How do I create Discourse forum with docker and VPS?

Product Support Self-hosting

AI-generated summary

In a thread titled How do I create Discourse forum with docker and VPS?, user d_bl1n seeks help installing Discourse on Ubuntu 24.04 via Docker, struggling with SMTP configuration and domain DNS setup. They mention using a Russian card is not accepted for support purchases and are confused by settings like SMTP_ADDRESS, SMTP_PASSWORD, and SMTP_PORT. Lilly directs them to official installation and email troubleshooting guides. Heliosurge recommends using Brevo (free tier) for SMTP and explains how to set up an A record in DNS to link the domain to the VPS IP. d_bl1n shares screenshots of their DNS settings and reports that after running ./discourse-setup, they see a message indicating the site was created but remain unsure what to do next. Later, they see the default nginx welcome page post 5 and a Discourse success screen post 6, but note inconsistent browser behavior. They also report high memory usage (11 GB) after repeated runs of ./discourse-setup post 8. Heliosurge confirms the success screen means installation is complete and advises that the first registered user becomes admin, reassuring them that nginx defaults are normal unless hosting other apps. The thread concludes with encouragement to begin configuring the forum.

1

Hello :anxious_face_with_sweat:
As far as I understand, Russian cards are not accepted so that you can buy forum support, this is sad :anxious_face_with_sweat:

I am new to programming.

I tried to install a VPS server. Ubuntu 24.04
Installed docker.
But I can’t access my website.
It seems to me that the problem is in the yml settings.
I don’t know what to write there, I’m trying to figure out what it is, but I don’t understand. Where can I read about SMTP_ADRESS, SMTP_PASSWORD, SMTP_PORT.
I read an article on the forum about the doctor.
Maybe someone has a simple guide explaining where to get these values?

I also bought hosting and a domain, but I can’t figure out how to work with mail.
I’m already confused by these meanings.

image
image168×151 2.39 KB

Maybe someone has a link to explanations for this file and where to get these values ​​in the domain?

Sorry for my English

2

please follow the standard install instructions carefully.

also more email setup and troubleshooting info here:

3

Being self-hosted you will need an smtp provider.

Has a free tier of 300 messages/day. SMTP account on this one is the email you signed up with and the password is your account password.

As lilly has mentioned and provided links to the official install instructions

But to give you an easier answer to connecting to your domain.

You will need to setup a DNA record on your domain server.

This is an ‘A’ record the first is the subdomain name ie “community” the data is your VPs server ip address.

This is in the official install instructions however at times ppl miss this

4

I have a hosting service for mail. The hosting on which I hosted the domain.

I went to the hosting management, where I placed the domain in DNS management.

I added my domain and the IP of my server there (in red).
In blue, these are the added hosting domains.

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image949×667 44.9 KB

When I complete the setup using ./discourse-setup, I get this:

It’s almost done!
The domain has been successfully linked to the hosting
The site was created in the control panel, it remains to place the site files
server292.hosting.reg.ru

I can’t figure out what to do in this case.

5

Now I see this:

Welcome to nginx!

If you see this page, the nginx web server is successfully installed and working. Further configuration is required.

For online documentation and support please refer to nginx.org.
Commercial support is available at nginx.com.

Thank you for using nginx.

6

На фоне темного фона выведено сообщение, что "Поздравляем, вы установили Discourse!" и здесь поручена инструкция возрегуляриономногую, слева от него на синих фоне выведены приложение фигру в красках синем, голубом, зеленом и футролутой. В нижней стороне есть по рядную видьо через выводное поле зайчья программа Гайтлинта, в котором указан кнопка "Register"... (Подпись к изображению от AI)
На фоне темного фона выведено сообщение, что "Поздравляем, вы установили Discourse!" и здесь поручена инструкция возрегуляриономногую, слева от него на синих фоне выведены приложение фигру в красках синем, голубом, зеленом и футролутой. В нижней стороне есть по рядную видьо через выводное поле зайчья программа Гайтлинта, в котором указан кнопка "Register"... (Подпись к изображению от AI)942×343 12.7 KB

It’s cool.
I wrote this command: ./launcher rebuild app

Different messages are shown through different browsers:
Is this how it should be?

Google shows:
If you see this page, the nginx web server is successfully installed and working. Further configuration is required.

For online documentation and support please refer to nginx.org.
Commercial support is available at nginx.com.

8

I always pressed the command: ./discourse-setup.
On my server, the memory grew to 11 GB.
Is this normal, or did I need to press other commands, it feels like I installed the same thing over and over again.

9

As it says congrats you are good to go. The account you register will be the admin account iirc.

Typically don’t need to worry about nginx unless your running other web apps on the server. That is currently out of my XP.

From here you can start working on setting up your discourse.