Setup Guide
Pental, Set Up End to End
Every step of setting up your portal, in the order you will do them: registering, your own domain, your own database in any of three places, your own mail server, branding, the first sign-in, updating the database on Supabase Cloud, and moving the database if you change your mind.
Follow along and set it up yourself, with nobody to wait on.
- 11 chapters, all clickable
- Only the database has to be in place to start
- Three ways to run the database: watch yours
- No migration before you start
- 0:00Registering, signing in, and the free trialSigning up on pental.io. The address you use here becomes the first admin of the portal. MFA is required: a security key, or an authenticator app, and a key still needs an app as a backup. No card for the trial, and its days start when your portal is live.
- 0:44Your name and your firm’s nameThe two fields the portal and its documents carry from here on.
- 0:50Custom domainThe first half of white-labelling: the address your portal runs on, on a domain you own. A CNAME for a subdomain, an A record for a root domain. Verification polls by itself and can take up to fifteen minutes. A trial can start on a pental.io address instead and move here later.
- Your own database, three waysWatch the one you are setting up.
- 1:35PostgreSQL in your cloudYour cloud’s own PostgreSQL on Azure, AWS or Google Cloud, or a server of yours, with the small Pental gateway beside it. The Database step writes one command with your portal and region in it, which builds the database and the gateway and prints what the setup asks for. Updates apply themselves.
- 3:10Self-hosted SupabaseSupabase’s open-source stack on a Linux server you run, from the kit the setup gives you. One paste on the server installs it, makes its secrets and starts it, and the stack builds the portal’s database itself, with no SQL to copy. Updates apply themselves.
- 3:58Supabase CloudCreating a Supabase project, running the setup SQL with RLS, registering the access token hook, then pasting the project ID and publishable key. The free tier is enough to start; the schema sets RLS on every table itself.
- 5:45Your own email serverThe second half of white-labelling. Connecting a Microsoft 365 mailbox (sign in with an account that has Send As rights if it is a shared mailbox), or SMTP with a password. Then the test email. Until it is connected, Pental’s email service sends for you.
- 6:55Branding, and finishing setupLogo at roughly 4:1, favicon at 1:1, light and dark themes with a logo each if you want, and the support address your clients see on the login page.
- 7:39Signing in as the first adminThe same account that set the portal up. If the first email did not arrive, Forgot password sets one instead. Then the same MFA steps as before.
- 8:13Updating the database on Supabase CloudSupabase Cloud onlyPostgreSQL in your cloud and self-hosted Supabase apply Pental’s updates themselves, so this part is Supabase Cloud’s alone. When a release needs a schema change, a banner says so: copy the SQL, open the editor, run it. Your clients never see it and the portal keeps working; only the new features wait.
- 9:02Moving your database between homesEverything (people, clients, findings, files and secrets) goes from the portal’s database to a new one in either of the other two homes, from your own browser, and the two are compared table by table. The portal switches over only when you say so, and nothing passes through Pental.
What Each Part Covers
Registering, signing in, and the free trial
Signing up on pental.io. The address you use here becomes the first admin of the portal. MFA is required: a security key, or an authenticator app, and a key still needs an app as a backup. No card for the trial, and its days start when your portal is live.
0:44Your name and your firm’s name
The two fields the portal and its documents carry from here on.
0:50Custom domain
The first half of white-labelling: the address your portal runs on, on a domain you own. A CNAME for a subdomain, an A record for a root domain. Verification polls by itself and can take up to fifteen minutes. A trial can start on a pental.io address instead and move here later.
1:35Your database on PostgreSQL in your cloud
Your cloud’s own PostgreSQL on Azure, AWS or Google Cloud, or a server of yours, with the small Pental gateway beside it. The Database step writes one command with your portal and region in it, which builds the database and the gateway and prints what the setup asks for. Updates apply themselves.
3:10Your database on self-hosted Supabase
Supabase’s open-source stack on a Linux server you run, from the kit the setup gives you. One paste on the server installs it, makes its secrets and starts it, and the stack builds the portal’s database itself, with no SQL to copy. Updates apply themselves.
3:58Your database on Supabase Cloud
Creating a Supabase project, running the setup SQL with RLS, registering the access token hook, then pasting the project ID and publishable key. The free tier is enough to start; the schema sets RLS on every table itself.
5:45Your own email server
The second half of white-labelling. Connecting a Microsoft 365 mailbox (sign in with an account that has Send As rights if it is a shared mailbox), or SMTP with a password. Then the test email. Until it is connected, Pental’s email service sends for you.
6:55Branding, and finishing setup
Logo at roughly 4:1, favicon at 1:1, light and dark themes with a logo each if you want, and the support address your clients see on the login page.
7:39Signing in as the first admin
The same account that set the portal up. If the first email did not arrive, Forgot password sets one instead. Then the same MFA steps as before.
8:13 · Supabase Cloud onlyUpdating the database on Supabase Cloud
PostgreSQL in your cloud and self-hosted Supabase apply Pental’s updates themselves, so this part is Supabase Cloud’s alone. When a release needs a schema change, a banner says so: copy the SQL, open the editor, run it. Your clients never see it and the portal keeps working; only the new features wait.
9:02Moving your database between homes
Everything (people, clients, findings, files and secrets) goes from the portal’s database to a new one in either of the other two homes, from your own browser, and the two are compared table by table. The portal switches over only when you say so, and nothing passes through Pental.
Your Database, Three Ways
The recording sets the database up all three ways, one after another: pick yours under the video, or skip the others and go straight on to email. Each also has a full written guide with its pros and cons.
PostgreSQL in your cloud
Your cloud’s own PostgreSQL, or a server of yours, with the small Pental gateway beside it. Nothing from Supabase.
Written guideSelf-hosted Supabase
Supabase’s open-source stack on a server you run, from a kit we give you.
Written guideSupabase Cloud
A managed Postgres project in your own Supabase account, in the region you pick.
Change of mindMoving Between Them
Everything moves from one to another in your own browser, with nothing passing through Pental.
Product Demo
Not Seen It in Use Yet? Watch the Demo
A tour of Pental on a demonstration firm’s real portal: running an engagement from a new client to a delivered report, findings written with AI in your own style, quality review, your client’s portal and retests, external testers and teams for the overflow, and everything that makes the portal your own.
- 0:00 · Introduction
- 0:16 · Your Own Sign-in Page
- 0:27 · The Dashboard and Your Clients
- 0:48 · A New Engagement
- 1:17 · The Testing Calendar
- +19 more
Now Set Up Your Own
Everything in the walkthrough, on your own domain and your own database. A free trial, no card required, and nothing to migrate first.