(to staff: this is unrelated to the hosted subscription that my account is also associated with)
I installed Discourse on a VPS using instructions from Running other websites on the same machine as Discourse but with this difference: I adapted the app.yml before the first install:
sudo mkdir /var/discourse
sudo git clone https://github.com/discourse/discourse_docker.git /var/discourse
cd /var/discourse
sudo cp samples/standalone.yml containers/app.yml
sudo nano containers/app.yml
In the YAML I commented out ports section, added - "templates/web.socketed.template.yml" and set hostname + SMTP:
## TODO: The domain name this Discourse instance will respond to
## Required. Discourse will not work with a bare IP number.
DISCOURSE_HOSTNAME: 'discuss.mydomain.community'
## TODO: List of comma delimited emails that will be made admin and developer
## on initial signup example 'user1@example.com,user2@example.com'
DISCOURSE_DEVELOPER_EMAILS: 'someuser@protonmail.com,anotheruser@otherdomain.io'
## TODO: The SMTP mail server used to validate new accounts and send notifications
# SMTP ADDRESS, username, and password are required
# WARNING the char '#' in SMTP password can cause problems!
DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS: smtp.myprovider.email
DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT: 465
DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME: mydomain-no-reply@otherdomain.io
DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD: pa$$word
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_ENABLE_START_TLS: true # (optional, default true)
Then I bootstrapped and launched Discourse app:
sudo ./launcher bootstrap app
sudo ./launcher start app
That worked. I stopped discourse and configured the Outer nginx (at /etc/nginx/conf.d/discourse.conf) with the suggested http-only config (just for testing). I could access http://discuss.mydomain.community.
I stopped discourse once again and with certbot I upgraded the discourse.conf and now have:
server {
server_name discuss.mydomain.community; # <-- change this
location / {
proxy_pass http://unix:/var/discourse/shared/standalone/nginx.http.sock:;
proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
}
listen [::]:443 ssl ipv6only=on; # managed by Certbot
listen 443 ssl; # managed by Certbot
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/discuss.mydomain.community/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/discuss.mydomain.community/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot
}
server {
if ($host = discuss.mydomain.community) {
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
} # managed by Certbot
listen 80; listen [::]:80;
server_name discuss.mydomain.community;
return 404; # managed by Certbot
}
So far, so good. I can access Discourse over https (I later did a ./launcher rebuild app when things didn’t work, but that made no difference).
In the ‘Finish installation’ screen after submitting the registration form I get " We sent an activation mail to someuser@protonmail.com" .
Problem: no mail arrives.
No email arrives in the admin’s email inbox. Checking on mydomain-no-reply@otherdomain.io mailbox, and nothing to see either.
Note: The whole problem might be caused because the mail user is on
otherdomain.ioand must reside onmydomain.community. But I as far as I know this is no requirement.
Started troubleshooting and subsequently tested with following app.yml changes (with a rebuild app in between):
DISCOURSE_SMTP_ENABLE_START_TLS: false
No success. Continuing:
## If you want to set the 'From' email address for your first registration, uncomment and change:
- exec: rails r "SiteSetting.notification_email='mydomain-no-reply@otherdomain.io"
So I proceeded with Troubleshooting email on a new Discourse install :
-
otherdomain.iohas DKIM and SPF properly set in DNS - Using telnet from the VPS to the SMTP provider works
- Using telnet from the Docker container (with
docker execand telnet install) works too
I ran ./discourse-doctor and there were 2 parts that jumped out (rest of the results were as expected):
========================================
Discourse version at discuss.mydomain.community: Discourse 2.6.0.beta2
Discourse version at localhost: NOT FOUND
==================== DNS PROBLEM ====================
This server reports NOT FOUND, but discuss.mydomain.community reports Discourse 2.6.0.beta2 .
This suggests that you have a DNS problem or that an intermediate proxy is to blame.
If you are using Cloudflare, or a CDN, it may be improperly configured.
==================== MAIL TEST ====================
For a robust test, get an address from http://www.mail-tester.com/
Sending mail to REDACTED . .
Testing sending to test-k86jiyqb9@srv1.mail-tester.com using smtp.myprovider.email:465.
======================================== ERROR ========================================
UNEXPECTED ERROR
end of file reached
====================================== SOLUTION =======================================
This is not a common error. No recommended solution exists!
Please report the exact error message above to https://meta.discourse.org/
(And a solution, if you find one!)
I tried twice. Once with the configured email, once with a mail-tester.com provided one. Same results. So that does not look good.
Note: Apparently the docker install procedure also serves beta versions. Good to know.
Looking at the production log it has:
Started GET "/" for REDACTED-IP at 2020-09-03 06:21:57 +0000
Processing by FinishInstallationController#index as HTML
Rendering finish_installation/index.html.erb within layouts/finish_installation
Rendered finish_installation/index.html.erb within layouts/finish_installation (Duration: 3.2ms | Allocations: 356)
Rendered layouts/_head.html.erb (Duration: 15.7ms | Allocations: 2969)
Completed 200 OK in 323ms (Views: 140.3ms | ActiveRecord: 0.0ms | Allocations: 32137)
Started GET "/finish-installation/register" for REDACTED-IP at 2020-09-03 06:22:01 +0000
Processing by FinishInstallationController#register as HTML
Rendering finish_installation/register.html.erb within layouts/finish_installation
Rendered finish_installation/register.html.erb within layouts/finish_installation (Duration: 7.1ms | Allocations: 1607)
Rendered layouts/_head.html.erb (Duration: 22.3ms | Allocations: 3139)
Completed 200 OK in 107ms (Views: 41.3ms | ActiveRecord: 0.0ms | Allocations: 11760)
Started POST "/finish-installation/register" for REDACTED-IP at 2020-09-03 06:22:22 +0000
Processing by FinishInstallationController#register as HTML
Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", "authenticity_token"=>"l1hEEsK/gur5yplJdMIHttZAgYcuzLLkESaAI87IMb88nAFqNwi7l3yJ+3EJBw7leFypVGbH4C5hJl7VnJVYBQ==", "email"=>"someuser@protonmail.com", "username"=>"someusername", "password"=>"[FILTERED]", "commit"=>"Register"}
Redirected to https://discuss.mydomain.community/finish-installation/confirm-email
Completed 302 Found in 48ms (ActiveRecord: 0.0ms | Allocations: 4246)
Rendering layouts/email_template.html.erb
Rendered layouts/email_template.html.erb (Duration: 0.2ms | Allocations: 31)
Started GET "/finish-installation/confirm-email" for REDACTED-IP at 2020-09-03 06:22:22 +0000
Processing by FinishInstallationController#confirm_email as HTML
Rendering finish_installation/confirm_email.html.erb within layouts/finish_installation
Rendered finish_installation/confirm_email.html.erb within layouts/finish_installation (Duration: 2.3ms | Allocations: 418)
Rendered layouts/_head.html.erb (Duration: 7.9ms | Allocations: 1612)
Completed 200 OK in 25ms (Views: 22.1ms | ActiveRecord: 0.0ms | Allocations: 4611)
Delivered mail ea8af868-4a2c-4312-85dd-f57061a3cd90@discuss.mydomain.community (60015.9ms)
Job exception: Net::ReadTimeout
Waiting for a bit and then via the browser requested ‘Resend notification email’. The following was now added to the production log:
Delivered mail 47ca6f15-cd9e-4c96-a670-6646e2bda585@discuss.mydomain.community (60007.9ms)
Job exception: end of file reached
Rendering layouts/email_template.html.erb
Rendered layouts/email_template.html.erb (Duration: 0.2ms | Allocations: 31)
Delivered mail 02367872-af3a-4df4-9a68-4e5e7c5eda60@discuss.mydomain.community (60007.4ms)
Job exception: end of file reached
Rendering layouts/email_template.html.erb
Rendered layouts/email_template.html.erb (Duration: 0.2ms | Allocations: 31)
Delivered mail ee9ee1fc-6fd1-4970-89fa-260efe2dd04c@discuss.mydomain.community (60014.1ms)
Job exception: end of file reached
Rendering layouts/email_template.html.erb
Rendered layouts/email_template.html.erb (Duration: 0.1ms | Allocations: 31)
Delivered mail 9030f87b-99df-4de2-9a60-2c57f7c752de@discuss.mydomain.community (60007.0ms)
Job exception: end of file reached
Rendering layouts/email_template.html.erb
Rendered layouts/email_template.html.erb (Duration: 0.2ms | Allocations: 31)
Started PUT "/finish-installation/resend-email" for REDACTED-IP at 2020-09-03 06:31:22 +0000
Processing by FinishInstallationController#resend_email as HTML
Parameters: {"authenticity_token"=>"NE21scxxyZz3/DxDkoF8kwi9GXoNKvnstNJdKZjQs7afigDKWcbw4XK/XnvvRHTApqExqUUghybE1oPfyo3aDA=="}
Rendering finish_installation/resend_email.html.erb within layouts/finish_installation
Rendered finish_installation/resend_email.html.erb within layouts/finish_installation (Duration: 0.9ms | Allocations: 163)
Rendered layouts/_head.html.erb (Duration: 2.5ms | Allocations: 269)
Completed 200 OK in 63ms (Views: 6.5ms | ActiveRecord: 0.0ms | Allocations: 6408)
Rendering layouts/email_template.html.erb
Rendered layouts/email_template.html.erb (Duration: 0.2ms | Allocations: 31)
Delivered mail 127cc350-3fb0-4ef1-8759-391fb407b1cb@discuss.mydomain.community (60008.0ms)
Job exception: Net::ReadTimeout
Delivered mail d9c70dfd-5a8b-4f4c-bafa-5a540fc8ed4f@discuss.mydomain.community (60010.0ms)
Job exception: end of file reached
Rendering layouts/email_template.html.erb
Rendered layouts/email_template.html.erb (Duration: 0.1ms | Allocations: 31)
Delivered mail e9e67ed1-d7b1-4e8a-ba11-30501c6fae89@discuss.mydomain.community (60012.4ms)
Job exception: end of file reached
Rendering layouts/email_template.html.erb
Rendered layouts/email_template.html.erb (Duration: 0.2ms | Allocations: 31)
Rendering layouts/email_template.html.erb
Rendered layouts/email_template.html.erb (Duration: 0.1ms | Allocations: 31)
Delivered mail 82d0361e-0349-4a1a-928e-dcb16dcffdbc@discuss.mydomain.community (60008.6ms)
Job exception: end of file reached
I contacted my hosting provider to see if the problem was on their end. They said that according to them this configuration should work fine, but that the VPS had caused no activity at all on the SMTP server.
So that’s my current situation… posting to Meta.
