Our self-hosted Discourse instance is running in AWS. We are in the process of migrating our Discourse site to a new AWS instance. I got this message from our IT staff managing our AWS instances: I made the new instance, configured the firewall and security rules. I also updated the configuration to be compatible with the latest Discourse server version. I have a question though, how would you test the Discourse install prior to assigning it the domain name? We are essentially halted at this point since I am unable to actually test it at the moment, once we test it and make sure it backs up correctly, we will have the greenlight to switch the domain to point over to the new install! I remember, when I installed it myself years ago, that Discourse required a domain name to run. What should I tell them? Can that be tested before the switch to the new install?

When I do this, I always install it on a subdomain (ex: test.yourdomain.com), using the new IP. And when I see that everything is working fine, I move it to the original domain.

What are the steps to test Discourse before switching domains

Product Support

thoka (Thomas Kalka) August 16, 2025, 4:54am 2

You could add an entry in your local hosts file to point your current hostname to the new IP.

Topic		Replies	Views
Migrate discourse from main domain --> subdomain Self-hosting	4	437	June 18, 2024
Using Custom Domain Product Support	12	1377	July 20, 2024
Can I upload discourse backup file to different domain address? Self-hosting backups	2	471	January 22, 2024
Resource/Advice on how to change domains? Self-hosting	3	649	September 27, 2023
How to change the domain for Discourse? Product Support	1	1326	January 31, 2019

What are the steps to test Discourse before switching domains

Related topics