Command-line (SSH)

NovaPanel installs a novapanel command on the server (symlinked into /usr/local/bin), so you can inspect and manage the panel over SSH without opening the web UI. It reads the panel's database credentials automatically from /opt/novapanel/config/.env, so there's nothing to configure — just run it as root (or with sudo).

Important: always give novapanel a subcommand. Running bare novapanel with no arguments starts a panel server process, which will conflict with the service already running under systemd. Use systemctl to control the service itself (see the bottom of this page).

Inspection

Command	What it does
novapanel status	One-line health summary with counts of users, sites, domains, and databases.
novapanel report	Full system report — versions, license, service health, resource usage, counts, and whether an update is available. Made to paste into a support request.
novapanel version	Prints the installed panel version and build commit.
novapanel help	Shows the full command list. -h / --help work too.

Operations

Command	What it does
novapanel update	Update the panel to the latest version (download, verify, swap, restart). Add --check to only report whether an update is available.
novapanel service <restart|start|stop|status> <name>	Control a service — caddy, postgresql, mariadb, pdns, postfix, dovecot, novapanel, and more.
novapanel repair	Run the panel's self-heals on demand (Caddy, PowerDNS, firewall engine). Works even if the panel or database is down — the break-glass command.

User management

These manage customer accounts (role user) — the same accounts you'd create under Users in the admin panel. Handy for scripted provisioning or resetting a locked-out customer's password without logging in.

Command	What it does
novapanel user list	Lists all users: email, username, role, status, created date.
novapanel user create <email> <username> <password>	Creates a new customer user.
novapanel user password <email> <new-password>	Resets that user's password.
novapanel user suspend <email>	Deactivates the account (blocks login, keeps data).
novapanel user unsuspend <email>	Reactivates a suspended account.
novapanel user delete <email>	Permanently removes the user.
novapanel admin create <email> <username> <password>	Creates a staff admin account (handy for recovering admin access from the console).

Note: user create makes a customer account; admin create makes a staff admin.

Resource listings

Command	What it does
novapanel site list	All sites: name, runtime, status, owner.
novapanel site count	Total number of sites.
novapanel domain list	All domains: domain, type, status, and the site it belongs to.
novapanel domain count	Total number of domains.
novapanel db list	All customer databases: name, engine, DB user, size, owner.
novapanel db count	Total number of databases.

Backups

Command	What it does
novapanel backup create [username]	Back up one user, or every user if omitted — the same engine the panel and scheduler use (local snapshot, databases included).
novapanel backup list [username]	List backups for a user, or for everyone if omitted.
novapanel backup restore <username> <file>	Restore a user's data from a named backup file.

A quick tour

Everything read-only, safe to run any time:

novapanel version
novapanel status
novapanel user list
novapanel site list
novapanel domain list
novapanel db list

Provision and then remove a test customer:

novapanel user create test@example.com clitest 'TestPass123'
novapanel user list
novapanel user password test@example.com 'NewPass456'
novapanel user suspend test@example.com
novapanel user unsuspend test@example.com
novapanel user delete test@example.com

Controlling the service itself

The novapanel CLI talks to the panel's database — it doesn't start or stop the running panel. For that, use systemd:

systemctl status novapanel      # is the panel running?
systemctl restart novapanel     # restart it
journalctl -u novapanel -f      # follow the live logs

The same pattern applies to the supporting services the panel relies on — caddy, postgresql, mariadb, pdns, dovecot, postfix. Your SSH login banner (MOTD) shows a colour-coded status dot for each on every login.