Can Discourse be installed without root access?

Product Support Self-hosting

AI-generated summary

Leviticus is looking to install Discourse on a shared server without root access. However, Falco states that this type of hosting is not supported. Instead, Falco recommends getting a compatible VPS for $5/month from providers like Digital Ocean or Vultr.

Leviticus expresses concern that the 25GB space provided by Digital Ocean’s $5 plan may be insufficient if users are posting pictures and video links frequently. Falco responds that video links are relatively small in size and that additional storage can be added using Digital Ocean’s block storage or spaces services.

Pfaffman suggests opting for the $10 2GB droplet and using Digital Ocean’s spaces for uploads if expecting a high volume of uploads.

1

I have web space that is on a shared server that I do not have the option to get root access to. Is there a workaround for installing Discourse without having root level?

Thanks,

Leviticus

2

No that type of hosting isn’t supported.

However, getting a compatible VPS nowadays is very cheap at $5 in multiple places, like Digital Ocean and Vultr.

3

Thanks for your reply. I looked at Digital Ocean.

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For $5 a month you get 25GB of space. If you have 50 Discourse members posting pictures and video links dozens per day…will 25 GB get eaten up fairly quick?

Does Discourse have a database trimming feature?

4

A video link, to let’s say YouTube is 43 bytes. 5GB can store 116279070 of those :wink:.

When disk space becomes an actual problem, instead of a theoretical one, you can use either High-Performance Block Storage | Starting at $10/mo for 100 GiB (at $0.10/month) or DigitalOcean Spaces | S3-Compatible Object Storage at $5 for 250GB.

5

If you are expecting lots of uploads, I’d recommend going for the $10 2gb droplet and use spaces for uploads.