ISPConfig Hosting Control Panel on Ubuntu 24.04 by cloudimg

ISPConfig is the open-source hosting control panel used to run a web hosting server from a browser. It manages Apache web sites and their PHP settings, MariaDB databases, FTP accounts, clients and resellers from one interface, so you can host many sites and hand each customer a self-service login without touching a config file by hand.

What this image gives you

This image installs ISPConfig on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with the web hosting stack already assembled and configured: Apache 2.4, PHP, MariaDB as the database and PureFTPd for file transfer, with the ISPConfig panel served over HTTPS on port 8080. The first page you reach is a working sign-in rather than an installer. The build is focused on web, database and panel management; the deployment guide shows how to enable the mail and DNS server modules if you want them.

Secure by default

No usable credential ships in the image. On first boot the VM generates a fresh MariaDB root password, a fresh panel database password, a fresh panel administrator password and a fresh remote API password, all unique to that machine, and writes them to a root-only file. A fresh self-signed TLS certificate for the panel is generated per VM as well. The panel is held offline until first boot has rotated the administrator password, so there is never a window in which a shipped default password could be used, and the upstream admin/admin default is rejected outright.

Manage your hosting from the browser

Create clients and resellers, add web sites and assign each its own PHP version and resource limits, provision MariaDB databases and FTP users, and drive the whole thing programmatically through ISPConfig's JSON-RPC remote API. MariaDB is bound to the loopback interface so the database is never exposed off the VM, and the image opens no firewall of its own, leaving network access under your control through the Azure network security group.

Support and licensing

ISPConfig is free and open source software published under the BSD 3-Clause license. There is no licence fee and no key to enter. The cloudimg charge covers packaging, security patching, image maintenance and 24/7 expert support.

A step-by-step deployment guide covering first boot, retrieving the generated administrator password, adding your first client and web site, using the remote API, putting a trusted certificate on the panel and enabling the mail and DNS modules is published at cloudimg.co.uk.