Discourse Install Clarification

Installation
1

Hi!

I’m trying to install discourse. I don’t have much knowledge of programming. I have 1 problem I can’t figure out.

1 When I search the subdomain that I set up for my forum - I get directed to an index page.

What I’ve done so far:

I followed the original guide that Digital Ocean emails you when you first create an account “The Full Discourse Tutorial” I successfully set up a PHP and then used the terminal to set up Discourse. I received an IP address -successfully brings me to my forum. Forum looks to have been set up right.

I then created an API, entered that into WordPress along with subdomain and publishing username.

My domain currently runs using Cpanel but I want the subdomain for my discourse forum to run on Digital Ocean.

To do this, I …

  1. I added Digital Ocean’s named servers to my domains names server list (two different hosts NS are now listed)

  2. I edited the record of the subdomain- I created an A record - @, redirecting to the IP address.

  3. I created a second A record - subdomain, redirecting to IP

  4. I created NS record’s containing my subdomain- linked to digital ocean’s servers.

  5. I edited in cpanel - set up a wildcard redirection from my subdomain to the Discourse Forum IP address.

  6. I went into the digital ocean - added my subdomain and added an A record, redirecting to IP address.

What I have not done …
I came across this post recently that mentions docker and Ubuntu. These weren’t mentioned in the original instructions emailed by Digital Ocean for setup. Do I need to install these for Discourse to properly work? Right now Discourse works when I search by IP.

My problem is that when I search by url … “forum.realestatesimply.ca” - I get directed to an index page.

Please help :smiley: Let me know if any of the above was done incorrectly? Any advice is much appreciated!

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2

You should follow the instructions here:

When I visit your URL, it looks like your forum is up and running:

image

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3

The only thing you need to add is an A record for forum.realestatesimply.ca pointing to your Digital Ocean instance, at the original host/place you were already managing your DNS from (I’m going to guess cPanel?). The rest sounds like you’re over-complicating it.

Having multiple Name Servers managing different things, and redirecting different places is going to cause problems like you’re already seeing – one person sees a blank index page and others see the forums proper.

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4

Hi! Thanks for the feedback. I’ve taken your advice - deleted the records I created in go daddy and on Digital ocean.

CPANEL: I’ve added an A record to c panel to my sub domain : forum.realestatesimply.ca - redirecting to the Discourse IP address. I also have a redirect set-up as a wild card under the subdomain in c panel directing to the discourse IP address.

Is there anything else I have to do? I’ve only added one A record… Do I need to specify within C panel, Digital Ocean’s Names servers?? If so, how would I do this?

And also, based on the above feedback - if the forum is working when I search the IP address does that mean I don’t need to download docker or Ubuntu ?

Thanks for the help!!

5

That sounds good.

There’s no need to use Digital Ocean’s nameservers because you’re already managing DNS elsewhere.

If you used the Digital Ocean one-click install then I think that sets it up mostly correct, just every time you log in with SSH it will ask you to run the setup again, but you can use Ctrl+C to exit that.

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6

It seems like it’s working! Thanks for the help!!

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