Hi, I want to install discourse on VPS that connected with my laptop by tailscale. For personal note/wiki/journal/whatever. I can ping/ssh/https to VPS using tailscale’s magicdns. (e.g. abc.a-b.ts.net) me as only user/admin no smtp server What is recommended way/config on this case? Currently, installation hang on ‘Checking your domain name’ step. Thanks for any link or comment.

I’ve got a staging site running on a tailscale 100.x.y.z address. It’s behind traefik (which does https with dns). It’s got real SMTP credentials. I’m not quite sure how it would work with their magic https certs. [image] dontdieych: What is recommended way/config on this case? There is none. You’re mostly on your own. [image] dontdieych: Can’t I skip real hostname check and smtp check? You can skip the checks in discourse-setup (which you shouldn’t bother to use–you’ll need to configure your app.yml by hand), but you can’t skip the requirements. [image] dontdieych: Currently, installation hang on ‘Checking your domain name’ step. Right. You can’t use discourse-setup. You’ll need to configure stuff by hand. I guess you should be able to use the --skip-connection-tests and other such switches, but discourse-setup is designed for simple standard installs, and this isn’t one. You might try using mailhog so you can get email. You might also skip email altogether and use rake admin:create to set your password.

Can’t I skip real hostname check and smtp check?

Thanks for reply. [image] pfaffman: ./discourse-setup –skip-connection-tests rake admin:create Those two things works as intended. + Turn off https (Let’s encrypt) settings. Thanks again.

You might also need to turn on force_https. I without so it with sn env variable z but you can do it in the site setting

Install with tailscale magicdns for personal use (Laptop <-> VPS)

Product Support Self-hosting

NateDhaliwal (Nate Dhaliwal) December 24, 2025, 9:49am 2

Email is necessary for setting up a production environment. You can use something free like Brevo (300 emails/day) since it’s just you.

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Install with tailscale magicdns for personal use (Laptop <-> VPS)

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