# Discourse deploy on lightsail: "connection refused"

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-deploy-on-lightsail-connection-refused/236213>\
**Category:** Self-hosting\
**Created:** [August 15, 2022, 3:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-deploy-on-lightsail-connection-refused/236213 "2022-08-15T15:35:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chase\_Kanipe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/chase_kanipe/32/270740_2.png) [@Chase\_Kanipe](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Chase_Kanipe)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 3:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-deploy-on-lightsail-connection-refused/236213/1 "2022-08-15T15:35:41Z")

</div>

Hello,

I recently followed the [install-cloud](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/main/docs/INSTALL-cloud.md) guide to install discourse on an AWS lightsail instance. Despite closely following the instructions and starting from scratch several times I unfortunately get a “connection refused” error when attempting to access my forum.

The steps I followed were:

1. Create a new lightsail instance
2. Assign a static IP address
3. Open port 443
4. Point my subdomain (forum.procedural.audio) to the IP address
5. Follow the discourse installation commands in the guide, including providing an email address for LETS\_ENCRYPT
6. Browsing to my forum… connection refused

Running `./discourse-doctor` outputs that the discourse version at forum.procedural.audio is `NOT FOUND`. I can successfully receive a test email from discourse.

Running `ping forum.procedural.audio` doesn’t receive data back but does find the correct static IP.

I noticed the following errors in the logs

```plaintext
$ ./launcher logs app
SL: error:0909006C:PEM routines:get_name:no start line:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE)
nginx: [emerg] cannot load certificate "/shared/ssl/forum.procedural.audio.cer": PEM_read_bio_X509_AUX() failed (S
SL: error:0909006C:PEM routines:get_name:no start line:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE)
nginx: [emerg] cannot load certificate "/shared/ssl/forum.procedural.audio.cer": PEM_read_bio_X509_AUX() failed (S
SL: error:0909006C:PEM routines:get_name:no start line:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE)
nginx: [emerg] cannot load certificate "/shared/ssl/forum.procedural.audio.cer": PEM_read_bio_X509_AUX() failed (S
SL: error:0909006C:PEM routines:get_name:no start line:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE)
nginx: [emerg] cannot load certificate "/shared/ssl/forum.procedural.audio.cer": PEM_read_bio_X509_AUX() failed (S
SL: error:0909006C:PEM routines:get_name:no start line:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE)
nginx: [emerg] cannot load certificate "/shared/ssl/forum.procedural.audio.cer": PEM_read_bio_X509_AUX() failed (S
SL: error:0909006C:PEM routines:get_name:no start line:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE)
nginx: [emerg] cannot load certificate "/shared/ssl/forum.procedural.audio.cer": PEM_read_bio_X509_AUX() failed (S
SL: error:0909006C:PEM routines:get_name:no start line:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE)
nginx: [emerg] cannot load certificate "/shared/ssl/forum.procedural.audio.cer": PEM_read_bio_X509_AUX() failed (S
SL: error:0909006C:PEM routines:get_name:no start line:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE)
(repeats many more times)

```

So it seems like the problem is SSL related, though I’m unsure how to fix it. In the `shared/standalone/ssl/` directory there are four files

1. `forum.procedural.audio.cer` (file is empty)
2. `forum.procedural.audio.key` (file contains a key)
3. `forum.procedural.audio_ecc.cer` (file is empty)
4. `forum.procedural.audio_ecc.key` (file contains a key)

So I’m not sure if the `.cer` files being empty is part of the problem. I also notice, however, that the logs indicate it is looking for the file at `/shared/ssl/*` instead of `/shared/standalone/ssl/*`, which also seems relevant.

Thanks for your assistance.

---

_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-deploy-on-lightsail-connection-refused/236213)._