Reimage Your Server for Coolify Installation

Coolify is a modern, open-source platform that simplifies application deployment and server management. If you are using a Bluehost Self-Managed VPS and Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS)and want to install Coolify easily, this guide will walk you through the process using the Bluehost Portal.

System Requirements

Before deploying, ensure your server meets the following minimum hardware requirements. For a stable production deployment, we recommend using higher specifications than the minimum requirements.

How to Reimage Your Server for Coolify Installation

This guide walks you through installing and setting up Coolify using the Bluehost Portal.

1. Log in to your Bluehost Portal.
2. In the left-hand menu, click the Hosting tab.

   
    

3. Click the Manage button on the hosting package you want to reimage.

   
    

4. Click the Reimage button.

   
    

5. Select the Applications tab.

   
    

6. From the list, find Coolify and click Select.

   
    

7. To confirm, please type "reimage" and then click Proceed to start the process.

   
    

8. Wait a few moments while the installation completes.

   
    

9. Once completed, you will see Coolify listed in the Server Image section.

   
    

How to Set Up Coolify

1. Log in to your server via SSH.
   When you first connect, you'll see a welcome message like this:

   
   Welcome to Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS (GNU/Linux 6.8.0-117-generic x86_64)
   ********************************************************************************
     Coolify - Self-Hosted Cloud Platform
     Service Status:
       Docker   : active
       Coolify  : Up About a minute (healthy)
       Traefik  : not running  (starts after first server is registered)
     Management UI : http://50.6.230.166:8000
     First-time setup:
       1. Open http://50.6.230.166:8000 -- fill in your details and create account
       2. Click 'Let's go!' -> 'This Machine' -> 'Create My First Project'
       3. Click 'Deploy Your First Resource' to start deploying
     If 'This Machine' validation fails, run:
       bash /opt/coolify/setup-localhost.sh
     Credentials   : sudo cat /root/.app_passwords
     Documentation : /root/README.md
     Note: Traefik (ports 80/443) only starts after you register a server
           in the Coolify UI. That is expected behavior.
       

2. View server credentials (if needed):

   sudo cat /root/.app_passwords

   Example Output:

   
   COOLIFY_ADMIN_PASSWORD="abc123c1f5e3b2d1f7c4"
   COOLIFY_DB_PASSWORD="abc123e4ad32e5d6bc"
       

3. Open the Coolify Management UI in your browser and create your account:
   • Go to

     http://<your-server-ip>:8000/

   • Fill in your email, password, and other details to create your first admin account.
4. Register your server and create your first project:
   • After logging in to the Coolify UI, click "Let's go!".
   • Choose This Machine to register your current server and follow the prompts.
   • Enter a project name and finish the wizard. You’ll see your server and project in the dashboard.
5. Deploy your first resource (app, database, or service):
   • Click "Deploy Your First Resource" on the dashboard.
   • Select the type of resource, fill out configuration details, and click deploy.
   • Coolify will provision and show deployment/logs in the UI.
6. Troubleshooting validation:

   bash /opt/coolify/setup-localhost.sh

   Run this if Coolify UI fails to register the server, then retry server registration from the web UI.
7. Credentials and configuration locations:
   • List credentials:

     sudo cat /root/.app_passwords

Additional Information and Example Documentation Output

You can run cat /root/README.md to see more information and useful commands:

Example Output:

root@server-123456:~# cat /root/README.md
# Coolify

## Description

Coolify is an open-source, self-hostable platform that lets you deploy and manage applications, databases, and services on your own VPS -- without deep DevOps expertise.

Think of it as a self-hosted Heroku or Netlify: push your code, pick a runtime, and Coolify handles containers, networking, reverse-proxying, and TLS certificates automatically via its built-in Traefik proxy.

This image ships Docker and all Coolify container images pre-pulled, so the management UI is available within about 30 seconds of first boot.
Create your admin account, click "This Machine" in the setup wizard, and you're ready to deploy.

Traffic flow:

```
Browser (HTTPS/HTTP)
        |
        v
  Traefik (ports 80, 443)   <- managed by Coolify
        |
   +------------------------------+
   |  Coolify apps / databases    |
   |  (Docker containers)         |
   +------------------------------+

Browser -> Coolify management UI:
  http://:8000  (direct -- bypasses Traefik)
```

Coolify's Traefik proxy manages SSL certificates for all deployed applications via Let's Encrypt automatically once a domain is pointed at the server.


## Services

Service             | Port(s)    | Purpose
--------------------|------------|-----------------------------------------
Coolify UI          | 8000       | Management dashboard (direct access)
Traefik proxy       | 80, 443    | App routing and automatic TLS
Traefik dashboard   | 8080       | Proxy dashboard (SSH-tunnel access only)
Coolify realtime    | 6001       | WebSocket push for live UI updates
PostgreSQL          | 5432       | Coolify internal database (Docker, local)
Redis               | 6379       | Coolify queues / caching (Docker, local)
OpenSSH             | 22         | SSH (rate-limited by UFW)

Ports are protected using UFW.  Note: Docker bypasses UFW for container-mapped ports; port 8080 (Traefik dashboard) is intentionally not opened in UFW -- access it via SSH tunnel.


## How-to-use

### Initial access

Open http://:8000 in your browser.  The registration page appears on the first visit.

1. Fill in your name, email, and password, then click **"Create Account"**.
2. A welcome screen appears -- click **"Let's go!"**.
3. On "Choose Server Type", pick the option that matches your setup:

   | Option | When to use |
   |--------|-------------|
   | **This Machine** (Quick Start) | Deploy apps on the same server running Coolify.  Good for single-server setups and testing. |
   | **Remote Server** (Recommended) | Connect Coolify to a separate server via SSH -- a cloud VPS, bare metal, or home server.  Keeps Coolify isolated from your workloads. |
   | **Hetzner Cloud** | Provision and manage Hetzner Cloud servers directly from the Coolify UI.  Requires a Hetzner API key. |

   For most users getting started: click **"This Machine"**.  Coolify validates the connection automatically.
4. On "Project Setup", click **"Create 'My First Project'"**.
5. The "Setup Complete!" screen confirms everything is ready.  Click **"Deploy Your First Resource"** to start deploying.

Credentials (if any) are stored in /root/.app_passwords:

```sh
sudo cat /root/.app_passwords
```

### Troubleshooting: "This Machine" validation fails

If the wizard shows a 504 or SSH error during validation, Coolify may have generated its own SSH key that isn't yet authorized on the host.  Run:

```sh
bash /opt/coolify/setup-localhost.sh
```

This reads all keys from /data/coolify/ssh/keys/ and adds any missing public keys to /root/.ssh/authorized_keys.  Then retry validation in the Coolify wizard.

### Enabling HTTPS for deployed apps

Coolify manages Traefik and Let's Encrypt automatically.  To enable HTTPS for an app:

1. Point a domain's DNS A record at .
2. In Coolify, open your app, go to Domains, and enter https://yourdomain.com.
3. Enable "Generate SSL Certificate" -- Coolify instructs Traefik to obtain a Let's Encrypt cert.

No manual certbot or nginx configuration is required.

### Enabling HTTPS for the Coolify management UI

By default the management UI is served over plain HTTP on port 8000.  To enable HTTPS:

1. Point a domain at the server and configure it in Coolify -> Settings -> Instance Settings.
2. Enable Wildcard / FQDN for the instance.
3. Coolify's Traefik will serve the UI over HTTPS on port 443.

### Traefik dashboard (monitoring proxy state)

The Traefik dashboard runs on port 8080 (not publicly open).  Access it via SSH tunnel:

```sh
ssh -L 8080:localhost:8080 root@
# then open http://localhost:8080 in your browser
```

### API token (for SSO / automation)

After creating your admin account:

1. Go to Profile -> API Tokens -> Create Token.
2. Copy the token and append it to /root/.app_passwords:
   COOLIFY_API_TOKEN=

The API token enables programmatic server management and can be used to build a signed-redirect SSO path.

### Managing Coolify services

```sh
# Status
systemctl status coolify
docker ps

# Restart all Coolify containers
systemctl restart coolify

# View Coolify application logs
docker logs coolify

# View first-boot log
cat /var/log/coolify/onboot.log

# Traefik logs
docker logs coolify-proxy

# Stop everything cleanly
systemctl stop coolify
```

### Updating Coolify

```sh
cd /data/coolify/source
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.prod.yml pull
systemctl restart coolify
```

### Backup and restore

Coolify stores all persistent data in Docker volumes under /data/coolify/.

```sh
# Backup
tar czf coolify-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /data/coolify/

# Restore
tar xzf coolify-backup-YYYYMMDD.tar.gz -C /
systemctl restart coolify
```


## Minimum Resources

Resource | Minimum
---------|--------
vCPUs    | 2
RAM      | 2G
Disk     | 30G


## Links

Documentation: [https://coolify.io/docs](https://coolify.io/docs)

Community: [https://discord.gg/coolify](https://discord.gg/coolify)

GitHub: [https://github.com/coollabsio/coolify](https://github.com/coollabsio/coolify)

Manage: [http://{server_ip}:8000](http://{server_ip}:8000)

Summary

You can install Coolify on your Bluehost Self-Managed VPS and Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS) and access its dashboard for management. Use the one-click installer for easy setup, and confirm before reimaging your server, as this erases all data. For manual changes, use SSH. See the support guide to change or remove your application.