The original poster, ElliSol, wants to change their forum’s original IP address due to security concerns after receiving a threat from someone claiming to know the original IP. omarfilip suggests using a floating IP address, but notes that it may not protect the site from attacks targeting the original IP.
ElliSol is considering destroying and recreating the droplet, but is unsure if backing up Discourse and creating a snapshot on DigitalOcean will retain all the content on the forum. omarfilip confirms that a DigitalOcean snapshot will retain everything, and provides an alternative method by following Falco’s instructions.
However, pfaffman advises that unless the community is likely to be the target of a denial of service attack, changing the IP address may not be necessary and could make the community harder to manage and slower. pfaffman further suggests that if the site is not at risk of significant loss, it’s best to ignore the threat, as the IP address of nearly every website is public.
Hello,
I am trying to change my forum’s original IP address and was told to do so through DigitalOcean by destroying my droplet and creating a new one from a snapshot. I am concerned that I am going to have to rebuild my forum from scratch so I would please like to know how to avoid that. Do I just create a backup then relaunch discourse from terminal using the new IP address and then restore from the backed up download?
Thank you!
No need to destroy and recreate - use a floating IP address:
Please follow Move your Discourse Instance to a Different Server
The reason I want a new IP is that my forum was without protection for months until I recently set up Cloudflare. I believe someone already knows the original IP and is trying to launch an attack on the site. Will having the floating IP help protect the site if someone is attacking the original IP?
Probably not. Your site will be accessible via both the original droplet IP and the floating IP.
In this case do you recommend destroying and recreating the droplet? And will backing up discourse and making a snapshot on DigitalOcean beforehand retain all the content on the forum or will I have to start everything over?
A DigitalOcean snapshot will retain everything as it is at the moment you take the snapshot, so destroying and recreating a new droplet from the snapshot will put you back exactly were you were. You will need to update the A record in the DNS file, though.
The other method is to follow the instructions @Falco mentioned.
But, before you do any of that… anyone can find the IP address of your site if they know the domain name:
Unless you have reason to believe that you’re community is likely to be the target of a denial of service attack (like, it’s happened several times before) , what you suggest will server only to make your community harder to manage and slower.
Got it. Thank you so much for your help!
It hasn’t happened before but I was threatened by someone who claims to know the original IP before I hid it with Cloudflare. I only set up Clouflare after I received the threat so I am concerned about an attack by this person because I was told Cloudflare wouldn’t help if someone already knows the sit’s real IP.
If you site works on the fringes of the legal or is otherwise likely to anger people who are willing to spend thousands of dollars (or at least hundreds) to hurt you I’d say that you’ve already spent too much time on this.
If you’re not going to lose your life or a lot of money every minute that you’re site is down, I’d ignore them.
The ip address of nearly every web site you’ve used (including this one) is public.
Well, that certainly makes me feel better. Thanks a lot for your help!