will ask which edition to install:

Edition	Command
Lite (no license, for testing)	No key — free 14-day trial
Business	Enter a license key

After installation, open in your browser:

https://YOUR-SERVER-IP:1500/

# Login: root
# Password: the server's root password

✅ Port 1500 must be open in the firewall. If you use UFW: sudo ufw allow 1500/tcp

Initial Configuration

Change the root password: Settings → Users → root → Change Password
Activate the license: Settings → License → Activate
Configure the hostname: Settings → General Settings → Hostname
Add IP addresses: Settings → IP Addresses

File System Structure After Installation

/usr/local/mgr5/        — ISPmanager files
/etc/ispmgr/           — configuration
/var/www/              — user websites
/var/log/ispmgr.log    — panel log

Common Installation Errors

Please remove your web-server before installation

curl: (35) OpenSSL SSL_connect: SSL_ERROR_SYSCALL

License check failed: no internet connection

Error: this port is already in use: 1500

Message	Cause	Fix
Please remove your web-server before installation	Apache or Nginx is already installed on the server, and the installer can't take over their configuration	Remove the web server before installing: `sudo apt remove --purge apache2 nginx`
curl: (35) OpenSSL SSL_connect: SSL_ERROR_SYSCALL	Outbound traffic on port 443 to the download servers is blocked by a firewall or corporate proxy	Check outbound rules: `sudo ufw status`, temporarily unset the `http_proxy/https_proxy` variables
License check failed: no internet connection	The panel can't reach the ISPsystem license check server after installation	Open outbound port 443 for the licensing domain, check DNS resolution on the server
Error: this port is already in use: 1500	The control panel port is already taken by another process (rare, on a reused server)	Find the process: `sudo ss -tlpn \| grep :1500`, stop it or specify a different port via an installer flag

ISPmanager, cPanel, and a Manual Setup: Comparing Installation

Criterion	ISPmanager 6	cPanel/WHM	Manual LEMP/LAMP setup
Ubuntu support	Official, installed with the same install.sh	Not officially supported — only RHEL-family distributions and CloudLinux	Any distribution, Ubuntu included
Time to first login	10–15 minutes with one command	Comparable time, also a single script	An hour or more — each component is set up separately
Ready defaults (web server, PHP, DB, mail)	Installed automatically by the installer	Installed automatically by the installer	Assembled by the administrator by hand for the specific task

A full comparison of panel features, not just installation, is in the article ISPmanager 6 vs cPanel.

When the ISPmanager Auto-Installer Doesn't Fit

The server already has sites running on plain Nginx or Apache without a panel — the installer will require removing them, and migrating the configuration must be done by hand
You need an uncommon software combination the panel doesn't support out of the box (a non-standard PHP version, an exotic database) — a manual LEMP/LAMP setup is simpler then
The server runs under a containerization system (for example, only Docker with no direct access to the host's systemd) — the ISPmanager installer expects a full OS, not a container
The server has less than 1 GB of RAM — the panel together with the web server, PHP-FPM, and mail server won't fit into that limit without constant swapping

Verifying the Installation

# The panel responds and the version matches expectations
curl -sk https://localhost:1500/ -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n'

# All key services are up
systemctl status ispmgr nginx mysql | grep -E 'Active|Loaded'

# Port 1500 is being listened to by ISPmanager itself
sudo ss -tlpn | grep :1500

Check that https://YOUR-SERVER-IP:1500/ returns code 200, not a timeout or a connection refused
Make sure systemctl status ispmgr shows active (running), not failed
Check that port 1500 in the ss -tlpn output belongs to the panel's own process, not to some other service that happened to grab it
Log in as root and confirm the interface shows the correct server hostname — if it doesn't match, fix it under Settings → General Settings

After the first login, it's worth setting up a free SSL certificate for the panel itself and creating your first site right away — covered in the articles Let's Encrypt in ISPmanager 6 and creating a site in ISPmanager 6. Two-factor protection for the root login is covered in the article ISPmanager two-factor authentication.