Introduction
Discourse is a modern, open-source discussion and forum system. Visit the official site for a demo and a breakdown of the current feature set. This tutorial will teach you how to setup Discourse with Docker on Ubuntu 18.04.
Create a new Vultr VPS
It is recommended to use at least 2GB of RAM. Always select the latest 64-bit LTS distribution.
Access your Vultr VPS
Connect to your server using SSH via the Terminal on Mac or PuTTY on Windows.
ssh [email protected]
Replace "123.456.7.8" with your server IP.
Install Docker/Git
Run the following command:
wget -qO- https://get.docker.io/ | sh
Install Discourse
Make a folder called "discourse" in the /var
directory:
mkdir /var/discourse
Clone the official Discourse git repository in /var/discourse
:
git clone https://github.com/discourse/discourse_docker.git /var/discourse
Go into the Discourse directory:
cd /var/discourse
Make a copy of the config file as app.yml
:
cp samples/standalone.yml containers/app.yml
Edit the Discourse configuration
Edit the app.yml
file:
nano app.yml
Set DISCOURSE\_DEVELOPER_EMAILS
to your email address.
Set DISCOURSE\_HOSTNAME
to your web address to access Discourse, for example: discourse.example.com
.
Enter your email credentials in DISCOURSE\_SMTP\_ADDRESS
, DISCOURSE\_SMTP\_PORT
, DISCOURSE\_SMTP\_USERNAME
and DISCOURSE\_SMTP\_PASSWORD
. Be sure to remove the #
before editing the strings.
Save the file and exit.
Note: you must have your email settings setup properly - otherwise you'll have a broken site!
Bootstrap Discourse
Launch bootstrap:
./launcher bootstrap app`
You may be asked a question during the installation about SSH keys. Type Yes
.
Once the bootstrap process completes, start Discourse:
./launcher start app
Conclusion
To access your Discourse isntance, simply type in what you set for DISCOURSE\_HOSTNAME
in your browser.