Dagda quick start

Dagda is a self-hosted server monitor from Old Cart Technology LLC. This guide takes you from a fresh Ubuntu 22.04/24.04/26.04 or Debian 12/13 VPS (amd64 or arm64) to a signed-in admin watching your first server, in under 15 minutes.

1. Install the hub

On the VPS that will be your hub (the one with the web dashboard):

curl -fsSL https://get.dagdamonitor.com | sudo sh
sudo dagda setup

The installer asks for your repository access key (ID:TOKEN — you get one by email when you start a trial or buy a license at https://dagdamonitor.com). Paste it when prompted, or set $DAGDA_REPO_KEY first to skip the prompt. It adds the Old Cart APT repository (apt.dagdamonitor.com) and installs the dagda package.

dagda setup asks for your domain (its DNS must already point at this server), organization name, optional email settings (used for alert emails and email sign-in codes — Resend only), and a license file path (or press enter to start a 14-day trial, up to 3 servers). It then checks your system clock is synchronized, writes an nginx site, requests a TLS certificate via certbot (a failure here is only a warning — setup continues and prints the exact command to retry once DNS is ready), starts dagda.service, and waits for it to come up (confirming HTTPS too, once the certificate succeeded).

When it finishes, it prints a setup link and shows a QR code, e.g.:

https://monitor.example.com/setup#3f9c...

2. Create your admin account

Open the setup link (or scan the QR code with your phone) within 24 hours — after that it expires and you'd need to run sudo dagda setup-link again.

The page asks for your name and email, then shows a QR code for your authenticator app (Google Authenticator, 1Password, Authy, etc.) and the secret key as text if you'd rather type it in. Scan it, enter the 6-digit code it shows you, and you're signed in. You'll be shown 10 recovery codes — download or print them now; you won't see them again.

3. Add your first monitored server

From the dashboard, open Servers (or click Add server on the Fleet overview), type a display name in the Add a server panel and click Create install command. Dagda shows a one-line command:

curl -fsSL https://monitor.example.com/install | sudo sh -s -- --join <token>

Run that on the server you want to monitor. It installs the same dagda package, but in agent mode: it collects metrics and pushes them to your hub over outbound HTTPS — no inbound ports, no web server, no users on the agent itself. The new server appears on the Fleet overview within about 60 seconds.

That's it — you have a working hub with one monitored server. See admin-guide.md for managing users, alerts, licenses, backups and more.

Getting help

Questions, trouble installing, or anything else: email support@dagdamonitor.com or see https://dagdamonitor.com.