This article is for VPS plans delivered with Pterodactyl in administrator mode, where you manage the underlying infrastructure yourself rather than simply using an already-provisioned server.
What a node is
A node is a physical or virtual machine on which game or application servers actually run. The Pterodactyl panel orchestrates several nodes; each node runs an agent called Wings that executes the instructions sent by the panel.
Creating a node
From the panel's administration interface (Nodes section), create a new node by entering:
- a name identifying the node;
- the location it belongs to;
- the machine's public IP address;
- the total allocated resources (RAM, disk) — used by the panel to avoid over-allocating servers beyond real capacity.
Installing Wings on the machine
Once the node is created, the panel shows an installation command to run directly on the machine, over SSH, with administrator rights. That command installs and configures Wings so it connects to the panel with credentials generated specifically for this node.
bash <(curl -s https://example-wings-installer/install.sh)Configuring network allocations
Each node has a pool of available IP addresses and ports, called allocations. The panel draws from this pool automatically when a new server is created on that node. Add enough allocations in advance (the node's Allocations section) so you're not blocked when creating a server for lack of an available port.
Checking the node is online
Once Wings is installed and started, the node should appear as "online" in the panel within seconds. If it stays offline, check that the port used by Wings (8080 by default) is open in the machine's firewall.