Host your first website on Dashmox
Your first website takes a few minutes: create it, choose how it runs, point a domain at it and let Dashmox issue the certificate. This page goes through those steps in the order the panel asks for them, says what every field on the create form means, and ends with the two things worth doing on day one.
Step 1
Choose how it runs.
Dashmox asks what kind of site it is before anything else, because the answer decides what gets set up. Whichever you choose, the website gets its own Linux account and its own pool, and cannot read another website’s files.
| Runtime | What it is for | What it also needs |
|---|---|---|
| Static | Files served straight from disk. A built site from any generator, or plain HTML. | Nothing. This is the default. |
| PHP | WordPress, Laravel, anything PHP. The site gets its own PHP-FPM pool and its own PHP version, so one website’s settings never reach another’s. | A PHP version the server has installed. The form only offers those. |
| Node.js | An application Dashmox keeps alive and restarts, with WebSockets supported. | The path of the file to run, and an installed Node version. See the field table below. |
| Container | A Docker image, run with no privileges and a read-only root filesystem. | Containers enabled on the server, an approved image, and the port the application listens on. See container websites. |
| Reverse proxy | Putting Dashmox in front of something already running on the server or elsewhere. | The address to forward to. Resource limits must be cleared first, because they apply to a process this website does not own. |
The create form
What each field means, and what it refuses.
| Field | What it is for | Limits and refusals |
|---|---|---|
| Domain | The website’s primary name. It is the name the certificate is issued for and the one you type to confirm a deletion later. | A real domain name. It becomes the primary domain, whose folder cannot be moved afterwards, so pick the name the site is really for. |
| Name | A label for the website in the panel, for when a customer has several. Optional. | Free text. |
| Account | The Linux account the website runs as, and what it signs in to SFTP with. | Generated by default: ten characters of letters and digits, with the ones people misread left out. If you choose your own, it must start with a letter and be 3 to 16 characters of lowercase letters and digits. A name the system owns, or one this server already uses, is refused while you are still on the form rather than minutes later in a job. |
| PHP version | Which PHP this website runs. Each website has its own, so one can move forward without the others. | Only versions installed on this server. You can change it later. |
| Entrypoint (Node only) | The file Dashmox runs to start your application. | A relative, already-normalised path ending .js, .mjs or .cjs. It must live in the app or private directory and never in the public one: the file that runs your server is not a file the web server should hand out. Letters, digits, dot, dash and underscore only. |
| Port (container only) | The port your application listens on inside the container. | 1 to 65535. Required: nothing can be forwarded without it. |
The account name is deliberately not worked out from your domain. A name anybody can derive from a public address is half of a working credential on an account that accepts a password. If you would rather recognise it, choose Let me choose it.
Step 2
Point a domain at the server.
Until your DNS points here, Dashmox gives the website a temporary address so you can open it and check your work. To put the real name on it, add two records at your DNS provider:
example.com. A 203.0.113.10 www.example.com. A 203.0.113.10
Use your server’s own address, which the panel shows. Nothing else is needed yet: mail records come later, and only if the site sends mail.
If Dashmox is also your authoritative DNS, the zone is created for you and you edit the records in the panel instead of at a provider. See DNS and nameservers.
More names
Aliases and subdomains are the same form.
Under Domains, a website can take more names. What makes the difference is the folder:
| What you want | Name | Folder | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| An alias, serving the same site | example.net |
empty | Serves exactly what the website serves. |
| A subdomain with its own content | shop.example.com |
shop |
Served from public_html/shop, created for you if it is not there. |
You can change which folder a name is served from afterwards without removing it. The one exception is the primary domain, whose folder is the website itself and cannot be moved.
Step 3
Get the certificate.
Once the domain resolves to the server, Dashmox issues a free certificate and renews it before it runs out. A domain you add later joins the certificate within the hour, so you do not have to come back and reissue anything.
If you would rather install your own, including a wildcard or one from your own authority, it is checked before it goes on and the panel names any domain it does not cover. See certificates.
Step 4
Put your files on it.
The file manager is in the panel. For anything bigger, each website has its own SFTP login locked to its own directory. Your site goes in public_html; the directory you land in is deliberately not writable, which catches most people once. See SFTP access.
sftp websiteaccount@server.example.com cd public_html put -r ./build
A PHP site usually wants a database. Under Databases, the website gets its own database with its own account, on whichever of MySQL or MariaDB this server was built on, or on PostgreSQL. phpMyAdmin opens for the first two, and an SQL import of up to 64 MiB for bringing an existing site across. See databases.
Use Install an application. Eleven of them install into a website, or into a folder of one, each at the version its publisher has now and checked before anything is unpacked, with the administrator account created for you. See installing WordPress and the full list.
Then
Two things worth doing on day one.
Turn on backups
A schedule you set once is worth more than a backup you remember to take. See backups and recovery points.
Sort out mail records
If the domain sends email, it needs the right records or the mail lands in spam. See email DNS records.
Your first website is also the right one to practise restoring, while there is nothing on it you would miss.
Your servers, with nothing on them counted.
The whole panel is free on one server, with no limit on websites, mailboxes, DNS zones or customer accounts. Pro carries five servers and Business as many as you run.