AMP Panel Install & Setup — CubeCoders Application Management

AMP (Application Management Panel) is the commercial game server control panel from CubeCoders. It runs on Linux and Windows, supports 100+ games out of the box, and is the panel of choice for small-to-mid hosting companies and power users who want Pterodactyl-grade features without running Docker. This guide covers the one-line installer, license tier selection (with an interactive picker below), first-instance setup, hardening, and honest comparisons to Pterodactyl and LinuxGSM.

01 // What AMP is (and what it isn’t)

AMP is a two-tier system. The top tier, ADS (AMP Distributed Server), is the web control panel you log into. ADS then spawns instances — one per game server — each running in its own isolated environment under its own Linux user. Think of ADS as the dashboard and instances as the servers it manages.

• Made by: CubeCoders Limited (UK)
• License model: commercial, paid per instance (with a free trial mode)
• OS support: Windows 10/11/Server, Ubuntu 20.04+/22.04/24.04 LTS, Debian 11/12, Rocky/Alma 8/9, aarch64 supported
• Games supported: 100+ out of the box — Minecraft (Java/Bedrock/Forge/Fabric/Paper/Purpur), Rust, ARK SE + ASA, CS2, Valheim, 7 Days to Die, Factorio, Terraria, Palworld, Satisfactory, V Rising, Enshrouded, The Forest, Sons of the Forest, DayZ, Squad, Arma 3/Reforger, Project Zomboid, and many more. Full list at cubecoders.com/AMP.
• Key difference vs Pterodactyl: no Docker required. Instances run directly on the host OS. Simpler to install and troubleshoot, but less isolated than Pterodactyl containers.

02 // Pick the right license — interactive tool

AMP’s license tiers confuse almost everyone on their first install. Use this picker to see which tier fits your use case. All prices are CubeCoders list prices in USD; prices may vary by currency selector on their site.

03 // System requirements

AMP’s panel itself is lightweight — the CubeCoders docs list 256 MB RAM and 1 vCPU for ADS alone. What eats resources is the game servers AMP is managing. Size the host for your heaviest game.

Other hard requirements per CubeCoders install docs:

• GLIBC 2.18 or newer — check with ldd --version. Ubuntu 20.04+ and Debian 11+ are all fine.
• Root SSH access for the installer
• Systemd — AMP registers itself as a systemd service
• Port 8080/tcp open (default panel port, can be changed)
• Port 2223/tcp open (SFTP for in-panel file uploads, can be changed)
• Plus whatever ports your game servers need — see our port reference

04 // Install AMP on Ubuntu 22.04 / 24.04 LTS

This is the officially supported path — CubeCoders’ one-line installer handles dependencies, creates a system user, registers systemd, and drops you into the setup wizard. It takes about 5 minutes on a decent VPS.

Step 1 — Update the system and become root

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo su -

You must be the actual root user, not sudo-escalated. The installer will refuse if it detects sudo wrapping.

Step 2 — Run the one-line installer

bash <(curl -fsSL getamp.sh) launch

What this does, in order:

1. Detects your distro and installs required packages (tmux, git, socat, Mono runtime, SteamCMD dependencies)
2. Adds the CubeCoders APT repository and imports its signing key
3. Installs the ampinstmgr tool (the CLI you use to manage AMP itself)
4. Creates a system user — usually amp — that all instances run under
5. Prompts for your ADS admin username, password, and email
6. Launches ADS on port 8080 as a systemd service

Step 3 — Complete the setup wizard

The installer will interactively ask:

• Admin username — don’t use admin or root; pick something unguessable
• Admin password — minimum 8 chars, mix of cases + numbers + symbol
• Admin email — used for password resets; a real inbox you control
• License key — paste yours if you have one, or press Enter to run in trial mode

Step 4 — Open the panel in your browser

Once the wizard finishes:

http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:8080

Log in with the credentials you just set. You’ll land on the ADS dashboard. No instances exist yet — that’s the next step.

Step 5 — Open the firewall (UFW example)

ufw allow 8080/tcp   # AMP web panel
ufw allow 2223/tcp   # AMP SFTP (in-panel file uploads)
ufw reload

If your VPS provider has a separate cloud firewall (Hostinger, Hetzner, OVH panel firewalls), open those same ports there too — UFW alone isn’t enough.

Step 6 — Create your first game server instance

1. Click Instance Management in the top nav → Create Instance
2. Pick a Module — e.g. MinecraftJava, RustModule, ARKSurvivalEvolved
3. Give the instance a friendly name and optional description
4. Pick ports (AMP suggests defaults, only change if they clash)
5. Click Create Instance. AMP spins up a new system user, creates the data directory, and registers the instance
6. Once created, click Manage on the instance row to enter its control page
7. Click Update to download the game server files from SteamCMD (takes 5–30 min depending on game)
8. Click Start. You’re live.

05 // Install AMP on Windows 10/11/Server

AMP on Windows is a drastically different install path — it’s a proper MSI installer, not a shell script. Use this if you’re self-hosting on a Windows home PC or a Windows VPS.

Step 1 — Download AMPSetup.msi

1. Go to cubecoders.com/AMPInstall
2. Click the Windows tab
3. Download AMPSetup.msi (roughly 80 MB)

Step 2 — Run the installer as Administrator

Right-click the MSI → Run as administrator. The installer will:

• Install the .NET 8 runtime if missing
• Place AMP in C:\Program Files\AMP
• Register the AMP Instance Manager Windows service (starts on boot)
• Launch the setup wizard (same prompts as Linux: admin user, password, email, optional license)

Step 3 — Open the panel

http://localhost:8080

From another PC on the same LAN, use the Windows host’s LAN IP instead of localhost. See our Windows firewall guide for opening ports 8080 and 2223.

06 // Post-install hardening (do not skip)

A fresh AMP install listens on plain HTTP port 8080 with your admin credentials. That’s fine for a local LAN test but unacceptable on a public VPS. Here’s the 15-minute hardening pass every production AMP install should get.

1. Enable HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt (Linux)

AMP has a built-in Let’s Encrypt module. You need a real domain name (e.g. panel.yourdomain.com) with an A record pointing at your VPS IP.

1. In the ADS panel: Configuration → Network
2. Set Bind to hostname to your domain: panel.yourdomain.com
3. Scroll to SSL/TLS section
4. Toggle Use SSL on
5. Toggle Use Let’s Encrypt on — enter your email for renewal notices
6. Click Save. AMP will request the certificate automatically and restart the web listener
7. Panel is now on https://panel.yourdomain.com:8080

Let’s Encrypt needs port 80 briefly for the HTTP-01 challenge. Open it temporarily or use DNS-01 (advanced).

2. Put AMP behind Nginx with a clean URL (optional but recommended)

Running AMP on :8080 is ugly and advertises what you’re running. Reverse-proxy it through Nginx so the panel lives at https://panel.yourdomain.com (port 443).

apt install -y nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx
nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/amp

Paste this config:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name panel.yourdomain.com;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name panel.yourdomain.com;

    ssl_certificate     /etc/letsencrypt/live/panel.yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/panel.yourdomain.com/privkey.pem;

    client_max_body_size 0;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_read_timeout 86400;
    }
}

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/amp /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
nginx -t
certbot --nginx -d panel.yourdomain.com
systemctl reload nginx

Then in AMP: Configuration → Network → turn Use SSL OFF (Nginx handles TLS now) and leave AMP binding to 127.0.0.1:8080. Finally block 8080 on the firewall:

ufw deny 8080/tcp
ufw reload

3. Enable two-factor authentication

1. Click your user icon (top right) → My Account
2. Scroll to Two Factor Authentication → Enable
3. Scan the QR code with Authy, Google Authenticator, or 1Password
4. Enter the 6-digit code to confirm
5. Save the recovery codes somewhere safe — you’ll need them if your phone dies

4. Create separate users for each admin/friend

Never share the root admin account. Create per-person accounts so you can revoke access individually and audit who did what.

1. Configuration → User Management → Create User
2. Give them the least-privilege role — User can only start/stop, Operator can edit configs, SuperAdmin can install modules
3. Per-instance permissions override global ones

5. Set up backup schedules

Every instance can be configured to auto-backup on a schedule. Per instance:

1. Open the instance → Configuration → Backups
2. Enable Scheduled Backups
3. Suggested: daily at 05:00 server time, keep last 7
4. For critical servers: point Backup Storage at an S3 bucket or rsync destination instead of local disk

Backups include world data, config files, and plugins — everything needed to restore the instance on a fresh host.

07 // Keeping AMP itself up to date

AMP ships new releases roughly monthly with bug fixes, new game modules, and security patches. The ADS panel will show a banner when an update is available, but you apply it from the command line.

sudo su - amp
ampinstmgr upgradeall

That single command:

• Stops all running instances cleanly
• Downloads the new AMP build from CubeCoders
• Upgrades the ADS core and every instance
• Restarts instances that were running before the upgrade

Downtime: typically 30–90 seconds per instance. Schedule upgrades during low-traffic hours.

08 // Supported games — what AMP manages best

AMP supports 100+ games out of the box via downloadable Generic Modules. Some games get dedicated modules with custom config UIs and mod-manager integration; others use the Generic module which handles any SteamCMD game. Here’s how the most-requested games perform in AMP.

Not finding your game? Open Instance Management → Installable Modules → search. Modules update over-the-air as CubeCoders adds them — no AMP reinstall needed.

09 // AMP vs Pterodactyl vs LinuxGSM

Honest comparison — AMP is not automatically the best choice. Pick the one that fits your use case.

Our full deep-dives: Pterodactyl setup · LinuxGSM guide.

10 // Pros and cons

11 // Common problems and fixes

12 // Recommended hosting for AMP

AMP’s control panel itself barely uses any resources — what you’re actually sizing for is the games it manages. Pick your VPS based on the heaviest game you plan to run.

13 // Next steps

• Install your first game — follow our Rust server setup, Minecraft Paper optimization, or ARK dedicated config guides — every step works identically whether you run them directly or through AMP.
• Compare panels — read the Pterodactyl and LinuxGSM guides before you commit to AMP.
• Set up automated Rust wipes with cron — pairs perfectly with AMP’s RustModule. See our Rust wipe guide.
• Windows hosting — AMP also runs on Windows. Our host on Windows guide covers firewall, port forwarding, CGNAT, and more.
• Plan your ports — before you create instances, check our port reference to avoid conflicts.