Installing 3x-ui in 10 minutes

I've installed 3x-ui dozens of times — it's the fastest way to get a working panel without Docker and without wrangling a reverse proxy. One command, and in a couple of minutes you have a login, password, port, and secret path. Below — the route from a clean VPS to logging into the panel. Enter your own data in the builder above and it'll substitute it into the commands.

This material covers the engineering of your own network infrastructure and is educational in nature. Complying with the laws of your own jurisdiction is on you.

What you'll need

3x-ui is undemanding. The minimum it lives on without whining:

• A VPS with a white IP, 1 vCPU / 1 GB RAM is plenty, Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04. Location — outside the zone where your traffic gets examined under a magnifying glass.
• SSH access as root.
• A domain is not required — unlike Docker-based panels, 3x-ui comes up right by IP, and TLS for protocols you set up later inside the panel.

The one typical mistake at the start is a "cheap" IP from a dirty subnet that's been on blacklists for six months. You can layer as much Reality on it as you like — it'll work every other time. There's a separate breakdown on IP whiteness; for now just get an address from a decent provider.

Installing the panel in one command

Log in over SSH as root and run the official installer. It'll download the latest build itself, place the binary, bring up a systemd service, and pull in fail2ban too:

bash <(curl -Ls https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MHSanaei/3x-ui/master/install.sh)

This installs 3x-ui v3.4.2, with Xray 26.6.27 riding inside. The panel interface is in Russian, nothing extra to install.

During installation the script will ask whether to set your own login/password/port — you can agree, or leave it blank, in which case it'll generate a random login, password, port, and webBasePath (the secret path to the panel). Random values are exactly the right choice: a predictable admin/admin on port 54321 is found by scanners within a day.

Grabbing the credentials

At the very end the installer prints the ready login credentials. If you scrolled past them, pull them out with the management command:

x-ui settings

It'll show the current username, password, port, and webBasePath. You assemble the panel address from them:

http://SERVER_IP:PORT/webBasePath/

The trailing slash on the path is mandatory. Go to this URL, enter the login and password — you're in the panel.

The x-ui command is your service control console. The main things you'll use:

x-ui status     # is the service and Xray inside it alive
x-ui restart    # restart the panel
x-ui settings   # show login/password/port/path
x-ui           # interactive menu (change password, port, enable/disable)

What the installer did for you

So there's no sense of magic — here's what actually happened:

• The 3x-ui binary was downloaded and set up as a systemd service (auto-start after reboot — out of the box).
• The Xray 26.6.27 core was placed inside — it's what brings up the protocols; the panel only manages it.
• fail2ban was pulled in with two jails: 3x-ipl (bans brute-force of the panel login) and sshd (SSH protection). This is free brute-force protection, no need to install it separately.
• A random login/password/port/path was generated — the one you just grabbed.

A first look at the panel

On the left is the menu you'll live by from here on: Dashboard, Inbounds, Clients, Groups, Nodes, Hosts, Outbounds, Routing, Panel Settings, Xray Configs, API Docs.

The dashboard shows the load and Xray status. "Inbounds" is your protocols — those we'll create first. Empty at the start is normal: the service is running, there just aren't any protocols yet.

Verification

Don't take the panel's word for it. Check that the service is alive and the core is in place:

x-ui status

The output should show both the service itself and Xray inside as running. If the panel won't open at the URL — first check that the port from x-ui settings is open outward in the firewall:

ufw allow PORT/tcp     # the panel port from x-ui settings

The panel is up, the credentials are in hand. Next — we immediately close the obvious holes (the panel bare over HTTP outward is a bad idea) in the "panel settings and hardening" breakdown, and then hang the first protocol in "VLESS + Reality step by step."