# Discourse on Google compute engine **URL:** \ **Category:** Self-hosting\ **Tags:** hosting\ **Created:** [July 30, 2013, 5:33am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748 "2013-07-30T05:33:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gauthamns](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/gauthamns/32/107032_2.png) [@gauthamns](https://meta.discourse.org/u/gauthamns)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 5:33am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/1 "2013-07-30T05:33:48Z")
From the Google compute engine docs, they support debian and CentOS 6.2. Is it possible to have Discourse up and running with Google compute engine? ---
**Author:** ![trident](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/trident/32/2078_2.png) [@trident](https://meta.discourse.org/u/trident)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 6:34am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/2 "2013-07-30T06:34:52Z")
Sure, but it does not work out in your favor. It’s just a VPS hosted by them with scaling, much like [AWS.](http://aws.amazon.com/) However, their smallest instance does not have enough ram to get by, and their second smallest is ~$38 dollars a month excluding bandwith, for less memory than many competing VPS providers. Their [prices are per hour](https://cloud.google.com/pricing/compute-engine) so you could test out instances, but it may be worth checking out other options. You can follow the [install guide using ubuntu](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/docs/INSTALL-ubuntu.md); or debian with minor changes. ---
**Author:** ![trident](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/trident/32/2078_2.png) [@trident](https://meta.discourse.org/u/trident)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 7:33pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/3 "2014-03-25T19:33:59Z")
Of course, times [change.](http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/03/google-cloud-prices-should-track-moores-law-are-falling-too-slowly/) I wanted to get a fresh look on google’s pricing. While I was at it, I checked out amazon’s current pricing as well. The idea is to look for the minimal usable specs; you can always scale upwards (for a cost.) ###google Compute Engine, hosted in the US (effective April 1st, 2014): ``` g1-small - 1 shared core - 1.70GB memory - $0.035 per hour* ``` \* Not including Sustained Use Discounts. This tricked me at first, but in reality (price per hour \* 720 hours) is not what you will end up paying. From google: ``` Usage per Month Rate Paid 0%-25% 100% of base rate 25%-50% 80% of base rate 50%-75% 60% of base rate 75%-100% 40% of base rate ``` Pricing that out, it looks like this for a g1-small. This is assuming it is used the entire month. ``` 100% of 0.035 * 180= $6.30 80% of 0.035 * 180 = $5.04 60% of 0.035 * 180 = $3.78 40% of 0.035 * 180 = $2.52 Total: $17.64 / mo ``` You have to pay for bandwidth at varying rates. If you’re a high traffic site, you’ll want to look at the pricing more carefully but a rough guess of 5GB/mo outbound at the highest rate is only $1.05. Storage is also a consideration. I can’t check what my small discourse install uses, but 8GB of space is only $0.34 cents per month for a grand total of: $19.03/month. On average, this could be slightly lower or slightly higher. Not that bad! ##AWS ECS, Hosted in US: EC2 is big on pricing up-front for steep discounts later. I think that their [calculator](http://calculator.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html) would do a better job than I would. You’ll need to use at least a m1.small, so the free tier would not help you much. With an upfront payment of $257, you could pay only $9/mo… which is an adjusted cost of $16.77/month. Also not that bad, assuming you can afford the upfront cost. Bandwidth should be less than $1.00 per month at these scales. Of course, without the upfront price the monthly price goes up to ~$44/mo… which is quite pricey! ---
**Author:** ![Nubs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/nubs/32/108549_2.png) [@Nubs](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Nubs)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 5:19pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/4 "2014-05-13T17:19:46Z")
Why not Digital Ocean? ---
**Author:** ![trident](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/trident/32/2078_2.png) [@trident](https://meta.discourse.org/u/trident)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 7:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/5 "2014-05-13T19:16:42Z")
There are many providers out there with varying levels of service… having multiple options is a good thing. DO is a solid platform; others are too. I didn’t list it above because it’s pretty well covered in the documentation here. ---
**Author:** ![Nubs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/nubs/32/108549_2.png) [@Nubs](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Nubs)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 8:36pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/6 "2014-05-13T20:36:48Z")
I guess I should have asked, why Google Compute Engine? Is there a benefit? ---
**Author:** ![UeihGnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@UeihGnad](https://meta.discourse.org/u/UeihGnad)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/7 "2014-07-09T23:05:01Z")
Their network and their reputation, i think no need to use CDN 🐲 ---
**Author:** ![sam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/sam/32/102149_2.png) [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 11:19pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/8 "2014-07-09T23:19:44Z")
> [@UeihGnad](#): > > i think no need to use CDN No matter how reputable a network is if it is located in USA round trips to China are still going to be 300ms or more. There is this pesky speed of light thing. ---
**Author:** ![UeihGnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@UeihGnad](https://meta.discourse.org/u/UeihGnad)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 11:50pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/9 "2014-07-09T23:50:36Z")
Not fair if you use China to compare ( China almost use great firewall). Even that, Google Network still quite good, alway lower 250ms ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/6/3/6387ea7de6ca30e8de51bd43da57a12c7a6d4e84.jpg) Google (max 250 Dubai, max 168 China, Quite Good in Asia) [http://cloudmonitor.ca.com/en/ping.php?vtt=1404949052&varghost=107.167.187.229&vhost=\_&vaction=ping&ping=Start](http://cloudmonitor.ca.com/en/ping.php?vtt=1404949052&varghost=107.167.187.229&vhost=_&vaction=ping&ping=Start) Facebook [http://cloudmonitor.ca.com/en/ping.php?vtt=1404949124&varghost=www.facebook.com&vhost=\_&vaction=ping&ping=Start](http://cloudmonitor.ca.com/en/ping.php?vtt=1404949124&varghost=www.facebook.com&vhost=_&vaction=ping&ping=Start) Discourse [http://cloudmonitor.ca.com/en/ping.php?vtt=1404949139&varghost=meta.discourse.org&vhost=\_&vaction=ping&ping=Start](http://cloudmonitor.ca.com/en/ping.php?vtt=1404949139&varghost=meta.discourse.org&vhost=_&vaction=ping&ping=Start) Ofcourse ping is just one of point to rate network. But i haven’t seen any other Hosting Provider which has good ping like Google. ---
**Author:** ![sam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/sam/32/102149_2.png) [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 12:07am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/10 "2014-07-10T00:07:09Z")
You don’t get an entire payload in one round trip due to TCP congestion algorithms, a 180KB file like our JS file will take about 6 or so roundtrips with IW10. ---
**Author:** ![downey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/downey/32/166878_2.png) [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 1:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/11 "2014-09-12T13:38:45Z")
Just checking in to see if anyone else has tried running Discourse on Google Compute Engine. Their [machine types and pricing](https://cloud.google.com/products/compute-engine/) don’t quite line up with Digital Ocean so I’m curious whether anyone has a good feeling which might be recommended. Google just announced [$100,000 grants to startups](http://www.zdnet.com/google-cloud-platform-sets-up-new-global-startup-fund-7000033583/) for their cloud services, so it may be something people start to use more frequently. FWIW, I was able to get an instance easily set up and running (as long as I used port 2525 for SMTP) using CoreOS alpha (which has Docker 1.2.0) on **n1-standard-2** (2 vCPU, 7.5 GB memory), but I am pretty sure that’s overkill. ---
**Author:** ![rus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/51bf81/32.png) [@rus](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rus)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 12:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/12 "2014-11-18T12:54:44Z")
@downey, how do you got it? ---
**Author:** ![downey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/downey/32/166878_2.png) [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 1:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/13 "2014-11-18T13:12:22Z")
I just created a new n1-standard-2 size instance, and used SSH to connect to it (Docker is already installed) and followed the Docker installation guide. ---
**Author:** ![rus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/51bf81/32.png) [@rus](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rus)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 11:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/14 "2015-05-15T23:03:39Z")
Hi guys, Where I can find step-by-step tutorial to install Discource on the Google Cloud? Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![downey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/downey/32/166878_2.png) [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 12:01am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/15 "2015-05-16T00:01:42Z")
You’d just set up a new instance on GCE, SSH in to it to get a command line, then follow the same instructions as for Digital Ocean. ---
**Author:** ![rus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/51bf81/32.png) [@rus](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rus)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 9:22am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/16 "2015-05-16T09:22:06Z")
This is not the same (for me). I can’t find the ‘droplet’ on the Google console.. =( sorry I’m newbie ---
**Author:** ![downey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/downey/32/166878_2.png) [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 9:27am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/17 "2015-05-16T09:27:09Z")
I’d venture to say that Digital Ocean is quite a bit more user friendly than Google Compute Engine. Hopefully someone will eventually get Discourse working with the Cloud Launcher at [https://cloud.google.com/launcher/explore](https://cloud.google.com/launcher/explore). But in the mean time, you’ll need to consult the Google support docs to get your server up and running, then once you do you can switch back to the Discourse+DO instructions. ---
**Author:** ![rus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/51bf81/32.png) [@rus](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rus)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 9:43am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/18 "2015-05-16T09:43:45Z")
Thanks a lot, Michael! It works! I installed Discourse via Cloud Launcher, but I’m not sure this is a demo or what? ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/4/5/452ae2af3ed4410d9c3eeb47e7911ab57e302cee.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Benno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/benno/32/40721_2.png) [@Benno](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Benno)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 11:29am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/19 "2015-05-16T11:29:14Z")
It looks like you installed a Bitnami image. While fine to test and experiment with, for production I would strongly recommend sticking with the officially supported Docker install. ---
**Author:** ![nur](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/nur/32/44422_2.png) [@nur](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nur)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2015, 9:13am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748/20 "2015-07-28T09:13:01Z")
Bitnami doesn’t use docker? How is gce july 2015 with 30% discount for full cycle billing [Next page](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-on-google-compute-engine/8748.md?page=2)