Change the domain name or rename your Discourse

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:bookmark: This guide explains how-to change the domain name of your Discourse site, and includes information about setting up DNS changes, editing configuration files, updating site settings, and correcting social logins and post content to reflect your new domain name.

:warning: This guide is for self-hosted Discourse instances that were installed using our installation guide on GitHub. If you are hosted by Discourse, please see Configure your domain name for hosted Discourse for specific instructions.

You may eventually want to change the domain name of your Discourse instance, from say

=BEFORE= → =AFTER=

Let’s get started.

Setting the DNS TTL low in advance

First, change the Time-To-Live (TTL) setting for your DNS to a low value like 60 minutes. This should be done days ahead of the actual domain change to ensure the change can propagate quickly across the internet.

Remove old domain name from any site settings

Visit /admin/site_settings in your Discourse admin interface, and search for any settings containing the old domain name. Update these settings to the new domain name.

Changing DNS Records

Update your DNS settings to disable the old domain and point the new domain to the IP address of your Discourse server.

Editing the site name in app.yml

You can edit the app.yml file manually to input the new domain information.

Here’s how to edit it manually:

cd /var/discourse
nano containers/app.yml

Locate the following line and replace it:

DISCOURSE_HOSTNAME: 'your.newdomain.com'

If using a Content Delivery Network (CDN), temporarily disable it by commenting out the respective line in app.yml. Rebuild your Discourse site with:

./launcher rebuild app

:information_source: Alternatively, you can run ./discourse-setup again and input the new domain information instead of editing app.yml.

Check that your site is operational under the new domain.

Fixing social logins

:exclamation: Depending on how you logged in, you may need to do this first or you won’t be able to log in once the name is changed.

If you use social logins, update the credentials on the platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, GitHub) to reflect the new domain. Look for guides on the Discourse how-to category.

Remapping domain names in posts

All the existing posts will still refer to the old domain.

You’ll need to change old domain references in your posts to the new domain:

./launcher enter app

then

discourse remap =BEFORE= =AFTER=

Alternatively, use Rake if discourse binary is unavailable, you can use the rake version:

bundle exec rake posts:remap["=BEFORE=", "=AFTER="]

Finalize with:

rake posts:rebake

This ensures that the domain name remaps in existing posts, and content is regenerated as necessary.

:information_source: If you have a CDN, remember to reactivate it post-domain change.

wondering how we created that form?

Last edited by @SaraDev 2024-12-13T00:50:25Z

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156

There is really no reason for a rebake?
The remap already took care of mapping the old URL to the new URL.

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157

@SaraDev Thanks for keeping things tidy. Can you have a look at:

and

Maybe I am missing something but… If you use the ./discourse-setup method you will need to set the ip for the new domain prior to running ./discourse-setup to prevent the dreaded domain check failure, yikes.

Using the talk.foo.com → talk.bar.com convention

Hostname for your Discourse? [talk.foo.com]: talk.bar.com

Checking your domain name . . .
WARNING: Port 443 of computer does not appear to be accessible using hostname: talk.bar.com.
WARNING: Connection to http://talk.bar.com (port 80) also fails.

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158

Hi @philh,

Thanks for mentioning this:

This is correct, and if you run ./discourse-setup to and input the new domain information instead of editing app.yml you will need to setup the DNS records for your new domain first.

This information has updated this in the guide to reflect the correct order for updating the domain in this situation. :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
159

Thanks Sara!

BTW: I am pretty sure there is a domain check during rebuild running ./launcher rebuild app :wink: which would suggest dns should be updated 1st either way: direct edit of app.yml or ./discourse-setup

Thanks again for working to keep things tidy. Up to date instructions does help the newer folks that come along. :slight_smile:

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