The fastest path is the one-command installer on devani.io/resources: enter your domain, copy the generated command, paste it on your server as root. It installs nginx, PHP-FPM and the required extensions, downloads and verifies the latest Devani release, configures your domain, and requests a free HTTPS certificate.
Before you run it
- Get a server. Any fresh Ubuntu 20.04 / 22.04 / 24.04 box works — DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Linode, anything. 1 GB RAM is plenty.
- Point your domain. In your DNS provider, add an
Arecord for@(andwwwif you want it) pointing at the server's IP. DNS can take a few minutes to propagate.
Run the command
SSH in as root and paste the command from the resources page. It's self-contained — it prints each step as it goes and ends with the URL of your setup wizard:
https://yourdomain.com/devani/Open that in a browser and complete the setup wizard — pick a username and password, enter your email. Your homepage goes live once setup finishes.
Gotchas we've actually hit
- 512 MB servers: the installer detects low RAM and adds a 1 GB swapfile before installing packages. Without it, the smallest droplets can run out of memory mid-install — this is handled automatically, but it's why the install pauses briefly at the start on tiny boxes.
- HTTPS says it couldn't be issued: almost always DNS still propagating. The site works on plain HTTP in the meantime; once your domain resolves, re-run
certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.comon the server and you're done. - Homepage shows 403 before setup: expected — a fresh install has no homepage yet. The bare domain redirects you to the setup wizard at
/devani/; the homepage exists after setup completes.
Verifying the download
The installer checks the release zip against its published SHA-256 checksum automatically. If you install manually instead, the current version, download URL, and checksum are always published at https://devani.io/latest.xml.